Resilience in East African Landscapes

REAL project

  • Projects
    • ARCC archive 2017–2021
      • ARCC Project Overview
      • ARCC blog
      • ARCC Project Report
      • Student Partners
        • Beny Lilawola
    • REAL archive 2013–2018
      • REAL Project Overview
      • REAL blog
      • REAL Project Videos
      • REAL Final Report
      • REAL Final Reporting EU CORDIS
    • REAL Team Members
      • Advisory Board
      • Principal Investigators
        • David Anderson
        • Franziska Bedorf
        • Michael Bollig
        • Lowe Borjeson
        • Benoit Hazard
        • Paul Lane
        • Rob Marchant
        • Dirk Verschuren
        • Mats Widgren
      • Early Stage Researcher Alumni
        • Christine Adongo
        • Maxmillian Chuhila
        • Chris de Bont
        • Aynalem Degefa
        • Esther Githumbi
        • Marie Gravesen
        • Rebecca Kariuki
        • Eric Kioko
        • Nik Petek
        • Annemiek Pas Schrijver
        • Anna Shoemaker
        • Geert van der Plas
      • Associate Partners
    • Leverhulme savannah fire 2014–2016
    • MAEASaM site 2020–2024+
    • Simone Markoff Univ Basel 2021–2025+
  • Publications
    • Annemiek Pas Publications
    • Colin Courtney Mustaphi publications
    • REAL Project Publications
      • Lexicon
      • Library Archive
      • Palaeo-Glossary
    • Laboratory Protocols
  • Contact us
  • Colin Courtney Mustaphi
    • Publication List
    • Google Scholar
    • Study sites map
    • X Twitter
    • BSX
    • Knowledge Core GmbH PaleoLabTools
  • Videos

Esther Githumbi

Position: Post-doctoral Researcher [Google Scholar]   Biography: I am a Late Quaternary researcher focussing on landscape changes during the Holocene. My expertise is the use of multiple proxies such as pollen, charcoal, sediment physical and chemical characteristics to develop records of vegetation change, fire history and sediment processes. I have also worked with land-cover reconstruction […]

PaperStories: Something Chitinous?

Pubs@ThePub What will we find under the microscope in the next sample? Some plant remains? charcoal? animal fossils? You never fully know until you have a look through the microscope. After preparing the samples and having a look, one item really stood out. Was it a fossil plant seed? or something chitinous, from an invertebrate […]

Introducing the new MCAA brand and website

We are proud to share with you our new brand identity and website. This comprehensive update, effective immediately, improves our alignment with the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) programme and enhances compliance with accessibility requirements, ensuring a more inclusive experience for our diverse, global network. The brand is a visual evolution that reflects our new motto, […]

Montane forest changes of East Africa

Githumbi EN, Finch J, Kinyanjui RN, Courtney-Mustaphi C, Musili P, Rucina S, Lejju J, Liljenberg P, Marchant R. 2025. Late Quaternary montane forest dynamics from equatorial East Africa: a biome perspective. Journal of Biogeography 52(9): e15173. [CC BY 4.0 Open Access]

REAL project Final Report Archived in CORDIS

Resilience in East African Landscapes: Identifying critical thresholds and sustainable trajectories – past, present and future REAL Project Web Documentary “CHANGES” Project Information Grant agreement ID: 606879 Start date: 1 September 2013End date: 31 August 2017 Funded under Total cost € 3 968 063,33 Objectives (CORDIS) The strong temporal dynamics of the East African landscape […]

New publications on Kenyan wetlands

REAL PhD graduate, Esther Githumbi, has recently published two new publications on wetlands of Kenya. One study in the high elevation area of Eastern Mau Forest and another among the Amboseli wetlands, near the foothills of Kilimanjaro. REAL project members shown in bold font. Githumbi EN, Courtney Mustaphi CJ, Marchant R. in press 2021. Sedimentological, palynological […]

Pastoralists under Pressure exhibit in York

University Of York Open Lectures Date And Time Pastoralists under Pressure: Political, socioeconomic, and climate challenges in East Africa Fri, 8 Nov 2019, 18:30 GMT Add to Calendar Location Stephen Town Meeting Room, JB Morell Library, University of York, York, UK   Description Population growth, climate change and environmental degradation are just some of the challenges […]

CHANGES

REAL Project Web Documentary “CHANGES” 2017

African Archaeology Research Day

Welcome to AARD 2017 We are pleased to invite you to the 2017 African Archaeology Research Day (AARD) meeting, which will be hosted on Saturday 25 November at the Department of Archaeology, University of York. The African Archaeology Research Day has been an annual event in the UK since 2002 and the first meeting held […]

REAL ITN hosts its final conference in Moshi

Landscape Transformations and Sustainable Trajectories in East Africa– Past, Present and Future On 11 -12 July 2017, the Resilience in East African Landscapes (REAL) ITN hosted its final conference “Landscape Transformations and Sustainable Trajectories in East Africa – Past, Present, Future” at Uhuru Hotel and Conference Centre in Moshi, Tanzania. The conference provided a forum […]

REAL web documentary preview in Nairobi

On 13 May 2017 the Alliance Francaise in Nairobi, in collaboration with IFRA, the REAL ITN, CNRS and the French Embassy, organized a mini film festival to explore the diversity of scientific documentary films. Part of the film screening was a preview of parts of the REAL web documentary that traces different ways of exploring […]

PAGES open science meeting

Colin Courtney Mustaphi attended the PAGES Past Global Changes open science meeting in Zaragoza, Spain, May 9-13. This included giving a talk on the LandCover6k project efforts to bring together palaeoenvironmental and archaeological data from the East Africa region. A poster on the collaboration of multiple ESRs and project partners was also presented that shows […]

New collaborative paper on charcoal studies

A new collaborative paper is out about the need to develop a database of modern charcoal deposition from wildfires in sediments and soils has been published in the journal Quaternary International. Three members of the REAL project: Colin Mustaphi, Esther Githumbi and Rob Marchant, as well as Rebecca Muthoni from the National Museums of Kenya, […]

Next Page »

Latest News

Neotoma Radiocarbon Video Series 2025

Dear Community, We are pleased to announce the successful conclusion of the Radiocarbon Series, … [Read More...]

PaperStories: Something Chitinous?

Pubs@ThePub What will we find under the microscope in the next sample? Some plant remains? … [Read More...]

News from the Marie Curie Alumni Association – The art of personal branding workshop

In the academic bubble, we are automatically self-branded through the accumulation of citations and … [Read More...]

New publication comparing ecological similarities and differences amongst African savannas

ABSTRACT Aim Despite their extent (40° of latitude and 50° of longitude), research in African … [Read More...]

More News

  • About us
  • People
  • Projects
  • Training
  • Resources
  • Contacts

Site information

REAL is a Marie Curie Actions InnovativeTraining Network (ITN), funded by the European Commission under the Seventh Framework Programme.

Find us on Facebook:

Find us on Facebook:

Coordinating partner

Prof. Paul Lane
Department of Archaeology and Ancient History,
Uppsala University, and
Department of Archaeology, University of Cambridge

Copyright © 2026