| 1. |
|
|
| 2. |
- Alavaisha, Edmond, et al.
(författare)
-
Effects of Land Use Change Related to Small-Scale Irrigation Schemes in Kilombero Wetland, Tanzania
- 2021
-
Ingår i: Frontiers in Environmental Science. - : Frontiers Media SA. - 2296-665X. ; 9
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Increasing agricultural land use intensity is one of the major land use/land cover (LULC) changes in wetland ecosystems. LULC changes have major impacts on the environment, livelihoods and nature conservation. In this study, we evaluate the impacts of investments in small-scale irrigation schemes on LULC in relation to regional development in Kilombero Valley, Tanzania. We used Remote Sensing (RS) and Geographical Information System (GIS) techniques together with interviews with Key Informants (KI) and Focus Group Discussion (FGD) with different stakeholders to assess the historical development of irrigation schemes and LULC change at local and regional scales over 3 decades. Overall, LULC differed over time and with spatial scale. The main transformation along irrigation schemes was from grassland and bushland into cultivated land. A similar pattern was also found at the regional valley scale, but here transformations from forest were more common. The rate of expansion of cultivated land was also higher where investments in irrigation infrastructure were made than in the wider valley landscape. While discussing the effects of irrigation and intensification on LULC in the valley, the KI and FGD participants expressed that local investments in intensification and smallholder irrigation may reduce pressure on natural land cover such as forest being transformed into cultivation. Such a pattern of spatially concentrated intensification of land use may provide an opportunity for nature conservation in the valley and likewise contribute positively to increased production and improve livelihoods of smallholder farmers.
|
|
| 3. |
- Ango, Tola Gemechu, et al.
(författare)
-
Balancing Ecosystem Services and Disservices : Smallholder Farmers' Use and Management of Forest and Trees in an Agricultural Landscape in Southwestern Ethiopia
- 2014
-
Ingår i: Ecology and Society. - 1708-3087. ; 19:1
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Farmers' practices in the management of agricultural landscapes influence biodiversity with implications for livelihoods, ecosystem service provision, and biodiversity conservation. In this study, we examined how smallholding farmers in an agriculture-forest mosaic landscape in southwestern Ethiopia manage trees and forests with regard to a few selected ecosystem services and disservices that they highlighted as beneficial or problematic. Qualitative and quantitative data were collected from six villages, located both near and far from forest, using participatory field mapping and semistructured interviews, tree species inventory, focus group discussions, and observation. The study showed that farmers' management practices, i.e., the planting of trees on field boundaries amid their removal from inside arable fields, preservation of trees in semimanaged forest coffee, maintenance of patches of shade coffee fields in the agricultural landscape, and establishment of woodlots with exotic trees result in a restructuring of the forest-agriculture mosaic. In addition, the strategies farmers employed to mitigate crop damage by wild mammals such as baboons and bush pigs, e. g., migration and allocation of migrants on lands along forests, have contributed to a reduction in forest and tree cover in the agricultural landscape. Because farmers' management practices were overall geared toward mitigating the negative impact of disservices and to augment positive services, we conclude that it is important to operationalize ecosystem processes as both services and disservices in studies related to agricultural landscapes.
|
|
| 4. |
- Ango, Tola Gemechu, 1976-, et al.
(författare)
-
Coffee, child labour, and education : Examining a triple social–ecological trade-off in an Afromontane forest landscape
- 2022
-
Ingår i: International Journal of Educational Development. - : Elsevier BV. - 0738-0593 .- 1873-4871. ; 95
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- In biodiversity rich agriculture–forest moasic landscapes in south-western Ethiopia, the production of coffee and food crops, including guarding them from forest-dwelling mammals, requires a high input of labour, which is supplied partly by children. Through field observations and interviews with smallholders, we studied the extent of children’s participation in coffee production and food crop guarding, its impact on school attendance and implications for sustainable development. The findings revealed that the extent of children’s participation in such work is correlated with the level of household’s income and residential location, i.e. near versus far from forests or in coffee versus non-coffee areas. Child labour and school absenteeism linked to coffee production and crop guarding are widespread problems. Some of the measures taken to mitigate the problem of school absenteeism were coercive and posed threats to poor households. The paper concludes that child work in coffee production and crop protection is at the cost of school attendance for many children, which represents a critical social justice issue and a trade-off with the economic and environmental values of the forest. Reducing poverty would likely mitigate the problem of child labour and school absenteeism and promote synergistic development in the region.
|
|
| 5. |
- Ango, Tola Gemechu, 1976-, et al.
(författare)
-
Crop raiding by wild mammals in Ethiopia : impacts on the livelihoods of smallholders in an agriculture-forest mosaic landscape
- 2017
-
Ingår i: Oryx. - 0030-6053 .- 1365-3008. ; 51:3, s. 527-537
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- We assessed the impacts of crop raiding by wild mammals on the livelihoods of smallholding farmers in south-western Ethiopia. Data were generated through participatory field mapping, interviews and focus groups. The results indicated that wild mammals, mainly olive baboons Papio anubis and bush pigs Potamochoerus larvatus, were raiding most crops cultivated in villages close to forests. In addition to the loss of crops, farmers incurred indirect costs in having to guard and cultivate plots far from their residences, sometimes at the expense of their children's schooling. Raiding also undermined farmers’ willingness to invest in modern agricultural technologies. Various coping strategies, including guarding crops and adapting existing local institutions, were insufficient to reduce raiding and its indirect impacts on household economies to tolerable levels, and were undermined by existing policies and government institutions. It is essential to recognize wild mammal pests as a critical ecosystem disservice to farmers, and to identify ways to mitigate their direct and indirect costs, to facilitate local agricultural development and livelihood security, and integrate wildlife conservation and local development more fully in agriculture–forest mosaic landscapes.
|
|
| 6. |
|
|
| 7. |
- Ango, Tola Gemechu, 1976-
(författare)
-
Ecosystem Services and Disservices in an Agriculture–Forest Mosaic : A Study of Forest and Tree Management and Landscape Transformation in Southwestern Ethiopia
- 2016
-
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The intertwined challenges of food insecurity, deforestation, and biodiversity loss remain perennial challenges in Ethiopia, despite increasing policy interventions. This thesis investigates smallholding farmers’ tree- and forest-based livelihoods and management practices, in the context of national development and conservation policies, and examines how these local management practices and policies transform the agriculture–forest mosaic landscapes of southwestern Ethiopia.The thesis is guided by a political ecology perspective, and focuses on an analytical framework of ecosystem services (ESs) and disservices (EDs). It uses a mixed research design with data from participatory field mapping, a tree ‘inventory’, interviews, focus group discussions, population censuses, and analysis of satellite images and aerial photos.The thesis presents four papers. Paper I investigates how smallholding farmers in an agriculture–forest mosaic landscape manage trees and forests in relation to a few selected ESs and EDs that they consider particularly beneficial or problematic. The farmers’ management practices were geared towards mitigating tree- and forest-related EDs such as wild mammal crop raiders, while at the same time augmenting ESs such as shaded coffee production, resulting in a restructuring of the agriculture–forest mosaic. Paper II builds further on the EDs introduced in paper I, to assess the effects of crop raids by forest-dwelling wild mammals on farmers’ livelihoods. The EDs of wild mammals and human–wildlife conflict are shown to constitute a problem that goes well beyond a narrow focus on yield loss. The paper illustrates the broader impacts of crop-raiding wild mammals on local agricultural and livelihood development (e.g. the effects on food security and children’s schooling), and how state forest and wildlife control and related conservation policy undermined farmers’ coping strategies. Paper III examines local forest-based livelihood sources and how smallholders’ access to forests is reduced by state transfer of forestland to private companies for coffee investment. This paper highlights how relatively small land areas appropriated for investment in relatively densely inhabited areas can harm the livelihoods of many farmers, and also negatively affect forest conservation. Paper IV investigates the patterns and drivers of forest cover change from 1958 to 2010. Between 1973 and 2010, 25% of the total forest was lost, and forest cover changes varied both spatially and temporally. State development and conservation policies spanning various political economies (feudal, socialist, and ‘free market-oriented’) directly or indirectly affected local ecosystem use, ecosystem management practices, and migration processes. These factors (policies, local practices, and migration) have thus together shaped the spatial patterns of forest cover change in the last 50 years.The thesis concludes that national development and conservation policies and the associated power relations and inequality have often undermined local livelihood security and forest conservation efforts. It also highlights how a conceptualization of a local ecosystem as a provider of both ESs and EDs can generate an understanding of local practices and decisions that shape development and conservation trajectories in mosaic landscapes. The thesis draws attention to the need to make development and conservation policies relevant and adaptable to local conditions as a means to promote local livelihood and food security, forest and biodiversity conservation, and ESs generated by agricultural mosaic landscapes.
|
|
| 8. |
- Ango, Tola Gemechu, et al.
(författare)
-
Processes of Forest Cover Change since 1958 in the Coffee-Producing Areas of Southwest Ethiopia
- 2020
-
Ingår i: Land. - : MDPI AG. - 2073-445X. ; 9:8
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- We investigated the spatial relations of ecological and social processes to point at how state policies, population density, migration dynamics, topography, and socio-economic values of ‘forest coffee’ together shaped forest cover changes since 1958 in southwest Ethiopia. We used data from aerial photos, Landsat images, digital elevation models, participatory field mapping, interviews, and population censuses. We analyzed population, land cover, and topographic roughness (slope) data at the ‘sub-district’ level, based on a classification of the 30 lowest administrative units of one district into the coffee forest area (n = 17), and highland forest area (n = 13). For state forest sites (n = 6) of the district, we evaluated land cover and slope data. Forest cover declined by 25% between 1973 and 2010, but the changes varied spatially and temporally. Losses of forest cover were significantly higher in highland areas (74%) as compared to coffee areas (14%) and state forest sites (2%), and lower in areas with steeper slopes both in coffee and highland areas. Both in coffee and highland areas, forest cover also declined during 1958–1973. People moved to and converted forests in relatively low population density areas. Altitudinal migration from coffee areas to highland areas contributed to deforestation displacement due to forest maintenance for shade coffee production in coffee areas and forest conversions for annual crop production in highland areas. The most rapid loss of forest cover occurred during 1973–1985, followed by 2001–2010, which overlapped with the implementations of major land and forest policies that created conditions for more deforestation. Our findings highlight how crop ecology and migration have shaped spatial variations of forest cover change across different altitudinal zones whilst development, land, and forest policies and programs have driven the temporal variations of deforestation. Understanding the mechanisms of deforestation and forest maintenance simultaneously and their linkages is necessary for better biodiversity conservation and forest landscape management.
|
|
| 9. |
- Börjeson, Lowe, 1968-
(författare)
-
A History under Siege : Intensive Agriculture in the Mbulu Highlands, Tanzania, 19th Century to the Present
- 2004
-
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This doctoral thesis examines the history of the Iraqw’ar Da/aw area in the Mbulu Highlands of northern Tanzania. Since the late nineteenth century this area has been known for its intensive cultivation, and referred to as an “island” within a matrix of less intensive land use. The conventional explanation for its characteristics has been high population densities resulting from the prevention of expansion by hostility from surrounding pastoral groups, leading to a siegelike situation. Drawing on an intensive programme of interviews, detailed field mapping and studies of aerial photographs, early travellers’ accounts and landscape photographs, this study challenges that explanation. The study concludes that the process of agricultural intensification has largely been its own driving force, based on self-reinforcing processes of change, and not a consequence of land scarcity.
|
|
| 10. |
- Börjeson, Lowe, 1968-
(författare)
-
Agricultural Intensification
- 2010
-
Ingår i: Encyclopedia of Geography. - Thousand Oaks, Calif. : Sage Publications. - 9781412956970
-
Bokkapitel (populärvet., debatt m.m.)
|
|
| 11. |
- Börjeson, Lowe
(författare)
-
Boserup Backwards? Agricultural intensification as ‘its own driving force’ in the Mbulu Highlands, Tanzania
- 2007
-
Ingår i: Geografiska Annaler: Series B, Human Geography. - 0435-3684. ; 89B:3, s. 249-267
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Why do farmers intensify their agricultural practices? Recent revisions of African environmental historiographies have greatly enriched our understanding of human–environmental interactions. To simply point at poor farming practices as the main cause of deforestation, desertification and other processes of land degradation is, for example, no longer possible. The contemporary analytical focus is instead on the complex and often unpredictable set of causal relations between societal, ecological and climatic factors.In the literature on agricultural intensification, conventionally defined driving forces, such as population pressure and market demand, remain important explanatory factors despite a growing body of research that suggests more dynamic scenarios of agricultural development and landscape change. This article reports on a case where the common-sense logic of population pressure theory has dominated the historical narrative of a local process of agricultural intensification among an agro-pastoral people in north-central Tanzania. By way of a ‘detailed participatory landscape analyses’ a more complex and dynamic historical process of intensification is suggested, in which the landscape and the process of agricultural intensification itself are in focus.It is concluded that the accumulation of landesque capital has been incremental in character, and that the process of agricultural intensification in the study area has largely been its own driving force based on self-reinforcing processes of change, and not a consequence of land scarcity and population pressure. This result demonstrates the possibility and usefulness of reversing the Boserupian argument in analyses of agricultural intensification.
|
|
| 12. |
- Börjeson, Lowe, et al.
(författare)
-
Northeast Tanzania's Disappearing Rangelands : Historical Perspectives on Recent Land Use Change
- 2008
-
Ingår i: International Journal of African Historical Studies. - 0361-7882 .- 2326-3016. ; 41:3, s. 523-556
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The article focuses on the historical perspectives on the land use change of rangelands in the northeastern part of Tanzania. It traces the influence of colonial policies and precolonial political economic connection on the rapid land cover transformation on the Maasai Plains. Specifically, the authors present a historical narratives of landscape changes in the northeastern part of the country, focusing on land cover and land use change. It cites several areas in the northeast that were affected by landscape change and how these areas were agriculturally converted. Furthermore, the impact on the alterations in landscape that rooted in the colonial and precolonial history in the region is considered.
|
|
| 13. |
- Börjeson, Lowe, et al.
(författare)
-
Open Access to Rural Landscapes!
- 2014
-
Ingår i: Rural Landscapes. - : Stockholm University Press. - 2002-0104. ; 1:1, s. 1-2
-
Tidskriftsartikel (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The academic study of rural landscapes covers a broad range of academic disciplines and thematic, methodological and theoretical concerns and interests; including questions concerned with resource use (e.g. agriculture, forestry, water and mining), settlement, livelihoods, conflicts, conservation, culture and identity. This diversity is clearly a strength (the rich empirical and intellectual base), but also presents a challenge, as the dissemination of research findings is distributed through a plethora of publishing channels, which do not necessarily encourage exchange of results and ideas that are not already perceived as germane to already established academic networks.
|
|
| 14. |
|
|
| 15. |
- Börjeson, Lowe, 1968-, et al.
(författare)
-
The Production and Destruction of Forests through the Lens of Landesque Capital Accumulation
- 2021
-
Ingår i: Human Ecology. - : Springer. - 0300-7839 .- 1572-9915. ; 49, s. 259-269
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- We discuss the management of trees and forests through the lens of “landesque capital.” A theoretical point of departure is how landesque capital accumulates through a process that relies on both the ‘work of nature’ and the ‘work of people.’ This approach highlights the importance of undertaking a critical analysis of labor investment and its landscape legacies in relation to ecological processes, social dynamics, and political economy. Empirically we draw on the case of small holder production of coffee and annual crops in southwestern Ethiopia. We show how both the production (generation and maintenance) and destruction of forests in the study area are largely shaped by processes of landesque capital accumulation and discuss the importance of analyzing how people contribute to produce forests to meet production goals in contrast to the ubiquitous notion of humans as a solely destructive force of change in forest ecosystems.
|
|
| 16. |
- Börjeson, Lowe, 1968-
(författare)
-
Using a historical map as a baseline in a land-cover change study of northeast Tanzania
- 2009
-
Ingår i: African Journal of Ecology. - Chichester : Wiley-Blackwell. - 0141-6707 .- 1365-2028. ; 47:s1, s. 185-191
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Vegetation data in an early 20th century map from northern Tanzania are presented and discussed for its potential of expanding the analytical time-frame in studies of land-use and land-cover change. The starting point is that much research on land-use and land-cover change suffers from a time-frame bias, caused by limitations in remote sensing data. At the same time, the use of historical maps as a complementary data-set is rather insignificant. Can information in historical maps be used to extend the baseline in land-use and land-cover change studies? The historical context of the vegetation data is evaluated, and as an illustration of its potential for interdisciplinary research on land-cover and ecosystems change, a section of the map is juxtaposed with a recent pollen record specifically addressing the impact of a 'large infrequent disturbance' (LID) event at the end of the 19th century. It is concluded that the vegetation data in the map are not likely to be reflecting an extreme situation due to the LID event. Finally, the historical vegetation data were visually compared with a national 1995 land-cover data set, illustrating the possibility of using the map data as a baseline in land-cover change studies.
|
|
| 17. |
- Caretta, Martina Angela, 1986-
(författare)
-
East African Hydropatriarchies : An analysis of changing waterscapes in smallholder irrigation farming
- 2015
-
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This thesis examines the local waterscapes of two smallholder irrigation farming systems in the dry lands of East African in a context of socio-ecological changes. It focuses on three aspects: institutional arrangements, gender relations and landscape investments. This thesis is based on a reflexive analysis of cross-cultural, cross-language research, particularly focusing on the role of field assistants and interpreters, and on member checking as a method to ensure validity.Flexible irrigation infrastructure in Sibou, Kenya, and Engaruka, Tanzania, allow farmers to shift the course of water and to extend or reduce the area cultivated depending on seasonal rainfall patterns. Water conflicts are avoided through a decentralized common property management system. Water rights are continuously renegotiated depending on water supply. Water is seen as a common good the management of which is guided by mutual understanding to prevent conflicts through participation and shared information about water rights.However, participation in water management is a privilege that is endowed mostly to men. Strict patriarchal norms regulate control over water and practically exclude women from irrigation management. The control over water usage for productive means is a manifestation of masculinity. The same gender bias has emerged in recent decades as men have increased their engagement in agriculture by cultivating crops for sale. Women, because of their subordinated position, cannot take advantage of the recent livelihood diversification. Rather, the cultivation of horticultural products for sale has increased the workload for women who already farm most food crops for family consumption. In addition, they now have to weed and harvest the commercial crops that their husbands sell for profit. This agricultural gender divide is mirrored in men´s and women´s response to increased climate variability. Women intercrop as a risk adverting strategy, while men sow more rounds of crops for sale when the rain allows for it. Additionally, while discursively underestimated by men, women´s assistance is materially fundamental to maintaining of the irrigation infrastructure and to ensuring the soil fertility that makes the cultivation of crops for sale possible.In sum, this thesis highlights the adaptation potentials of contemporary smallholder irrigation systems through local common property regimes that, while not inclusive towards women, avoid conflicts generated by shifting water supply and increased climate variability.To be able to assess the success and viability of irrigation systems, research must be carried out at a local level. By studying how local water management works, how conflicts are adverted through common property regimes and how these systems adapt to socio-ecological changes, this thesis provides insights that are important both for the planning of current irrigation schemes and the rehabilitation or the extension of older systems. By investigating the factors behind the consistent marginalization of women from water management and their subordinated role in agricultural production, this study also cautions against the reproduction of these discriminatory norms in the planning of irrigation projects.
|
|
| 18. |
- Caretta, Martina Angela, et al.
(författare)
-
Labour, climate perceptions and soils in the irrigation systems in Sibou, Kenya & Engaruka, Tanzania
- 2014
-
Rapport (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This booklet presents the results of a 4 years project (2011-2015) by four geographers from the university of Stockholm. This research took place in two small villages: Sibou, Kenya and Engaruka, Tanzania. The overall project looks at three variables: soil, climate and labor. These aspects can give an indication of the type of changes that happened in these irrigation systems and what have been the triggers behind them. In this booklet results are presented according to location and focus on: agricultural practices, women´s and men´s labor tasks, soil and water characteristics, adaptation weather variability and how all of these aspects have changed over time.
|
|
| 19. |
- Caretta, Martina Angela, 1986-, et al.
(författare)
-
Local gender contract and adaptive capacity in smallholder irrigation farming : a case study from the Kenyan drylands
- 2015
-
Ingår i: Gender, Place and Culture. - 0966-369X .- 1360-0524. ; 22:5, s. 644-661
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This article presents the local gender contract of a smallholder irrigation farming community in Sibou, Kenya. Women's role in subsistence farming in Africa has mostly been analyzed through the lens of gender division of labor. In addition to this, we used the concept of ‘local gender contract’ to analyze cultural and material preconditions shaping gender-specific tasks in agricultural production, and consequently, men's and women's different strategies for adapting to climate variability. We show that the introduction of cash crops, as a trigger for negotiating women's and men's roles in the agricultural production, results in a process of gender contract renegotiation, and that families engaged in cash cropping are in the process of shifting from a ‘local resource contract’ to a ‘household income contract.’ Based on our analysis, we argue that a transformation of the local gender contract will have a direct impact on the community's adaptive capacity climate variability. It is, therefore, important to take the negotiation of local gender contracts into account in assessments of farming communities' adaptive capacity.
|
|
| 20. |
- Caretta, Martina Angela, et al.
(författare)
-
Soil management and soil properties in a Kenyan smallholder irrigation system on naturally low-fertile soils
- 2018
-
Ingår i: Applied Geography. - : Elsevier BV. - 0143-6228 .- 1873-7730. ; 90, s. 248-256
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- In this study we examine the impact of soil management practices on soil properties in a landscape with naturally relatively poor soils on and below the dry slopes of a Rift Valley escarpment in Kenya that have been dominated by extensive smallholder investments in canal irrigation over the last 300 years. We show that farmers in the area have been able to keep up agricultural production in the face of growing population. The actual practices of soil management at one moment in time appear to be of minor importance to soil improvement, as indicated by the low correlation between Soil Management Index (SMI) and soil chemical data. However, cultivation triggers a process of slow soil improvement manifested by a positive correlation between nutrient levels and duration of irrigated cultivation and soil management, which likely explains farmers' confidence in soil productivity. However, we also identify sodicity as a risk connected to intensified irrigation in the area. Finally, we stress the need for further studies integrating investigations of local irrigation and soil management with soil and water quality analyses. These will be crucial to shape sustainable place-based and farmer-led solutions for African agricultural growth.
|
|
| 21. |
- Cleaver, Frances, et al.
(författare)
-
Knowing Groundwater : Embodied Encounters with a Lively Resource
- 2023
-
Ingår i: Water Alternatives. - 1965-0175. ; 16:1, s. 171-192
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This paper is concerned with how water prospectors, well diggers, and irrigation farmers come to know groundwater. Drawing on cases from Tanzania and Zimbabwe, the paper shows that much knowledge is derived from the close encounters with groundwater that occur through hard physical work, mediated by the use of lowcost tools and technologies. In this paper we show how this knowledge is embedded in everyday livelihoods, landscapes, and moral ecological rationalities. Through empirical material of such close encounters with groundwater, we make two interrelated points. Firstly, we draw attention to the importance of embodied forms of knowledge in shaping engagements with groundwater. Frequent close physical interactions with groundwater generate rich and intimate understandings of the changing quality and quantity of water flows. These understandings become primary ways in which people in communities know water, which is lively and sometimes invisible. Secondly, we argue that, though apparently mundane, reliant on low-cost technology, and highly localised, these encounters significantly shape broader socio-natural relationships in emerging groundwater economies. Amongst other examples, our data show groundwater prospectors monitoring the depth of borehole drilling in a shared aquifer in an attempt to ensure equitable access for different users. In concluding the paper, we reflect on the extent to which the knowledge and relationships formed through close physical encounters with groundwater have the potential to shape trajectories of groundwater management.
|
|
| 22. |
- de Bont, Chris, 1990-
(författare)
-
Modernisation and farmer-led irrigation development in Africa : A study of state-farmer interactions in Tanzania
- 2018
-
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- After years of relatively low investment, irrigation development in Africa has been put back on the policy agenda as a way of increasing agricultural productivity. In spite of existing evidence of farmers’ irrigation initiatives across the African continent, current policy prescriptions still revolve around (large-scale) state intervention. Farmers’ irrigation initiatives are generally considered traditional, backward, and unable to contribute to the agrarian transformation that many African nations are after.This study aims to problematize this narrow notion of farmers’ irrigation initiatives, and explores how underlying ideas of modernity/modernisation influence irrigation policies and interactions between farmers and the state. Focusing on Tanzania, this thesis consists of an introductory chapter and three separate studies.The first study is a historical analysis of the state’s attitude towards irrigation development and farmers’ irrigation initiatives in Tanzania. It shows how historically, the development narrative of ‘modern’ irrigation as a driver for agricultural transformation has been successful in depoliticizing irrigation interventions and their actual contribution to development.The second study engages with a case where farmers have developed groundwater irrigation. The study analyses how differentiated access to capital leads to different modes of irrigated agricultural production, and shows the variation between and within farmers’ irrigation initiatives. It also illustrates how an irrigation area that does not conform to the traditional/modern policy dichotomy is invisible to the government.The third study concerns a farmer-initiated gravity-fed earthen canal system. It shows how the implementation of a demand-driven irrigation development policy model can (inadvertently), through self-disciplining by farmers and a persistent shared modernisation aspiration, turn a scheme initiated and managed by farmers into a government-managed scheme, without actually improving irrigation practices.Together, these studies show how modernisation thinking has pervaded irrigation development policy and practice in Tanzania, influencing both the state’s and farmers’ actions and attitudes, often to the detriment of farmers’ irrigation initiatives.
|
|
| 23. |
- de Bont, Chris, 1990-, et al.
(författare)
-
Policy Over Practice : A Review of Groundwater Governance Research in Sub-Saharan Africa
- 2024
-
Ingår i: International Journal of the Commons. - 1875-0281. ; 18:1, s. 82-93
-
Forskningsöversikt (refereegranskat)abstract
- Groundwater is increasingly seen as crucial to both agricultural and domestic water supply in sub-Saharan Africa. Citing climate change and growing populations, there is especially a notable shift towards promoting groundwater for irrigation to ensure food security. Increased use of the resource will undoubtedly be accompanied with new questions of governance, with groundwater overexploitation in other parts of the world functioning as a strong cautionary tale. This article provides an overview of the current groundwater governance literature on sub-Saharan Africa. Using a critical water governance lens we analyse how groundwater governance is framed, what terms, categories, and measurements are used to describe and assess groundwater governance, and whose perspectives are considered. We also assess whether groundwater governance research has taken place across sub-Saharan African countries in a balanced way. We find that groundwater governance research in sub-Saharan Africa, even more so than elsewhere, ignores the voices and perspectives of those physically encountering the resource. Instead, it is dominated by the views of formal, technical groundwater experts focusing on the need for more hydrogeological data and formal policies. While the existing contributions to the literature are valuable, the current bias in perspectives calls for others to join the field of groundwater governance and to supplement current conceptualisations and approaches with those of users and others dealing with groundwater management on a daily basis. We argue that groundwater users’ practical governance experiences, locally adapted solutions and knowledges, can add important complementary perspectives and insights towards crafting effective, sustainable and equitable groundwater governance processes across the continent.
|
|
| 24. |
- Haenke, Hendrik, et al.
(författare)
-
Drought tolerant species dominate as rainfall and tree cover returns in the West African Sahel
- 2016
-
Ingår i: Land use policy. - : Elsevier BV. - 0264-8377 .- 1873-5754. ; 59, s. 111-120
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- After the severe droughts in the 1970s and 1980s, and subsequent debates about desertification, analyses of satellite images reveal that the West African Sahel has become greener again. In this paper we report a study on changes in tree cover and tree species composition in three village landscapes in northern Burkina Faso, based on a combination of methods: tree density change detection using aerial photos and satellite images, a tree species inventory including size class distribution analysis, and interviews with local farmers about woody vegetation changes. Our results show a decrease in tree cover in the 1970s followed by an increase since the mid-1980s, a pattern correlating with the temporal trends in rainfall as well as remotely sensed greening in the region. However, both the inventory and interview data shows that the species composition has changed substantially towards a higher dominance of drought-resistant and exotic species. This shift, occurring during a period of increasing annual precipitation, points to the complexity of current landscape changes and questions rain as the sole primary driver of the increase in tree cover. We propose that the observed changes in woody vegetation (densities, species composition and spatial distribution) are mediated by changes in land use, including intensification and promotion of drought tolerant and fast growing species. Our findings, which indicate a rather surprising trajectory of land cover change, highlight the importance of studies that integrate evidence of changes in tree density and species composition to complement our understanding of land use and vegetation change trajectories in the Sahel obtained from satellite images. We conclude that a better understanding of the social-ecological relations and emerging land use trajectories that produce new types of agroforestry parklands in the region is of crucial importance for designing suitable policies for climate change adaptation, biodiversity conservation and the sustainable delivery of ecosystem services that benefit local livelihoods in one of the world's poorest regions.
|
|
| 25. |
|
|
| 26. |
- Holmgren, Karin, et al.
(författare)
-
The vulnerable continent (PLATINA) : Historical perspectives on Africa´s climate, environment and societies
- 2009
-
Ingår i: Meeting global challenges in research cooperation. - Uppsala : Uppsala University. - 9789197574198 ; , s. 585-596
-
Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Our research, based on studies of different climate archives from Tanzania, Mozambique and South Africa, contributes information on changes in climate and vegetation over the past 24000 years. This time perspective, reaching beyond the information available from instrumental records is needed for a better understanding of regional global climate dynamics and issues surrounding environmental change, throughout Africa, and is a prerequisite for increasing climate forecasting capabilities for the region. We argue that African people have vast experience from living in a variable climate and research on past interactions between climate and societies demonstrate the significance of lessons learnt for present situations. Our findings, underline the complex interactions between climate/environment and societies that may lead to different developments in time and space. Considering the so called vulnerable continent, extended investigations of how African communities cope with and adapt to climatically driven changes is needed to increase the capability to realise the potential as well as the limitations, of modern African communities to adapt to future climate change.
|
|
| 27. |
- Kuns, Brian, et al.
(författare)
-
From panic to business as usual : what coronavirus has revealed about migrant labour, agri-food systems and industrial relations in the Nordic countries
- 2023
-
Ingår i: Sociologia Ruralis. - : John Wiley & Sons. - 0038-0199 .- 1467-9523. ; 63:4, s. 907-927
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This article focuses on migrant labour in Nordic agriculture, wild berry picking and food processing. The starting point is the fear of a food crisis at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic (2020) because of the absence of migrant workers. The question was raised early in the pandemic if food systems in the Global North are vulnerable due to dependence on precarious migrant workers. In the light of this question, we assess the reactions of farmers and different actors in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden to what looked like an unfolding food crisis. In many ways, the reactions in the Nordic countries were similar to each other, and to broader reactions in the Global North, and we follow these reactions as they relate to migrant workers from an initial panic to a return to business as usual despite the continuation of the pandemic. In the end, 2020 proved to be an excellent year for Nordic food production in part because migrant workers were able to come. We discuss reasons why the Nordic countries did not face disruptions during the pandemic, map out patterns of labour precarity and segmentation for migrant labour in agriculture and food production in the Nordic countries and propose questions for further research.
|
|
| 28. |
- Mbande, Victor
(författare)
-
Accumulation from Below : Smallholders and public irrigation investments in Kilombero Valley, Tanzania
- 2022
-
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Smallholders in Tanzania and elsewhere in Africa are increasingly differentiated. This thesis contributes to the empirical and conceptual understanding of the differentiation processes in irrigation by following the internal dynamics among smallholders linked to public investments in improving smallholder initiated small scale irrigation schemes in Kilombero district, Tanzania. The aim of the thesis is to examine the role of public investments in irrigation in transforming rural smallholder farmers and how inclusive these investments are likely to be, specifically, in the current context where policies in irrigation are widely focused on poverty reduction among the smallholders. In this thesis I have used data collected from both irrigating and non-irrigating villages in Kilombero district, Tanzania so as to capture overall transformations in the area and how irrigation contributes to agricultural development and differentiation among smallholders. A combination of methods was used in this thesis, these includes participatory wealth rankings, interviews and walking interviews, focus group discussions, questionnaire survey, and remote sensing data. This thesis consists of four papers and an introductory “kappa”. The study mainly problematizes the general conception within agriculture and irrigation policies that smallholders are homogenous and builds on theories of ‘accumulation from above’ and ‘accumulation from below’ to analyse development and differentiation among the smallholders in irrigation. In following processes of accumulation among the smallholders, the study links public investments in smallholders’ small-scale irrigation with the processes of ‘accumulation from below’.Findings of this thesis indicate that public investment in smallholders’ small-scale irrigation builds on pre-existing social differences among the smallholders. In all sub-cases in Kilombero, initial development of irrigation was done by farmers through their own initiatives as a form of a ‘farmer-led’ irrigation development. These developments were mainly traced from the late 1970s to early 1980s, and attracted state investments in lining the canals later in the 1990s onwards. However, it was until the late 1990s to early 2000s where there was increased cultivation in the irrigated areas. The increase went hand in hand with neo-liberalisation of the Tanzanian economy since late 1980s and privatisation of agriculture in the area from 1998. As smallholders were responding to market stimuli and increased productivity in both irrigated and rain-fed cultivation, they became increasingly differentiated. The wealthier farmers were cultivating mostly extensively in relatively larger pieces of land, and the less wealthy farmers were combining cultivation in smaller rain-fed fields and providing labour to other wealthier farmers. Most of the middle wealthy farmers were concentrated in irrigation, and therefore investment in irrigation was clearly benefiting the middle wealthier farmers. The thesis argues that expansion of rice irrigation in Kilombero plays a crucial role in the current agricultural transformations in Kilombero as rice is both a food and commercial crop in the area. In conclusion, the thesis argues that the current investments in smallholders’ small-scale irrigation are fueling processes of ‘accumulation from below’ which are more inclusive as they benefit middle smallholders rather than the large wealthier farmers. These findings points to the importance of focusing on smallholders’ in agriculture and irrigation development for a more inclusive agricultural transformation.
|
|
| 29. |
- Mbande, Victor, 1985-, et al.
(författare)
-
Growing from below : Accumulation and differentiation in publicly supported irrigation schemes in the Kilombero Valley, Tanzania
-
Annan publikation (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- What model of agricultural transformation is most likely to produce the best possible conditions for inclusive growth and increased productivity in Tanzania’s diverse smallholder sector? A response to this question must rely on studies that examine the outcome of local agricultural investments. We notice that there is limited information and studies that specifically examine the role of small-scale public investments in irrigation infrastructure in the country. To address this gap, we have examined the social differentiation and patterns of accumulation in the context of donor-supported public investments in irrigation schemes at sub-village level in the Kilombero Valley, Tanzania. Participatory wealth ranking and interviews carried out indicate that the investment made in small-scale smallholder irrigation has fuelled a process of accumulation from ‘below’, and we discuss how these investments are more likely to contribute to the policy goals of inclusive growth and improved agricultural productivity than the accumulation from ‘above’ model.
|
|
| 30. |
- Nurihun, Biruk Ayalew, et al.
(författare)
-
Using local knowledge to reconstruct climate-mediated changes in disease dynamics and yield – a case study on Arabica coffee in its area of origin
-
Annan publikation (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- While some countries have monitored major crop diseases for several decades or centuries, other countries have very limited historical time series. In such areas, we lack data on long-term patterns and drivers of disease dynamics, which is important for developing climate-resilient disease management strategies. We adopted a novel approach, combining local knowledge, climate data, and spatial field surveys to understand long-term climate-mediated changes in disease dynamics in coffee agroforestry systems. For this, we worked with 58 smallholder farmers in southwestern Ethiopia, the area of origin of Arabica coffee.The majority of farmers perceived an increase in coffee leaf rust and a decrease in coffee berry disease, whereas perceptions of changes in coffee wilt disease and Armillaria root rot were highly variable among farmers. Climate data supported farmers’ understanding on the climatic drivers (increased temperature, less rainy days) of these changes. Temporal disease-climate relationships were matched by spatial disease-climate relationships, as expected with space-for-time substitution.Understanding long-term disease dynamics and yield is crucial to adapt disease management to climate change. Our study demonstrates how to combine local knowledge, climate data and spatial field surveys to reconstruct disease time series and postulate hypotheses for disease-climate relationships in areas where few long-term time-series exist.
|
|
| 31. |
- Nurihun, Biruk Ayalew, 1983-, et al.
(författare)
-
Using local knowledge to reconstruct climate-mediated changes in disease dynamics and yield-A case study on Arabica coffee in its native range
- 2024
-
Ingår i: Plants, People, Planet. - 2572-2611.
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Societal Impact StatementAdapting agriculture to climate change requires an understanding of the long-term relationship between climate, disease dynamics, and yield. While some countries have monitored major crop diseases for decades or centuries, comparable data is scarce or non-existent for many countries that are most vulnerable to climate change. For this, a novel approach was developed to reconstruct climate-mediated changes in disease dynamics and yield. Here, a case study on Arabica coffee in its area of origin demonstrates how to combine local knowledge, climate data, and spatial field surveys to reconstruct disease and yield time series and to postulate and test hypotheses for climate-disease-yield relationships.Summary While some countries have monitored crop diseases for several decades or centuries, other countries have very limited historical time series. In such areas, we lack data on long-term patterns and drivers of disease dynamics, which is important for developing climate-resilient disease management strategies.We adopted a novel approach, combining local knowledge, climate data, and spatial field surveys to understand long-term climate-mediated changes in disease dynamics in coffee agroforestry systems. For this, we worked with 58 smallholder farmers in southwestern Ethiopia, the area of origin of Arabica coffee.The majority of farmers perceived an increase in coffee leaf rust and a decrease in coffee berry disease, whereas perceptions of changes in coffee wilt disease and Armillaria root rot were highly variable among farmers. Climate data supported farmers' understanding of the climatic drivers (increased temperature, less rainy days) of these changes. Temporal disease-climate relationships were matched by spatial disease-climate relationships, as expected with space-for-time substitution.Understanding long-term disease dynamics and yield is crucial to adapt disease management to climate change. Our study demonstrates how to combine local knowledge, climate data and spatial field surveys to reconstruct disease time series and postulate hypotheses for disease-climate relationships in areas where few long-term time series exist.
|
|
| 32. |
- Olsson, Alexander
(författare)
-
Assessing Carbon Dioxide Removal methods amid uncertainty : soil carbon sequestration, biochar and harvested wood products as methods for climate change mitigation
- 2023
-
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Measures to sequester carbon dioxide (CO2) away from the atmosphere have become increasingly important in the discussion of which methods humans can employ to limit global warming. These measures, which are broad and varied, fall under the umbrella of Carbon Dioxide Removal (CDR) methods. CDR methods can be used to reach so-called net-zero targets, since targets are politically determined to allow for CDR methods to compensate for some emissions that are hard to abate.Several CDR methods provide co-benefits in addition to mitigating climate change. They are therefore not pure climate measures. Using an interdisciplinary approach and a methodology including quantitative estimates and interview data, I investigate how some important CDR methods with co-benefits may be assessed and potentially supported by policy. Soil carbon sequestration using solar powered irrigation systems in the drylands of China, biochar-producing cookstoves in Tanzania, and biochar and wood-based panel production using forestry by-products in Sweden are CDR methods that I assess in their local context in this thesis.To increase the ambitions towards reaching the climate goals set out in the Paris Agreement, some countries, such as Sweden, are looking to invest in international mitigation activities. This thesis illustrates that there is a heavy focus on measurable parameters when estimating the outcome of international climate change mitigation activities. However, unmeasurable uncertainties, such as political issues and economic rebound effects, tend to be neglected. These unmeasurable uncertainties are likely to be important and cannot be neglected if international mitigation activities, for example under Article 6 of the Paris Agreement, are to be used to reach net-zero targets.Designing policy instruments that seek to encourage the use of CDR methods with co-benefits based on their ability to store CO2 may cause unintended consequences, such as inefficient use of resources. In addition, many of the co-benefits are not yet supported by scientific studies, which complicates policymaking. Despite often being considered win-win solutions, CDR methods with co-benefits face resistance since they often challenge current practices. In this thesis, I suggest various approaches to manage these uncertainties and challenges.
|
|
| 33. |
- Pas Schrijver, Annemiek, 1985-
(författare)
-
Pastoralists, Mobility and Conservation : Shifting rules of access and control of grazing resources in Kenya's northern drylands
- 2019
-
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Pastoral mobility is seen as the most effective strategy to make use of constantly shifting resources. In northern Kenya, mobile pastoralism as a highly-valued strategy to manage grazing areas and exploit resource variability is becoming more complex. Policy and project implementation has historically been driven by the imperative to secure land tenure and improve pasture in bounded areas through State-led settlement schemes. Relatively recently, increased (inter)national interests in nature and wildlife conservation on community land in the northern pastoralist regions see conservation and development as crucial and urgent requirements for stimulating economic growth and security. This study presents the case of Samburu pastoral mobility within the context of such shifting social and environmental circumstances. It focuses on changing rules of access and control of livestock resources. These transformations are analysed in the context of the large-scale establishment of community conservancies and what role these conservancies play in the actual use and transformation of space for pastoralists. Empirically, this thesis is based on a total of eighteen months fieldwork including semi-structured interviews and observations in Samburu, Isiolo and Laikipia. It demonstrates how the principal of reciprocal access to pasture between pastoralists is giving way to conditional access based on membership of more formal, territory-based institutions such as community conservancies. It further shows how access to private land may be open for negotiation through the formation of grazing arrangements, which are also used to control pastoralists’ movements beyond enclosed land. In spite of a rhetoric acknowledging the multiple benefits of livestock mobility, current policy entails a continuation of past policy and project implementation where prescriptions still revolve around conservation enclosures and settlement politics. The thesis concludes that such processes of territoriality are likely to produce unexpected and potentially disappointing outcomes, while struggle and conflict persist.
|
|
| 34. |
- Pauline, Noah M., et al.
(författare)
-
The Scaling Down of SAGCOT Public Private Partnerships : From Large-Scale Blueprint Ideals to Small-Scale Pragmatism
- 2023
-
Ingår i: The African Review. - 0856-0056 .- 1821-889X. ; , s. 1-25
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This study analyses SAGCOT’s public-private partnership policy, which anticipated attracting external investors in large-scale nucleus farms to commercialise smallholder farmers. Data were collected from a review of SAGCOT policy documents, a compilation of SAGCOT registered partners and qualitative interview data collected from private companies, government officials, farmers and outgrower associations. The majority of SAGCOT registered commercial partners are small- to medium-scale and most of them were already operating in the area before SAGCOT was established. We conclude that the SAGCOT investment strategy, in practice, has been linked to small- to medium-scale operations and also mainly to already existing enterprises, which stand in contrast to the initially envisioned model of attracting new large-scale farming enterprises to the region. We argue that there is a need for SAGCOT and policy makers to learn from this dissonance between initial policy ambition and actual outcomes of SAGCOT public-private partnerships.
|
|
| 35. |
- Porsani, Juliana, et al.
(författare)
-
Enriching perspectives : experienced ecosystem services in rural Mozambique and the importance of a gendered livelihood approach to resist reductionist analyses of local culture
- 2020
-
Ingår i: Ecology and Society. - : Resilience Alliance Publications. - 1708-3087. ; 25:4
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Based on a case study from rural Mozambique, we stress that ecosystem services research may be enriched through gendered livelihood approaches, particularly in terms of experienced ecosystem services. Ecosystem services studies have been accused of being gender blind. We argue for the value of open narratives that are attentive to the gender dynamics underpinning the production and reproduction of livelihoods. By focusing on the experienced gender dimension of ecosystem services, livelihood perspectives fulfill the normative role of providing a people-centered means to assess the values of the environment “from below” and can therefore constitute an entry point to a holistic understanding of by whom, how, when, and why the environment is experienced as valuable. Our findings stress the dynamism and plurality of experienced ecosystem services (i.e., they vary across groups and time and cross-cut material and immaterial dimensions), as well as the asymmetrical gendered and fundamentally cultural relations that they enable. Accounting for the experienced gender dimension of ecosystem services is critical to contextualize the environment in people’s lifeworlds and to make understandings of ecosystem services representative of, and instrumental to, people’s voices and agendas. We show how such enriched, diverse, bottom-up ecosystem services perspectives form an essential foundation (together with ecological research) for resisting applications of reductionist top-down categories assumed to represent general local values.
|
|
| 36. |
- Porsani, Juliana, et al.
(författare)
-
Land Concessions and Rural Livelihoods in Mozambique : The Gap Between Anticipated and Real Benefits of a Chinese Investment in the Limpopo Valley
- 2017
-
Ingår i: Journal of Southern African Studies. - : Routledge. - 0305-7070 .- 1465-3893. ; 43:6, s. 1181-1198
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- In rural Mozambique, as in other African countries, large-scale land acquisitions are on the rise. This process is usually portrayed by host governments and investors as comprising win–win deals that can simultaneously boost agricultural productivity and combat poverty. This article focuses on one such investment, a large-scale Chinese land acquisition in the lower Limpopo valley, where attempts to modernise agriculture have occurred since colonial times. Based on an analysis of primary quantitative and qualitative data, this study explores livelihoods in the targeted area and local experiences and views regarding land loss and its implications. Our findings reveal a top-down process enabled by disregard for sound legislation, whereby land dispossession was followed by ‘take-it-or-leave-it’ opportunities that were unsuited to the most land-dependent livelihoods, particularly those of single-headed households. As the modernisation of the region is once again attempted through the promotion of large-scale agriculture, important historical continuities prevail. This study adds critical evidence to the discussion on the local development potential of land deals in Mozambique and other areas marked by similar democratic deficits.
|
|
| 37. |
- Porsani, Juliana
(författare)
-
Livelihood Implications of Large-Scale Land Concessions in Mozambique : A case of family farmers’ endurance
- 2020
-
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This thesis examines the process and the implications of large-scale land acquisitions (LSLAs) for local livelihoods, especially the livelihoods of those who make a living from farming. These individuals were historically known as peasants and are now more commonly referred to as smallholders, small-scale farmers or family farmers. What happens to their livelihoods as land under their control is allocated to investors?Promoters of LSLAs stress that when land acquisitions are preceded by community consultations, there may be synergism between investors’ activities and local livelihoods. Accordingly, local farmers are expected to gain from, for example, closer ties to the market and new livelihood alternatives such as formal employment. Differently, critical voices contend that despite sound legislation on the matter, in practice LSLAs constitute drivers of dispossession, being therefore disguised land grabs. This research seeks to fill a knowledge gap on the immediate local livelihood implications of LSLAs. By employing a case study design in Mozambique (one of the countries targeted by recent LSLAs), this thesis adds empirical evidence that is crucial to the above-named theoretical debate involving LSLAs.The analyzed case is pivoted by a Chinese company that in 2012 was granted 20,000 hectares in the lower Limpopo region. Despite legislation that asserts the legality of customary land occupation, in practice, land was seized without adequate consultation and compensation. Consequently, local farmers lost the most fertile areas. Nonetheless, farmers were able to regain or maintain access to farmland that was more peripheral and of worse quality. Concomitantly, the company generated a small number of jobs and created a contract farming scheme that, despite bottlenecks, benefited farmers who were able to handle risk. In general, families who lost land and those who entered the contract farming scheme strive to keep a foothold on farmland – a strategy that is partly explained by the economic rationale of seeking to meet the consumption needs of current and future generations. Additionally, family land is embedded with symbolic value (illustrated, for example, by individuals’ relations with ancestors buried in family land). The existence of symbolic and thus immaterial values that land embodies poses insurmountable challenges to the idea that it is possible to achieve fair compensation for the loss of land and the environment in general.This study shows the renewed pressure (now through the hands of private actors backed by public efforts) placed on family farmers, derived livelihood trends (i.e., the overall precarization of family farming, the widening of economic inequality, and the feminization of poverty), and family farmers’ continuous endurance. Ultimately, this study illustrates local processes and livelihood implications of LSLAs in Mozambique, and likely also in contexts marked by similar democratic deficits and renewed incursions over valuable land that is intensively used.
|
|
| 38. |
- Sinare, Hanna, 1985-
(författare)
-
Benefits from ecosystem services in Sahelian village landscapes
- 2016
-
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Rural people in the Sahel derive multiple benefits from local ecosystem services on a daily basis. At the same time, a large proportion of the population lives in multidimensional poverty. The global sustainability challenge is thus manifested in its one extreme here, with a strong need to improve human well-being without degrading the landscapes that people depend on. To address this challenge, knowledge on how local people interact with their landscapes, and how this changes over time, must be improved. An ecosystem services approach, focusing on benefits to people from ecosystem processes, is useful in this context. However, methods for assessing ecosystem services that include local knowledge while addressing a scale relevant for development interventions are lacking.In this thesis, such methods are developed to study Sahelian landscapes through an ecosystem services lens. The thesis is focused on village landscapes and is based on in-depth fieldwork in six villages in northern Burkina Faso. In these villages, participatory methods were used to identify social-ecological patches (landscape units that correspond with local descriptions of landscapes, characterized by a combination of land use, land cover and topography), the provisioning ecosystem services generated in each social-ecological patch, and the benefits from ecosystem services to livelihoods (Paper I). In Paper II, change in cover of social-ecological patches mapped on aerial photographs and satellite images from the period 1952-2016 was combined with population data and focus group discussions to evaluate change in generation of ecosystem services over time. In Paper III, up-scaling of the village scale assessment to provincial scale was done through the development of a classification method to identify social-ecological patches on medium-resolution satellite images. Paper IV addresses the whole Sudano-Sahelian climate zone of West Africa, to analyze woody vegetation as a key component for ecosystem services generation in the landscape. It is based on a systematic review of which provisioning and regulating ecosystem services are documented from trees and shrubs on agricultural lands in the region.Social-ecological patches and associated sets of ecosystem services are very similar in all studied villages across the two regions. Most social-ecological patches generate multiple ecosystem services with multiple benefits, illustrating a multifunctional landscape (Paper I). The social-ecological patches and ecosystem services are confirmed at province level in both regions, and the dominant social-ecological patches can be mapped with high accuracy on medium-resolution satellite images (Paper III). The potential generation of cultivated crops has more or less kept up with population growth in the villages, while the potential for other ecosystem services, particularly firewood, has decreased per capita (Paper II). Trees and shrubs contribute with multiple ecosystem services, but their landscape effects, especially on regulating ecosystem services, must be better studied (Paper IV). The thesis provides new insights about the complex and multi-functional landscapes of rural Sahel, nuancing dominating narratives on environmental change in the region. It also provides new methods that include local knowledge in ecosystem services assessments, which can be up-scaled to scales relevant for development interventions, and used to analyze changes in ecosystem services over time.
|
|
| 39. |
|
|
| 40. |
- Sinare, Hanna, 1985-, et al.
(författare)
-
Ecosystem services in Sahelian village landscapes 1952-2016 : estimating change in a data scarce region
- 2022
-
Ingår i: Ecology and Society. - 1708-3087. ; 27:3
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Burkina Faso and the wider Sahel region have experienced substantial changes in rainfall, population, and landscape use. These changes have altered ecosystem services, the benefits that people receive from ecosystems, and rural livelihoods. However, it is difficult to assess the magnitude of these changes because of missing and fragmented social, agricultural, and ecological data. We estimated changes in 10 key provisioning ecosystem services in rural Burkina Faso between 1952 and 2016. We used a simple model of plausible social-ecological changes to make a historical extrapolation that bridges these data gaps, and assessed historical changes. Our approach combined the interpretation of historic aerial photographs and satellite images, with field observations and interviews. We applied the approach for six villages in two administrative regions for six points in time. We modeled the use of historic ecosystems by analyzing a range of estimates of changes in the generation of each service and its value to people. We found that cultivated ecosystem services have increased 1.5–23 times over the study period, while the non-cultivated ecosystem services firewood, construction material, and medicine have decreased to 66–20% of their previous values. Per capita production of cultivated ecosystem services has remained relatively stable, while the per capita production of all other ecosystem services has decreased, to 54–11% of their 1952 values. Although alternatives are available for some ecosystem services, such as medicine and construction material, there are currently limited alternatives available for other services, such as firewood. Decline in wild food availability and consumption is likely to reduce the nutritional value of rural people’s food. Our analysis of changes demonstrates that shrubs and trees on fields generate many ecosystem services that are key to rural livelihoods, and that efforts to enhance crop yields should maintain shrubs and trees. Our approach for estimating historical ecosystem services may also be useful to apply in other data scarce regions.
|
|
| 41. |
- Westerberg, Lars-Ove, et al.
(författare)
-
The development of the ancient irrigation system at Engaruka, northern Tanzania : Physical and societal factors
- 2010
-
Ingår i: Geographical Journal. - : Wiley. - 0016-7398 .- 1475-4959. ; 176:4, s. 304-318
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Climate data from Empakaai Crater in northern Tanzania, covering the last 1200 years, are related to the establishment, development and decline of the ancient irrigation system at Engaruka. New dates for the system are linked to reconstructed climatic variations and historical data on long-distance and regional trade and migration patterns. A shift from a comparatively humid climate to drier conditions in the 1400s prompted the establishment of irrigated agriculture at Engaruka, and a flourishing long-distance trade increased its value as a water and food source for passing caravans. Once established, the land-use system at Engaruka was sufficiently resilient to survive and even intensify during much drier climate from c. 1500 to 1670 CE (Common Era) and during the decline of caravan trade between c. 1550 and 1750. The ancient land-use system probably reached its maximum extension during the humid conditions between 1670 and 1740, and was deserted in the early to mid 1800s, presumably as a result of the added effects of climate deterioration, the Maasai expansion, and change of livelihood strategies as agriculturalists became pastoralists. Towards the end of the 1800s irrigated agriculture was again established at Engaruka, in part driven by the transfer from pastoral to agricultural livelihoods caused by the Rinderpest.
|
|
| 42. |
- Widgren, Mats, 1948-, et al.
(författare)
-
Introduction: Historical and Regional Perspectives on Landscape Transformations in Northeastern Tanzania, 1850-2000
- 2008
-
Ingår i: International Journal of African Historical Studies. - Boston : African Studies Centre. - 0361-7882 .- 2326-3016. ; 41:3, s. 369-382
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The article focuses on the historical and regional views on landscape shift in northeastern Tanzania from 1850-2000. It highlights several perspectives on the impact of landscape transformation towards the social relation in the northeastern part of the country. Specifically, it discusses how regional historical method to land cover changes offers an analytical field to bridge social gap. It primarily considers the perspectives of a group of scholars, centering on their views on human-environmental relationships and political economy. In addition, it explores the history and spatial interactions in the region, regarding as well the economic determinants of land use.
|
|
| 43. |
|
|
| 44. |
- Årlin, Camilla, et al.
(författare)
-
Participatory Checking and the Temporality of Landscapes : Increasing Trust and Relevance in Qualitative Research
- 2015
-
Ingår i: The Oxford Handbook of Historical Ecology and Applied Archaeology. - Oxford : Oxford University Press. - 9780199672691
-
Bokkapitel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Developmental narratives are commonly constructed through statements on directions and drivers of ongoing change. In the process, however, heterogeneous realities and historical trajectories become manicured and truncated due to temporal short-sightedness, misinformation, and the creation of clear-cut categorizations. Based on historical, geographical, and anthropological research on landscape change in East Africa from the nineteenth century to the present, this chapter examines how different types of historical data sources (maps, photographs, remote sensing data, written and oral accounts, as well as the landscape itself) can be used to both interrogate and improve the rigour of narratives that frame concerns for development and conservation. We describe methods of interaction with members of the researched communities over these various data bodies, and summarize this process as ‘participatory checking’. While the focus of this chapter is on landscape change the participatory research methods described are equally relevant to other topics and disciplines.
|
|
