The highland–lowland system of the Upper Ewaso Ng'iro Basin, with Mount Kenya functioning as a crucial water tower, has reached and repeatedly exceeded the limits of water availability in the past decade. In contrast to the heavily decreasing low flow discharge, the mean discharge does not show any decreasing tendency. This is due to higher flood flows, which may be induced by accelerated runoff generation due to land use change. The present study seeks to support Water Users' Associations (WUAs, ie self-help initiatives aiming to mitigate conflicts over the allocation of water) by providing them with up-to-date information about demand, supply and use of river water, as well as tools and methods for improving water management.
The low contraceptive prevalence rate and the existence of unmet demand for family planning services present a challenge for parties involved in family planning research in Tanzania. The observed situation has been explained by the demand-side variables such as socioeconomic characteristics and cultural values that maintain the demand for large families. A small, but growing body of research is examining the effect of supply-side factors such as quality of care of family planning services on the demand for contraceptives. This paper analyses the demand and supply factors determining contraceptive use in Tanzania using the Tanzania Service Availability Survey (1996) and the Tanzania Demographic and Health Survey (1996) data sets. The results show that access to family planning services and quality of care of services are important determinants of contraceptive use in Tanzania even after controlling for demand-side factors.
Bovine tuberculosis: an old disease but a new threat to Africa
Wuhib Y. Ayele, S.D. Neill, I. Pavlik, Mitchell G. Weiss, Jakob Zinsstag, 2004
"Bovine tuberculosis (TB) is a disease characterised by progressive development of specific granulomatous le-sions or tubercles in lung tissue, lymph nodes or other organs. Mycobacterium bovis is the causative agent of the disease. Bovine species, including bison and buffaloes, are susceptible to the disease, but nearly all warm-blooded animals can be affected. All species are not equally susceptible to the disease; some are spill-over (end) hosts and others maintenance hosts. In Africa, bovine TB primarily affects cattle; however, infection in other farm and domestic animals, such as sheep, goats, pigs, dogs and cats, is not uncommon. Wild ruminants and carnivores are also affected and are the natural reservoirs of the infectious agent in the wild. Man is also susceptible to the disease, the highest risk groups being individuals with concomitant HIV/AIDS infection. In Africa, human TB is widely known to be caused by M. tuberculosis; however, an unknown proportion of cases are due to M. bovis. This infection in humans is underreported as a result of the diagnostic limitations of many laboratories in distinguishing M. bovis from M. tuberculosis. None of the national reports submitted to the OIE and WHO by African member states mention the importance of M. bovis in human TB cases. Consumption of unpasteurised milk and poorly heat-treated meat and close contact with infected animals represent the main sources of infection for humans. This review attempts to examine the impact of bovine TB on the health of animals and humans."
"Objective To compare the quality of public and private first-tier antenatal care services in Dar es Salaam, United Republic of Tanzania, using defined criteria. Methods Structural attributes of quality were assessed through a checklist, and process attributes, including interpersonal and technical aspects, through observation and exit interviews. A total of 16 health care providers, and 166 women in the public and 188 in the private sector, were selected by systematic random sampling for inclusion in the study. Quality was measured against national standards, and an overall score calculated for the different aspects to permit comparison. Findings The results showed that both public and private providers were reasonably good with regard to the structural and interpersonal aspects of quality of care. However, both were poor when it came to technical aspects of quality. For example, guidelines for dispensing prophylactic drugs against anaemia or malaria were not respected, and diagnostic examinations for the assessment of gestation, anaemia, malaria or urine infection were frequently not performed. In all aspects, private providers were significantly better than public ones. Conclusion Approaches to improving quality of care should emerge progressively as a result of regular quality assessments. Changes should be introduced using an incremental approach addressing few improvements at a time, while ensuring participation in, and ownership of, every aspect of the strategy by health personnel, health planners and managers and also the community."
Etudes Connaissances, Attitudes et Pratiques des Communautés des départements de Bangolo et de Duékoué face au Soins Obstétricaux et Néonataux d’Urgences (SONU), au Paludisme, à la Diarrhée et aux IRA des enfants de moins de 5 ans
Évaluation du projet d’appui aux structures locales de ramassages d’ordures et entretien des réseaux d’assainissement dans les villes de Bouaké et Korhogo
Urban agriculture and Anopheles habitats in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
Stefan Dongus, Marcia C de Castro, Axel W. Drescher, Ulrike Fillinger, Laura Gosoniu, Khadija Kannady, Gerry F. Killeen, Hassan Mshinda, Deo Mtasiwa, Dickson Nyika, Marcel Tanner, 2009
A survey of agricultural areas combined with routinely monitored mosquito larval information was conducted in urban Dar es Salaam to investigate how agricultural and geographical features may influence the presence of Anopholes larvae.
Dongus S et al. 2009. Urban agriculture and Anopholes habitats in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Geospatial Health 3(2):189-210.
Urban agriculture and operational mosquito larvae control: mitigating malaria risk in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
Stefan Dongus, 2009
This study describes how simple participatory mapping, GIS and remote sensing applications can enable successful urban malaria control.
Dongus S. 2009. Urban agriculture and operational mosquito larvae control: mitigating malaria risk in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. PhD thesis. University of Basel.
A tool box for operational mosquito larval control: preliminary results and early lessons from the Urban Malaria Control Programme in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
Ulrike Fillinger, Prosper P Chaki, Marcia C de Castro, Stefan Dongus, Yvonne Geissbühler, Nico J. Govella, Khadija Kannady, Gerry F. Killeen, Steven W Lindsay, Evan M. Mathenge, Hassan Mshinda, Deo Mtasiwa, Dickson Nyika, Burton H. Singer, Marcel Tanner, Michael J. Vanek, George William, 2008
"This study was initiated with the aim of using long term monitoring data collected at two representative semi arid stations to examine the impact of biophysical environment (climate and soil) and cultivation method (with and without water conservation) on crop performance (growth and production). Using the knowledge gained from this analysis, the study evaluated and adapted the Agricultural Production Simulator (APSIM) model to develop a simulation tool for the production system practiced by the smallscale farmers in the study area. The adapted APSIM model was used to examine the impact of water conservation on maize growth and production."
Most contemporary discussions on African development since independence forty years ago emphasize the notion that Africa is still “mal parti”. Many show discontent for what has been achieved in this time, despite that “Africa works” as is suggested by Chabal and Daloz in their widely discussed book (1999). I will focus on the issue of sustainable development in Africa. This will be illustrated by the presentation of a common property resource management research project (on fisheries, pastures, wildlife, water for irrigation, and forests). The question of why the overuse of natural resources and conflicts over resources are occurring in modern day Africa is addressed here. This research project is called “Common Property Institutions and Power Relations: Resource Management, Change and Conflicts in African Floodplain Wetlands”. It focuses on six African floodplain wetlands in semi-arid zones (Internal Niger Delta in Mali, Hadejia-Jama'ara in Northern Nigeria, Logone Floodplain in Northern Cameroon, Pangani Floodplain in Tanzania, Okavango Delta in Botswana and Kafue Flats in Zambia (Haller 2001)) [...].
Sensing Soil Properties in the Upper Ewaso Ng'iro Basin by means of Reflectance Spectroscopy and GIS
Conny Hett, 2005
Master's Thesis, University of Bern, Switzerland
This thesis is a proof of method study of the Soil Sensing Approach, a new approach for rapid assessment of soil properties using near-infrared spectroscopy. The study was carried out in a small tests area of ten by ten km in the Upper Ewaso Ng’iro Basin, Kenya. The topical aim was to assess soil chemical properties in relation to land cover/land use. Through application of chemometric models soil carbon and nitrogen were predicted based on their near-infrared reflectance curves. CART classification and regression trees were used for modelling the two properties. It was shown that classification trees did not perform nearly as good on the samples as the regression trees. Finally relationships between land cover/land use and soil carbon and nitrogen were assessed and soil carbon and nitrogen showed very similar results. The good results of the Soil Sensing Approach make its use possible for mapping soil carbon and nitrogen properties using satellite imagery.
Humankind today is challenged by numerous threats brought about by the speed and scope of global change dynamics. A concerted and informed approach to solutions is needed to face the severity and magnitude of current development problems. Generating shared knowledge is a key to addressing global challenges. This requires developing the ability to cross multiple borders wherever radically different understandings of issues such as health and environmental sanitation, governance and conflict, livelihood options and globalisation, and natural resources and development exist.
Global Change and Sustainable Development presents 36 peer-reviewed articles written by interdisciplinary teams of authors who reflected on results of development-oriented research conducted from 2001 to 2008. Scientific activities were – and continue to be – carried out in partnerships involving people and institutions in the global North, South and East, guided by principles of sustainability. The articles seek to inform solutions for mitigating, or adapting to, the negative impacts of global dynamics in the social, political, ecological, institutional and economic spheres.
For the print version, please send your order to: (price: CHF 45.00 / EUR 30.00, excluding postage)
In: Bearth, Barbara Becker, Rolf Kappel, Gesine Krüger, Roger Pfister, editors. 2007. Thomas Afrika im Wandel. vdf Hochschulverlag AG, ETH Zürich, pp. 123-136
"Famines are often linked to drought in semi-arid areas of Sub-Saharan Africa where not only pastoralists, but also increasingly agro-pastoralists are affected. This study addresses the interplay between drought and famine in the rural semi-arid areas of Makueni district, Kenya, by examining whether, and how crop production conditions and agro-pastoral strategies predispose smallholder households to drought-triggered food insecurity. If this hypothesis holds, then approaches to deal with drought and famine have to target factors causing household food insecurity during non-drought periods. Data from a longitudinal survey of 127 households, interviews, workshops, and daily rainfall records (1961–2003) were analysed using quantitative and qualitative methods. This integrated approach confirms the above hypothesis and reveals that factors other than rainfall, like asset and labour constraints, inadequate policy enforcement, as well as the poverty-driven inability to adopt risk-averse production systems play a key role. When linking these factors to the high rainfall variability, farmer-relevant definitions and forecasts of drought have to be applied."
This study analyses how gender relations shape vulnerability to drought in the semi-arid areas of Makueni District, Kenya. The study area is a marginal environment of low argicultural potential and poverty is widespread. The interplay and socio-economic pressures on agro-pastoral households, and the compulsion to conform or to be perceived as conforming to the prevailing gendered traditional rules and norms, influences the capabilities of men and women to secure their livelihoods in non-drought periods. In times of drought, gender relations also shape the coping strategies of women and men in various ways, and the impacts of drought on household welfare challenge the traditional roles of men.
This article describes the indigenous knowledge (IK) that agro pastoralists in larger Makueni District, Kenya hold and how they use it to monitor, mitigate and adapt to drought. It examines ways of integrating IK into formal monitoring, how to enhance its value and acceptability. Data was collected through target interviews, group discussions and questionnaires covering 127 households in eight villages. Daily rainfall data from 1961–2003 were analysed. Results show that agro-pastoralists hold IK on indicators of rainfall variability; they believe in IK efficacy and they rely on them. Because agro-pastoralists consult additional sources, the authors interpret that IK forms a basic knowledge frame within which agro-pastoralists position and interpret meteorological forecasts. [...]
We analysed how policies in Tanzania and Kenya address the strategies of agro-pastoralists for coping with and adapting to climate variability and climate change, based on data from semi-structured household surveys, group discussions, policy documents and other material. Many policies indirectly address climate variability and change by focusing on drought, suggesting that some form of mainstreaming already exists. We show that by integrating the perspective of agro-pastoralists, i.e. the majority of the rural poor, policies and pro-poor adaptation strategies can be strengthened.
In: Hurni H, Wiesmann U, editors. Global Change and Sustainable Development: A Synthesis of Regional Experiences from Research Partnerships. Perspectives of the NCCR North-South, University of Bern, Vol. 5. Bern, Switzerland: Geographica Bernensia, pp 107-130.
"In recent decades, the Mount Kenya highland–lowland system, which includes the Ewaso Ngiro North Basin, has experienced complex ecological and socioeconomic dynamics. These are reflected in changing land use systems and practices as well as in a rapidly growing human population, especially in the footzones and adjacent lowlands. These changes have exerted unremitting pressure on water resources, especially because the demand for water by different user groups has continued to grow, against the backdrop of expensive alternative sources (rainwater and groundwater harvesting) and increasingly dwindling river water resources. As each of the user groups moves to make substantial claims to available river water, competition for the resource becomes even sharper, thus setting the stage for conflicts related to scarcity that intensify during the dry season, at times resulting in fatal physical conflicts among different user groups in the basin, especially between upstream and downstream users. Different approaches have been used to address these scarcity-related conflicts. The present article discusses Water Users' Associations as one of the most effective initiatives launched to address the problem of water use conflicts in the basin in the recent past."
This chapter presents an example of transdisciplinarity based on 25 years of continuous research in the upper Ewaso Ng’iro north basin on the north-western slopes of Mount Kenya. It shows how the research facility evolved from a district and project planning support institution, based on needs, to a regionally oriented and integrated facility addressing the requirements of sustainability. Projecting on the basis of long-term implications of changes in ecological processes and socio-economic and institutional dynamics on water availability, research activities were embedded in a multilevel, multistakeholder transfer strategy to ensure integration of scientific and local knowledge systems and long-term ownership of preferred interventions. In conclusion, the chapter lists seven recommendations on salient issues of transdisciplinary research.
Re-evaluating the burden of rabies in Africa and Asia
Darryn L. Knobel, Sarah Cleaveland, Paul G. Coleman, Eric M. Fèvre, Martin I. Meltzer, François-Xavier Meslin, M. Elizabeth G. Miranda, Alexandra Shaw, Jakob Zinsstag, 2005
Rabies remains an important yet neglected disease in Africa and Asia. Disparities in the affordability and accessibility of post-exposure treatment and risks of exposure to rabid dogs result in a skewed distribution of the disease burden across society, with the major impact falling on those living in poor rural communities, in particular children.
"Kleinbäuerliche Besiedlung und die Ausprägung von Haushaltsstrategien am Mount Kenya" in: Jeanneret F, Wastl-Walter D, Wiesmann U, Schwyn M. editors. 2003. Welt der Alpen - Gebirge der Welt. Ressourcen, Akteure, Perspektiven. Bern: Haupt Verlag, pp. 185-196
The present article documents increasing water abstraction and the difficulties in establishing limits for low flows such as the Q80 value (flow available on 80% of the days per year). The article also presents the role of Water Users' Associations (WUAs) in mitigating water conflicts related to over-abstraction. Evaluation of the activities of 13 WUAs showed that they solved 45 of 52 conflicts. WUAs are also involved in activities such as environmental education, awareness creation, improved irrigation practices, afforestation, and regulating water. The recent restructuring of the government ministry resulted in a formalized role for WUAs. Long-term data on availability, abstraction, and use of water are needed to mitigate water conflicts within and between WUAs, negotiate water allocation, and establish allocation thresholds.
This paper presents a rare example of a relatively intensive, variable scale, monitoring network in tropical highland Africa. Examples of results from this monitoring are given, which reveal the importance of vegetation cover and landuse in the generation of storm flow, groundwater recharge and decline in river flows. The calibration of a hydrological model developmed for this region, together with some early results from the simulation of landuse change scenarios, are also presented.
Monitoring The Health of Selected Eastern Arc Forests in Tanzania
Seif Madoffe, Gerhard D. Hertel, Raymond Killenga, Barbara O'Connell, Paul Rodgers, 2006
The eastern arc mountains (EAMs) are a chain of isolated mountains (534,000 ha) in Kenya and Tanzania surrounded by arid woodlands and influenced by the Indian Ocean. Much of the original forests have been converted into agricultural crops. These mountains are recognized as a globally important ‘hot spot’ for forest biodiversity and are major national, regional and local sources of hydropower, water and wide array of forest-based benefits and agricultural production. In February 2000 we began a 3-year evaluation of forest health, land-use change and information sharing in the EAMs. This paper summarizes the baseline data from eighteen permanent sample plots in the east Usambara’s and nine in Ulugurus. The eastern arc web site was established, continues to expand and contains some detailed information on the project. Information will assist land managers, planners, policy makers, interested communities and individuals in decision-making.
Incorporating Children in Urban Residential Design and Planning in Selected Residential Estates in Nairobi
T. Mbatia, 2006
MSc Thesis
Conservation for whose benefit? Challenges and opportunities for management of Mkomazi Game Reserve, Tanzania.
Gimbage Ernest Mbeyale, N. A. Songorwa, 2008
The Mkomazi Game Reserve (MGR) in north-eastern Tanzania is a protected area where different social groups are involved in contest for natural resources. Using MGR as a case study, we examine and discuss how the fortress approach to conservation has led to management problems. We present an overview of conflicts between the MGR authorities and communities, analyse strategies used to deal with the situation and discuss the different ideologies involved.
On one hand this is a successful story of fortress conservation. There is proof of increasing bird numbers and improvement in vegetation cover. However, this is at the expense of livelihood security of the local population. We recommend alternative conservation pathways that adopt new participatory conservation approaches instead of the fortress approach currently implemented in MGR.
In: Galvin M, Haller T, editors. People, Protected Areas and Global Change: Participatory Conservation in Latin America, Africa, Asia and Europe. Perspectives of the Swiss National Centre of Competence in Research (NCCR) North-South, University of Bern, Vol. 3. Bern: Geographica Bernensia, pp. 221-251.
Lessons From Two Long-term Hydrological Studies in Kenya and Sri Lanka
D. N. Mungai, W. Elkaduwa, Boniface Kiteme, C. K. Ong, R. Sakthivadivel, 2004
The rate and characteristics of land use change in tropical watersheds due to changing demographic, economic and policy factors have important consequences for catchment health and environmental services. Few tropical watershed studies have lasted long enough to facilitate a credible analysis of the long-term effects of land use change on the environmental services provided by watersheds. This paper examines the driving forces and patterns of historical land use change in two long-term watershed studies in Kenya and Sri Lanka and their hydrological impacts.
Pre-conference Proceedings. University of Bern, Switzerland, 2–4 July 2008
NCCR North-South, 2008
NCCR North-South Dialogue, No. 21
Local Urban Observatory for Nakuru Municipality, Kenya
NCCR North-South, 2004
The Nakuru Local Urban Observatory Project aims at providing a framework for sustainable urban planning and management practices through building technical skills and improving participation of the various local stakeholders. To achieve this goal, a Local Urban Observatory (LUO) was created to stimulate the development of municipal spatial and environmental planning and management practices, informed by accurate, timely and accessible information.
The aim of the present article is to contribute to the debate on the role of research in sustainable management of water and related resources, based on experiences in the Upper Ewaso Ng’iro and Pangani river basins in East Africa. Both basins are characterised by humid, resource-rich highlands and extensive semi-arid lowlands, by growing demand for water and related resources, and by numerous conflicting stakeholder interests. Issues of scale and level, on the one hand, and the normative dimension of sustainability, on the other hand, are identified as key challenges for research that seeks to produce relevant and applicable results for informed decision-making. A multi-level and multi-stakeholder perspective, defined on the basis of three minimal principles, is proposed here as an approach to research for informed decision-making. Key lessons learnt from applying these principles in the two river basins are presented and iscussed in the light of current debate.
In: Hurni H, Wiesmann U, editors; with an international group of co-editors. Global Change and Sustainable Development: A Synthesis of Regional Experiences from Research Partnerships. Perspectives of the Swiss National Centre of Competence in Research (NCCR) North-South, University of Bern, Vol. 5. Bern, Switzerland: Geographica Bernensia, pp 91-106.
The study develops and applies a methodology for quantifying ecosystem services in the water sector in the East African Pangani Basin for the year 2000 and for scenarios for 2025. Special attention is given to the criteria of valuation by stakeholders and accessibility of water resources, which necessitates the use of a high-resolution hydrological process model. Services quantified include domestic water, water for irrigated or rainfed agriculture, hydropower production, and environmental flows.
PhD Thesis at Centre for Development and Environment, University of Bern
"Inspired by Foucault, many studies have examined the medicalization of everyday life in Western societies. This paper reconsiders potentials and limitations of this concept in an African city. Grounded in ethnographic research in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, it concentrates on cleanliness, health and water in a lower middle-class neighbourhood. The findings show that women are familiar with professional health development discourses emphasizing cleanliness as a high value linked to bodily and domestic health. These discourses have been diffused in schools, clinics and other institutions during the colonial and socialist period. Women not only refer to these discourses, they try to reproduce them in daily practice and even demand them. This coercive yet voluntary nature of institutionalized discourses points to 'paradoxes of medicalization' also found in Western societies. It acquires, however, different meanings in a weak state like contemporary Tanzania which hardly manages to institutionalize medicalization through professional practice. Under such conditions, women who choose to follow health development discourses suffer a heavier practical, intellectual and emotional burden than those who are less committed. This may at least partly explain why many women assume a pragmatic stance towards the medicalization of everyday life."
«Gesundheit» ist ein Zauberwort der Moderne. Es ist ein positives Konzept, das wir mit vielen Bereichen des alltäglichen Lebens in Beziehung setzen, von Umwelt über Ernährung bis hin zu Arbeit , Freizeit und sozialen Beziehungen. Was bedeutet «Gesundheit» jedoch für Menschen, die in einer ganz anderen Umgebung leben, nämlich einer schnell wachsenden afrikanischen Stadt?
"Health is the core value and ultimate goal of health development, yet we know very little about health conceptions in everyday life. Inspired by investigations into lay health concepts in Europe, our study explores experiences and meanings of health in a strikingly different context, namely, in a low-income neighbourhood of an African city. Grounded in ethnographic research in Dar es Salaam, we introduce the concept of 'health practice' and examine health definitions, explanations, and activities of urban Swahili women. Our findings show that representations of health form a set of experiences, meanings and embodied practice centring on the links between body, mind, and living conditions. We suggest that 'livelihood', 'vulnerability' and 'resilience' best capture women's main concerns of health practice in such a setting. All women face an emotional burden of being exposed to urban afflictions and an intellectual and practical burden of overcoming them, but some meet this challenge more successfully than others do. This approach tips the balance towards a positive view of health that has been neglected in medical anthropology. It also opens new lines of inquiry in urban health research by consequently following a resource orientation that acknowledges women's struggle to stay healthy and directs attention to their agency."
"Migration patterns in Kenya in general differentially affect fertility levels, patterns and behaviour. For economically dynamic areas, out-migration and the associated spousal separation and differential sex ratios seem to be associated with falling fertility, though migration is not the only or even the principal factor involved. In lagging and/or peripheral areas, by contrast, the demographic effect of migration seems to promote high fertility by undermining some critical factors of fertility determinants and behaviour. Examples from Africa in general and Kenya in particular are invoked to examine and explain this important association between migration and fertility. Furthermore, the paper incorporates the geography of economic and social development to help understand the relationship between migration and fertility."
With the current attention given to climate change and global warming, the issue of “environmental security” is back high on the agenda of the international community. Environmental degradation is increasingly considered as a potential cause for the (re-)emergence of violent conflicts due to shrinking natural resources such as drinkable water and land. However, research on the issue has shown that there is very little empirical evidence of a direct causal link between environmental degradation and violent conflict. In order to set effective priorities for environmental peacebuilding, it is important to understand - particularly in situations of environmental stress - how natural resource conflicts are embedded in social and political dynamics, how they are managed by local institutions, and how these institutional arrangements can be supported through outside intervention. Based on a research project conducted by swisspeace within the framework of the NCCR North-South, the swisspeace annual conference 2007 explored those complex linkages and formulated entry points for improving intervention strategies by external actors.
"La dégradation de l'espace résiduel forestier constitue un des problèmes majeurs du développement agricole à Madagascar. Malgré l'importance de l'aide internationale dans le cadre de la mise en œuvre du PNAE les forêts se sont dégradées à un rythme de 1,7% par an. Aux lacunes techniques d'encadrement paysan et l'insuffisance des connaissances sur la forêt Malgache (croissance lente, relief accidenté) ont été proposées des solutions institutionnelles qui prônent la responsabilisation des acteurs locaux dans la gestion forestière. Cet article vise à évaluer la pertinence des outils institutionnels et des concepts utilisés pour la protection des forêts à Madagascar à partir d'analyse institutionnelle et spatiale par comparaison des normes juridiques et techniques avec les pratiques réelles (analyse des filières et diagnostic technique) [...]".
"An investigation of the impact of policies of the natural resources on Madagascar uncovered a number of deficiencies. A widely recommended participative approach is reaching its limits. The impartiality of the actors involved is at stake. Illicit product networks play an important role in the redistribution of commercial income. Strategies that weaken the role of the state should be reversed."
This paper attempts to analyse the trust, power relations and emerging conflicts as state and non-state actors try to adjust to their new roles in the perspective of participatory forest management initiatives in Pakistan and Tanzania. Based on historical and empirical context, we argue that the institutional base responsible for enhancing trust between state and local actors is rather weak in both countries. The major obstacles are that the state actors are not willing to fully devolve power; and the responsibility - as delegated by the state - of newly created institutions demands forest protection rather than defining management rights.
Impact of Conservation and Development Interventions on Livelihoods and Forest Resources Management in Pangani River Basin: A Case of Muheza District, Tanzania
Mwembe Uhuru , 2009
Master thesis at Sokoine University of Agriculture, Tanzania
Les sites naturels du Jungfrau-Aletsch-Bietschhorn et du Mont Kenya sont tous deux inscrits au Patrimoine Mondial de l'Unesco. Dans le cas de Grindelwald, le paysage culturel est plus menacé que le paysage naturel protégé du patrimoine mondial, alors que dans le cas du système des hautes et basses terres du Mont Kenya, l'important potentiel en ressources subit une forte pression anthropique. Dans les pays du Nord, où l'apport à une conscience régionale identitaire de la population peut revêtir une importance considérable, la contribution des biens naturels du patrimoine mondial au développement régional durable est probablement plus élevée en termes socioculturels. Dans les pays du Sud, le statut de patrimoine mondial peut assurer la protection des paysages naturels d'un point de vue écologique, mais les pertes potentielles encourues par la population en termes de production primaire ne sont compensées que de façon très limitée.
Revue de géographie alpine 92(3):73-83.
Mitigating Conflicts Over Scarce Water Resources in the Highland-lowland System of Mount Kenya
The Mount Kenya region offers a great deal of beautiful scenery and attracts tourists from all over the world. What these tourists may not see, however, is the crucial function of Mount Kenya as a water tower for its footzones and adjoining lowland areas. This function is becoming ever more crucial, as populations in these areas are growing at a rapid pace and new land use systems require far more water. These developments have set the stage for increasing conflicts over water resources; to make things worse, water is becoming ever scarcer, especially in the dry areas of the Laikipia Plateau and the Samburu Plains to the north and west of the mountain. This article summarizes the complex ecological and socioeconomic dynamics prevailing in the highland-Blowland system of Mount Kenya—the Ewaso Ng'iro North Basin—and presents a multilevel strategy for mitigating the emerging conflicts over water resources.
The NCCR North-South is hosted by the University of Bern
and funded jointly by the Swiss National Science Foundation and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation
