Are Gates and CGIAR a good mix for Africa? - SciDev.Net

Are Gates and CGIAR a good mix for Africa? - SciDev.Net: "International agricultural development acquired a significant new player last December when the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation — the biggest private foundation in the world, with US$37 billion under its control — announced that it was joining the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR).

When the Gates Foundation launched its own agricultural programmes a few years ago its goal was hugely ambitious, namely to develop and introduce 400 new and improved crop varieties to help eliminate hunger in Sub-Saharan Africa, while also bringing some 15 million people out of poverty."

China's Agricultural and Rural Development: Implications for Africa | International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI)

China's Agricultural and Rural Development: Implications for Africa | International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI): "As national leaders and donors are looking for new strategies to sustain high levels of agricultural growth in Africa, it is useful to examine the experiences of other countries, such as China, that have been successful in agriculture-led broad-based development. Learning from China’s development pathways is particularly timely in lieu of the recent strengthening of China and Africa’s economic cooperation, which also offers new development opportunities."

US$4.4 million awarded for research to build a climate model able to predict outbreaks of infectious disease in Africa � ILRI News

US$4.4 million awarded for research to build a climate model able to predict outbreaks of infectious disease in Africa ILRI News: "Scientists at the University of Liverpool, in the UK, and the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), in Kenya, are working with 11 other African and European partners on a US$4.4-million (UK 3 million-) project to develop climate-based models that will help predict the outbreak and spread of infectious diseases in Africa."

Spatial Pattern Enhances Ecosystem Functioning in an African Savanna

PLoS Biology: Spatial Pattern Enhances Ecosystem Functioning in an African Savanna: "The finding that regular spatial patterns can emerge in nature from local interactions between organisms has prompted a search for the ecological importance of these patterns. Theoretical models have predicted that patterning may have positive emergent effects on fundamental ecosystem functions, such as productivity. We provide empirical support for this prediction. In dryland ecosystems, termite mounds are often hotspots of plant growth (primary productivity)."

Egypt charms Kenya over Nile

Daily Nation:�- News�|Egypt charms Kenya over Nile: "Egypt has launched a charm offensive on Kenya even as Nairobi insists Cairo must sign the new treaty on the use of River Nile’s waters.

The signing of the Comprehensive Framework Agreement by upstream countries has annoyed Cairo, which has a disproportionate share of the water according to colonial era treaties.

And in Cairo on Tuesday, Egypt offered to fund a range of projects in Kenya.

In a meeting with a visiting delegation led by Prime Minister Raila Odinga, his Egyptian counterpart, Dr Ahmed Nazif, said the projects include environmental conservation, water harvesting, drilling of boreholes and construction of dams."

Drought Spurs Struggles in Kilimanjaro's Shadow - NYTimes.com

Drought Spurs Life-Or-Death Struggles in Kilimanjaro's Shadow - NYTimes.com: "When the rains failed for the second straight year in 2009, plants withered to their roots in this critical dry-season refuge. Marshes and the shallow bed of Lake Amboseli, usually fed by seasonal rains and runoff from snow-capped Mount Kilimanjaro, cracked in equatorial sun. With little to eat or drink, more than 70 percent of Amboseli's zebra and wildebeest died of starvation, predation or opportunistic infections.

The onset of long rains in recent weeks has begun to rehydrate Amboseli's landscape. But with their traditional prey diminished in numbers, the park's top predators are targeting livestock and risking death. At least nine Amboseli-area lions have been speared or poisoned to death during the past six months, say wildlife managers and conservationists."

Livestock vaccine offers lifeline to many

Livestock vaccine offers lifeline to many ILRI News: "East Coast fever is a tick-transmitted disease that kills one cow every 30 seconds. It puts the lives of more than 25 million cattle at risk in the 11 countries of sub-Saharan Africa where the disease is now endemic. The disease endangers a further 10 million animals in regions such as southern Sudan, where it has been spreading at a rate of more than 30 kilometres a year. While decimating herds of indigenous cattle, East Coast fever is an even greater threat to improved exotic cattle breeds and is therefore limiting the development of livestock enterprises, particularly dairy, which often depend on higher milk-yielding crossbred cattle. The vaccine could save the affected countries at least a quarter of a million US dollars a year."

About the Ecosystems and Human Health Program: International Development Research Centre

About the Ecosystems and Human Health Program: International Development Research Centre: "The world faces unprecedented environmental challenges that are affecting human health and impeding equitable human and economic development. Climate change threatens to exacerbate health risks for millions of people who already struggle daily from inadequate access to food, shelter, and protection from infectious diseases. Rapid urbanization, intensification of land use, and high population mobility are increasing the risk of emergence of new and old diseases. Underlying these acute problems are environmental hazards, which continue to impose a considerable health burden on the world’s poor."

Volunteer in Kenya: International Volunteering Opportunities at GoAbroad.com

Volunteer in Kenya: International Volunteering Opportunities at GoAbroad.com: "There are 120 organizations offering a total of 322 Volunteer Abroad programs"

Kenya’s Maasai herders take jobs and farm crops

Kenya’s Maasai herders take jobs and farm crops to cope with change ILRI News

Collaborative research between Kenyan Maasai communities and a researcher from Canada’s McGill University has identified how these semi-nomadic herding communities are changing to cope with changing climate and land tenure systems. Results of research conducted during a great drought in Kenya’s Maasailand and other regions from 2007 to 2009 show that more and more Maasai households are diversifying their livelihoods and making use of ‘strategic mobility’ to cope with changing land tenure systems.

In a presentation last week of research findings at the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) campus, in Nairobi, Kenya, John Galaty, of McGill University, noted that ‘the Maasai community is dealing with the aftermath of the long drought, which devastated their livelihoods, by making more opportunistic use of their land, by diversifying into cropping, by keeping fewer and faster growing animals and by taking on paying jobs.’

GVI's Marine and Wildlife Research and Community Development Expedition in Kenya

GVI's Marine and Wildlife Research and Community Development Expedition in Kenya: "GVI is a non-political, non-religious organisation, which through its alliance with over 150 project partners in over 30 countries, provides opportunities for volunteers to fill a critical void in the fields of environmental research, conservation, education and community development."

Climate change a costly affair for Kenya

Breaking News in Local, International, Business, Sports and Lifestyle :.: "NAIROBI, Kenya, May 18 - Environment Minister John Michuki has warned that if no mitigation measures are taken by the year 2030, climate change will cost Kenya over Sh235 billion ($3billion) annually.

Mr Michuki said on Tuesday that this was besides the additional indirect costs that would be incurred if no interventions were immediately taken."

The official site of the Tanzania National Parks - Map of Tanzania

The official site of the Tanzania National Parks

Arusha

Tanzania - Google Maps

tanzania - Google Maps

Link to Maps and Earth

Tanzania Wildlife Research Institute - The Centre carrying out and co-ordinating wildlife research in Tanzania.

TAWIRI - Tanzania Wildlife Research Institute - The Centre carrying
out and co-ordinating wildlife research in Tanzania.: "The Tanzania Wildlife Research Institute (TAWIRI) is a public institution that was established under the Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism in 1980 with the mandate to carry out and co-ordinate wildlife research in the United Republic of Tanzania. TAWIRI is the CITES Scientific Authority in Tanzania. The headquarters of TAWIRI is at Njiro in Arusha, Tanzania."

Tanzania rhinos to be returned from South Africa

Tanzania rhinos to be returned from South Africa: "By Zephania Ubwani, Arusha

Six rhinos will be flown to the Serengeti National Park in what could be the beginning among the largest translocations of one of the most endangered animals to Tanzania.

A total of 32 rhinos will be brought back into the country from South Africa in an effort to save their population which had been decreasing to near extinction in many parts of Africa.

The project is a partnership between the Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism, Tanzania National Parks (Tanapa), Tanzania Wildlife Research Institute (Tawiri) and South African National Parks (SANParks).

Other collaborators are the Frankfurt Zoological Society (FZS), which operates its EA regional offices within the Serengeti, and the Grumeti Fund."

CGBooks

CGBooks: "In partnership with Google Books, CGIAR brings you full-text versions of thousands of publications for which it owns the copyright."

About us | ATE

About us | ATE: "The Amboseli Trust for Elephants aims to ensure the long-term conservation and welfare of Africa's elephants in the context of human needs and pressures through scientific research, training, community outreach, public awareness and advocacy.

Echo of the elephants
The elephants of Amboseli in Kenya are the most celebrated wild elephants in the world. Since 1972, close observation by Cynthia Moss and her research team has led to intimate knowledge of these intelligent and complex animals."

nsf.gov - Office of Legislative and Public Affairs (OLPA) News - NSF Provides $20 Million to Support 15 Projects Through BREAD Program - US National Science Foundation (NSF)

nsf.gov - Office of Legislative and Public Affairs (OLPA) News - NSF Provides $20 Million to Support 15 Projects Through BREAD Program - US National Science Foundation (NSF)

The National Science Foundation (NSF) of the United States announced on 12 May 2010 that the Foundation, in partnership with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, is awarding 15 grants worth US$20 million in support of basic research for generating sustainable solutions to big agricultural problems in developing countries.

These are the first grants in a new five-year Basic Research to Enable Agricultural Development (BREAD) program, which is jointly funded by NSF and the Gates Foundation.

The awards in this first year of funding will allow leading scientists worldwide to work together in basic research testing novel and creative approaches to reducing longstanding problems faced by smallholder farmers in poor countries.

Scientists from the Nairobi, Kenya, animal health laboratories of the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) will participate in 2 of the 15 projects selected among the many submitted to BREAD for funding.

Daily Nation:�- Business News�|Kenyan economy at risk from shrinking biodiversity: UN

Daily Nation:�- Business News�|Kenyan economy at risk from shrinking biodiversity: UN:

"The degradation of Kenya's forests, wildlife reserves and coastal wildernesses will cripple east Africa's largest economy if left unchecked, the head of the U.N. Environment Programme (UNEP) said on Monday.

Achim Steiner said the decades-long trend of exploiting Kenya's biodiversity could severely damage its agriculture and tourism sectors, as well as its water supplies.

'To the economy of a country like Kenya, biodiversity is not a luxury. It is one of the pillars of its national economy,' Steiner told reporters in Nairobi, where the UNEP is based."

Reducing conflict between people and wildlife � Ismailimail

Reducing conflict between people and wildlife � Ismailimail: "WWF and the Aga Khan Foundation’s (AKF) Coastal Rural Support Programme (CRSP) are working to identify practical solutions to combat this human/animal conflict. One method is to make a mixture of oil, used car greese, fresh elephant dung and crushed chili (piri piri), which is slathered on ropes which are strung around fields of crops. When elephants run into these ropes the substance burns their skin and the pungent ordor repels them."

Leadinspiration Awarded With 4G License for LTE in 3 nations in East Africa.

Leadinspiration Awarded With 4G License for LTE in 3 nations in East Africa.

Leadinspiration, Inc. has been awarded with a series of contracts to design, deploy and support the first generation network (4G) in 3 nations in East Africa.

Representatives from Dubai-based Conway Bond Telecommunications, Leadinspiration, Inc, headquartered in London, and members of the African Union have signed a Memorandum of Understanding, Legal Framework as well as a Proceedings contract to develop a Next Generation Network in several nations in Africa.
The de-facto state of Somaliland will be the first nation to experience the fastest broadband in Africa, up to 150 MB of speed, as well as the introduction of services, such as mobile broadband, focused on supporting starting businesses as well as to increase efficiency in the established firms in the area.

The initial phase of the project consists of two 3G Networks with special added value services such as Voice2Text, IVR, Hunt Groups, Conference calling, SMS Gateways, calling cards, Varsity numbers, Roaming, Inter-connectivity, Mobile Broadband, as well as a LTE, Long Term Evolution network, part of 4G Technology, that is going to start being assembled in Q3 2010, starting in the North coast region of the Horn of Africa.
Leadinspiration si also introducing a whole new set of cutting-edge standards, such as multi-tasking antennas that are solar powered and easy to assemble, motion detection...

People, Animals and their Zoonoses (PAZ) in Kenya (Zoonotic and Emerging Diseases)

People, Animals and their Zoonoses (PAZ) in Kenya (Zoonotic and Emerging Diseases)

This project deals with zoonotic infections amongst livestock and the farmers who keep them. Zoonotic diseases are infections transmitted between animals and humans; they are a major group of pathogens (approximately 60% of all human-infective organisms), with a diversity of animal hosts including wildlife, pets and domestic animals. Domestic livestock (especially cattle and pigs) are an important source of zoonotic infections to humans, due in part to the close interactions between these agricultural animals and the people who keep them. While keeping domestic stock is an important source of rural livelihoods in many countries, these animals may also expose the families who keep them to disease risks. Understanding the interactions between people and their domestic animals, and the transmission of zoonoses between them, is of vital importance in creating the evidence-based disease control policies that are required to protect both human and animal health.

This project addresses a set of hypotheses relating to endemic, neglected zoonoses in livestock and humans in East Africa, and the impact of co-factors (a condition that influences the effects of another condition) on the epidemiology of, and burden imposed by, these diseases. The major objectives are to demonstrate a relationship between co-factors and risk of infection, and to investigate whether interventions aimed at co-factors can affect the risk of infection with the zoonoses.

This epidemiology and public health project involves gaining a comprehensive understanding of the infection history of a large cohort of humans and livestock in a study site in Western Kenya, and is only possible through our excellent collaborations with partners in the region. Environmental, behavioural and social factors that might contribute to exposure are also being explored, and the project provides the framework for the evaluation of a range of diagnostic tests in this setting. The findings will be synthesised to devise cost-effective interventions to improve disease control and development policy.

Details of the study site can be found here.

KWS | Kenya and Tanzania Joint Wildlife Census Results Released

KWS | Kenya and Tanzania Joint Wildlife Census Results Released

Kenyan and Tanzanian wildlife authorities have released results of the first joint aerial cross-boarder wildlife census conducted in the Greater Amboseli-West Kilimanjaro/Magadi-Natron landscapes.
The wet season wildlife census covered 25 wild mammals and two bird species. The elephant population in the Amboseli was found to have remained relatively stable with 1,087 in the year 2000, 1,090 in 2002, 967 in 2007 compared to the current population of 1,266.
However, the census found a drastic decline in the numbers of large grazing herbivores between 2007 and 2010. Within this period, wildebeests declined by about 83 per cent from 18, 538 to 3,098; zebra declined by about 71 per cent from 15,328 to 4,432 while buffalo declined by 61 per cent from 588 to 231 in the Amboseli area. Livestock similarly declined by 62 per cent, a trend attributed to the severe drought that occurred between 2007 and 2009.
At the greater ecosystem level, zebras with a population of 13,740 individuals were the most numerous followed by Grant gazelles (8,362), common wildebeest (7, 240), Maasai giraffe (4,164), Eland (1992), Maasai ostrich (1,461), African elephant (1,420), impala (1,317), Thomson’s gazelle (933) and Coke’s hartebeest (441). Livestock species recorded included sheep and goats (230,048), cattle (100,433) donkey (2,258) and camel (762).

The results were released during a biodiversity information dissemination workshop presided over by Mr Wilson Korir, the KWS Southern Conservation Area Assistant Director, at Amboseli Serena Hotel. The workshop was attended by community leaders, landowners, research scientists, non-governmental organisation representatives and Kenya Wildlife Service officials. Delegates at the workshop discussed various emerging issues, including changing land use practices, cross-border collaboration, poaching, ecological monitoring, community engagement and information sharing among conservation stakeholders.
Researchers from both Kenya and Tanzania underscored the need for collaboration between governments and landowners to win space for wildlife conservation as well as between Tanzanian and Kenyan wildlife authorities. The census found that wildlife was widely distributed in the entire survey area, a trend attributed to the fact that pastoralism allowed relative coexistence between their livestock and wildlife.

However, the census identified various threats facing wildlife conservation, including loss of habitat, charcoal burning, fragmentation of wildlife corridors and dispersal areas and adverse climate changes. The other threats identified include the presence of crop cultivation in key wildlife habitats such as the wetlands threatened to block wildlife movement routes, which raised concern on the future of wildlife conservation in the greater ecosystem. Kimana Sanctuary in Amboseli and Kitenden area between Kenya and Tanzania were cited as areas where cultivation and other forms of development have disrupted wildlife movements.
Other notable threats to wildlife conservation included proliferation of charcoal burning which targets mature trees which are key browse food and nesting sites for birds. The charcoal burning menace was particularly noted in Mailua, Meto, Osilalei, Elungata Wuas and Kaputiei areas and in the Kimana Group Ranch.
The census showed the key cross border wildlife dispersal areas and highlighted the gaps in conservationists understanding of the interactions among the migratory species (elephants, wildebeest and zebra) that use Magadi, Natron, West Kilimanjaro and Amboseli areas. It also underscored the need for cross boundary collaboration in law enforcement, ecological monitoring and information sharing and data exchange.
The census also identified human activities which threatened the maintenance of the landscape as a viable wildlife dispersal area.

Towards a future for political ecology that works

Scopus - Geoforum: Epilogue: Towards a future for political ecology that works

Political Ecology (PE) has been retrospectively created from a history of wide ranging work of different disciplines, cultural settings and epistemological foundations. Its conceptualization was and remains expansive, eclectic and inclusive which has brought both innovative thinking and charges of incoherence. A review of these paradoxical views on the quality of knowledge and its effectiveness in promoting justice and other aspects of political progress concludes that PE can fulfil these criteria in spite of challenges involved in understanding an exceptionally wide range of different disciplines in the natural and social sciences, technical detail and cultural settings. Also, the production of PE both shapes and is shaped by the structures of the academy and daily practice of teaching and research in a reflexive way. There are particular rewards and penalties in academic production which make it difficult to undertake long term PE research, to write overall integrative PE work other than edited and multi-author works, and to engage with wider audiences outside the academy. There is also an enduring stand-off between PE and policy matters. The growth of PE courses in anglophone universities is encouraging more comparison, coherence and communication between political ecologists and promises increasing stabilization and legitimacy of the field. © 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Who compensates for wildlife conservation in Serengeti?

Scopus - International Journal of Biodiversity Science and Management: Who compensates for wildlife conservation in Serengeti?

The adage 'Serengeti shall never die' is popular globally, both as a means and an end for survival of one of the world's flagship conservation areas. Further to its role in inspiring conservation commitment, the slogan has also served as a legendary marketing catch-phrase for Serengeti's terrific tourism attractions. Survival and prominence of Serengeti and its wildlife largely depend on the presence of a series of protected areas - tools construed as a solution to conservation problems. However, the fact that these areas are a source of numerous opportunity costs and other social and economic costs to local communities means that they have long been perceived as a liability. Conservation of these areas has, therefore, emerged as one of the key challenges, due to hostility and opposition towards the conservation policies. This challenge inspires the need for a thorough understanding of how local people perceive these costs. This will provide an entry point and a basis for workable management interventions towards a win-win situation for both conservation interests and local people. In this paper we examine local people's perceptions of the costs they incur by virtue of sharing land with wildlife, in order to recognise the involuntary contribution they offer to ensure survival of Serengeti and its resources. We argue that creation of protected areas and wildlife conservation imply numerous social and economic costs that are rarely compensated. We specifically address the following questions: What are the costs of living close to protected areas? Are all costs of equal importance to local communities? What are the possible effects of upgrading and expanding the boundaries of protected areas? How adequate and appropriate are the conservation benefits in compensating for the wildlife-induced costs? The results indicate that local people in Serengeti perceive the existing wildlife protected areas as a burden, due to competition for land and other resources, property damage and risk to life. Respondents also expressed a deep negativity on intervention that sought to upgrade the lower categories of protected areas because of the further costs that are likely to emerge. On benefits from conservation, there was a strong feeling that the benefits are too minimal to compensate for the costs they incur and do not address their immediate needs.

A geographical perspective on poverty- Environment interactions

Scopus - Geographical Journal: A geographical perspective on poverty- Environment interactions

This paper examines prevailing wisdoms on the topic of poverty-environmental interactions, problematizes some standard assumptions and interrogates the geographical literature on the subject. Dominant development discourse has tended to blame the poor for environmental degradation, ignoring the role of other processes and actors at various scales in causing environmental degradation. We examine how definitions of poverty, institutional arrangements, conventional economic models and assumed feedback loops may influence our understanding of poverty-environment interactions. The article gives particular attention to the political ecology approach as a lens through which this dynamic may be understood. Recent work in political ecology has broadened views of poverty-environment interactions by focusing on issues of power, scale and discourse in influencing outcomes and policies. © 2005 The Royal Geographical Society.

The status of wildlife in protected areas compared to non-protected areas of Kenya

Scopus - PLoS ONE: The status of wildlife in protected areas compared to non-protected areas of Kenya

We compile over 270 wildlife counts of Kenya's wildlife populations conducted over the last 30 years to compare trends in national parks and reserves with adjacent ecosystems and country-wide trends. The study shows the importance of discriminating human-induced changes from natural population oscillations related to rainfall and ecological factors. National park and reserve populations have declined sharply over the last 30 years, at a rate similar to non-protected areas and country-wide trends. The protected area losses reflect in part their poor coverage of seasonal ungulate migrations. The losses vary among parks. The largest parks, Tsavo East, Tsavo West and Meru, account for a disproportionate share of the losses due to habitat change and the difficulty of protecting large remote parks. The losses in Kenya's parks add to growing evidence for wildlife declines inside as well as outside African parks. The losses point to the need to quantify the performance of conservation policies and promote integrated landscape practices that combine parks with private and community-based measures. © 2009 Western et al.

Pastoralism within land administration in Kenya-The missing link

Scopus - Land Use Policy: Pastoralism within land administration in Kenya-The missing link

In land administration (LA), the right to exercising property/ownership rights on land is based on cadastral processes of adjudication, survey and rights registration. Private ownership rights are now being taken up in pastoral areas, where they must contend with pastoralists' land rights. Pastoral land use requires seasonal migrations determined by climatic conditions. This study aimed to find out how well the existing land laws and property rights in LA are able to serve the requirements of pastoralists land use, identify mismatches and put forward possible solutions. A case study was carried out in the Samburu-Laikipia-Isiolo-Meru landscape in Kenya. Data on the degree of livestock dependency among pastoralist communities, the spatial extent and patterns of dry season migrations, the resulting encounters between herders' and non-pastoralist land use actors, and the perceptions of land rights held by actors were collected through a variety of methods and analysed. The results show that pastoralism is still active. The migration corridors reveal that herders maintain extensive dry season mobility, even though some of the corridors currently overlap with areas where land is privately owned by non-pastoralist land use actors. Moreover, the results show that most non-pastoralist land use actors have their land rights registered, but seasonal encounters with migrating pastoralists persist as pastoralists continue to exercise customary rights of communal use. We conclude that existing land laws and property rights in LA are suitable for sedentary land use, but do not address how to serve pastoralists land rights in time and space. The pastoralist's migration routes and patterns obtained indicated that it is possible to predict where pastoralists will be at a given time/drought period. This information could be used by decision makers and land administrators to identify where and when pastoralists' land rights apply. This could provide the foundation for including pastoralists' spatiotemporal land rights in LA. Arguments emphasize that adjudication, surveys and registration of rights should focus not only on ownership and full control of land, but also on defined periods when spatiotemporal mobility and access rights could be granted to pastoralists. © 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Scientific Commons: Between crisis and opportunity. Livelihoods, diversification and inequality among the Meru of Tanzania. (2001), 2001-09-18 [Larsson, Rolf]

Scientific Commons: Between crisis and opportunity. Livelihoods, diversification and inequality among the Meru of Tanzania. (2001), 2001-09-18 [Larsson, Rolf]: "Between crisis and opportunity. Livelihoods, diversification and inequality among the Meru of Tanzania. (2001)
Larsson, Rolf"

Sustained high population growth rates are radically altering the livelihood conditions for small farmers in sub-Saharan Africa. In one of the most fertile and densely settled areas of East Africa, Mount Meru in Northern Tanzania, the size of the population has increased nearly tenfold within the last century. As a consequence, the most serious problem facing farm families is shortage of land. Coupled with this constraint is a complete turn in the national policy towards the agricultural sector in the 1990s. Within short time, Tanzania has moved from state controlled to liberalized markets, a change that has brought new challenges as well as opportunities for the country's numerous smallholders. Historically, Meru households have managed the situation of land shortage rather well. The near universal adoption of coffee cultivation in the 1950s strongly contributed to improvements in food security and living standards despite very high population growth rates. So did income diversification, i.e. the partial reliance on incomes from outside farming. In the 1980s, however, the national economic recession prompted a social and livelihood crisis as markets contracted, coffee prices dropped and small business and employment opportunities dwindled. More recently, economic liberalization has produced a change into high value crops for the domestic markets and, above all, a conspicuous upsurge of opportunities for earning incomes from off-farm work, a trend that is reinforced by the proximity of Mount Meru to Arusha town, the regional capital. Caught between the compelling forces of economic adjustment and land shortage on the one hand, and the rising aspirations and opportunities brought by economic liberalisation on the other, Meru household members have turned their back on farming in favour of various kinds of off-farm employment. The quest for off-farm incomes by rural households is a phenomenon that sweeps across Africa and one that implies the shrinking of the agricultural sector versus other sectors of the economy, i.e. 'de-agrarianisation'. The consequences of 'de-agrarianisation' on food production, income distribution, poverty reduction, and the viability of small family farms, are uncertain, however. The study concludes that, in the Meru case, off-farm employment foremost serves as a means for preserving the small family farm rather than implying a full-scale exodus from agriculture. The study suggests that in spite of a rising gap in incomes between rich and poor farmers, local agriculture continues to be dominated by small family farms, which show great flexibility in adapting to shifting economic and political conditions. Economic polarisation is contained by a high rate of social mobility, income diversification strategies, and by social institutions supporting the right to land for all. Local agriculture continues to be constrained by low productivity, however, a fact that casts doubts on the current neo-liberal policies as the most efficient means of raising agricultural output and incomes in Africa's rural areas.

Political ecology of wildlife conservation in the Mt. Meru area of Northeast Tanzania. R. P. Neumann. 2006; Land Degradation & Development - Wiley InterScience

Political ecology of wildlife conservation in the Mt. Meru area of Northeast Tanzania. R. P. Neumann. 2006; Land Degradation & Development - Wiley InterScience: "The wildlife conservation problems in Tanzania are examined from a political ecology perspective. The analysis is historical, exploring the establishment of national parks under British colonial rule and the tightening of state control over access to resources at the expense of customary rights. Examples are presented from the Mt. Meru area of north-eastern Tanzania. During the colonial period, the formal political debate over land and resource rights was conducted without the participation of African peasants. After independence the state continued to assert control over resource access unilaterally. As Meru peasants have effectively been shut out of the formal political process, their only recourse for defending the loss of access to natural resources is everyday forms of resistance, including de facto alliances with commercial poachers and foot dragging in regards to compliance with conservation laws. Consequently there is little local support for current wildlife conservation policies on Mt. Meru and wildlife populations have declined in the 30 years since Arusha National Park was established there."

Forest stakeholders' value preferences in Mount Kilimanjaro, Tanzania

Kijazi, M.H.^a , Kant, S.^b  

^a  Economics of Aboriginal Land use Activities, Faculty of Forestry, University of Toronto, 33 Willcocks St., Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5S 3B3
^b  Forest Resource Economics and Management, Faculty of Forestry, University of Toronto, 33 Willcocks St., Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5S 3B3

Abstract

The study investigates societal states of forests that are perceived to enhance human and environmental well-being in Mount Kilimanjaro, Tanzania. Villagers, foresters, park employees, entrepreneurs and environmentalists were surveyed. The survey applied a multi-group social choice method, following six steps: (i) identification of all relevant social states for sustainable forest management; (ii) elicitation of preferences, for different social states, of forest user groups' members; (iii) determination of attributes of users and social states; (iv) aggregation of individual forest value preferences into social value preferences; (v) inter-group comparison of preferences; and (vi) estimation of predictors of social forest value preferences. A distinction is made between the household-perspective and the citizen-perspective of evaluations. As well, socio-economic and institutional-legal attributes of stakeholders were tested as predictors of stakeholder preferences. The major findings include the following. First, non-consumptive forest uses, including ecosystem services, were given highest priority by all stakeholders. Second, consumptive values were weighted more discriminately, while non-consumptive values were viewed more holistically. Third, forest dependence and environmental-resource-entitlements lead to more household consumption-based valuations; whereas, the appreciation of diverse forest values increases with the education of people. Fourth, the stakeholders exercise higher consensus on the importance of non-consumptive uses when such values are evaluated in the context of societal needs but not as household needs; consumptive uses registered the opposite effect. This finding signifies the separation between individual-conscience and social-conscience corresponding with the evaluation of consumer needs and societal needs, respectively. Thus, societal allocations, such as biodiversity conservation or ecosystem services, must be based on valuations specifically formulated in the context of eliciting collective social judgments. © 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Glacier loss on Kilimanjaro continues unabated

1. L. G. Thompson^a,^b,¹, 
2. H. H. Brecher^a, 
3. E. Mosley-Thompson^a,^c,
4. D. R. Hardy^d and 
5. B. G. Mark^a,^c

+Author Affiliations

1. ^aByrd Polar Research Center, Ohio State University, 108 Scott Hall, 1090 Carmack Road, Columbus, OH 43210;
2. ^bSchool of Earth Sciences, Ohio State University, 125 South Oval Mall, Columbus, OH 43210;
3. ^cDepartment of Geography, Ohio State University, 154 North Oval Mall, Columbus, OH 43210; and
4. ^dDepartment of Geosciences, University of Massachusetts, 236 Hasbrouck, Amherst, MA 01003

1. Edited by James E. Hansen, Goddard Institute for Space Studies, New York, NY, and approved September 22, 2009 (received for review June 1, 2009)

Abstract

The dramatic loss of Kilimanjaro's ice cover has attracted global attention. The three remaining ice fields on the plateau and the slopes are both shrinking laterally and rapidly thinning. Summit ice cover (areal extent) decreased ≈1% per year from 1912 to 1953 and ≈2.5% per year from 1989 to 2007. Of the ice cover present in 1912, 85% has disappeared and 26% of that present in 2000 is now gone. From 2000 to 2007 thinning (surface lowering) at the summits of the Northern and Southern Ice Fields was ≈1.9 and ≈5.1 m, respectively, which based on ice thicknesses at the summit drill sites in 2000 represents a thinning of ≈3.6% and ≈24%, respectively. Furtwängler Glacier thinned ≈50% at the drill site between 2000 and 2009. Ice volume changes (2000–2007) calculated for two ice fields reveal that nearly equivalent ice volumes are now being lost to thinning and lateral shrinking. The relative importance of different climatological drivers remains an area of active inquiry, yet several points bear consideration. Kilimanjaro's ice loss is contemporaneous with widespread glacier retreat in mid to low latitudes. The Northern Ice Field has persisted at least 11,700 years and survived a widespread drought ≈4,200 years ago that lasted ≈300 years. We present additional evidence that the combination of processes driving the current shrinking and thinning of Kilimanjaro's ice fields is unique within an 11,700-year perspective. If current climatological conditions are sustained, the ice fields atop Kilimanjaro and on its flanks will likely disappear within several decades.

Tourist satisfaction in relation to attractions and implications for conservation in the protected areas of the Northern Circuit, Tanzania

Scopus - Journal of Sustainable Tourism: Tourist satisfaction in relation to attractions and implications for conservation in the protected areas of the Northern Circuit, Tanzania:

Okello

This study assessed tourist satisfaction and its links with tourist attractions and infrastructure at the following six protected areas on the Northern Tourist Circuit of Tanzania: Tarangire National Park, Lake Manyara National Park, Ngorongoro Conservation Area, Serengeti National Park, Arusha National Park, and Mt. Kilimanjaro National Park. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 185 tourists visiting the protected areas. Satisfaction ratings for the Northern Circuit were high, with 86% of tourists willing to be repeat visitors. Tourists were attracted primarily to wildlife viewing. Although most tourists were not influenced to visit the region by indigenous culture or physical features, 81% of tourists noted that non-wildlife attractions enhanced their tourist experience. A range of ways to develop more sustainable forms of tourism emerged from the work, including lengthening stays, guide/driver capacity building, and partnership working with tour operators to improve marketing, increase satisfaction rates, and diversify the product."

Effect of Wildlife Conservation on Local Perceptions of Risk and Behavioral Response

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The Effect of Wildlife Conservation on Local Perceptions of Risk and Behavioral Response

Timothy D. Baird, Paul W. Leslie and J. Terrence McCabe

"In this study, we examine the effect of Tarangire National Park (TNP) on local perceptions of risk and how these perceptions may influence behavioral responses. Data were collected during 2004–2005 through household surveys and participatory risk mapping (PRM) in eight villages east of TNP. By identifying and rank-ordering respondents’ perceived risks, PRM enhances understanding of the nature and variation of risks faced within a population by distinguishing between the incidence and severity of subjective risk perceptions. Results indicate that proximity to the park has a strong effect on the type and severity of perceived risks. Within villages close to the park, however, behavioral response to perceived risks varies considerably. This study contributes to an appreciation of how behavioral response to environmental and socioeconomic factors is mediated by human perception."