Prof Paxie Wanangwa CHIRWA is a Professor of Forest Science in the Department of Plant and Soil Sciences at the University of Pretoria. He is also a Forest Chair for the Forest Science Postgraduate Programme in the Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences.
His area of specialization is socio-ecological systems in forests; agroforestry. He works in forest ecosystems in Africa including the miombo dry forests and woodlands of southern Africa. He has supervised over 21 PhDs and 40 Masters students. He has published over 150 scientific publications in internationally peer-reviewed journals; 21 Book Chapters and Edited 3 Books. He has acted as Guest editor for three special issues of forestry journals; the International Forestry Review, Agroforestry Systems, and the Southern Forest: A Journal of Forest Science. He recently was one of the co-editors of the book "Miombo Woodlands in a Changing Environment: Securing the Resilience and Sustainability of People and Woodlands. Springer, Cham. Ribeiro N.S., Katerere Y., Chirwa P.W., Grundy I.M. (eds) (2020). He was also International Scientific Committee Member for the 2022 Quebec, World Congress on Agroforestry. He is an
Associate Editor: Agroforestry Systems Journal (Springer); Associate Editor: Journal of Forestry Research (Springer); Editorial Advisory Board Member: Southern Forests: A Journal of Forest Science (Francis & Taylor); Editor: Environmental and Geosciences - Scientific African Journal (Elsevier);
Editor: Malawi Journal of Agriculture, Natural Resources & Development Studies; and recently the Carbon Footprint Journal.
Prof Stephen SYAMPUNGANI, is both a Restoration Ecologist and Environmental Engineer focussing on restoration of mine wastelands and environmental risk assessment associated with various developmental activities. He holds a BSc in Forest Science (Copperbelt University), MSc Environmental Engineering (University of Nottingham, UK) and PhD in Forest Ecology (Stellenbosch University, South Africa). Stephen is a Professor of Restoration Ecology at the Copperbelt University as well as an Extra Ordinary Professor in the Department of Plant and Soil Sciences at the University of Pretoria, South Africa. He holds a Professorial Chair of Environment and Development, the Oliver R Tambo African Research Chair Initiative (ORTARChI) Chair funded by the IDRC (Canada), National Research Foundation (NRF) and Department of Science and Innovation (DSI) of South Africa and the National Science and Technology Council of Zambia hosted by the Copperbelt University. Stephen has co-authored a number of publications in the area of Mine wasteland restoration and environment risk modelling.