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1	Conservation from the Bottom-Up: Human, Financial, and Natural Capital as Determinants of Resilient Livelihoods in Kigoma Rural, Tanzania Fubusa, Yared J. 01 December 2010 (has links) Rhetoric of "community-based conservation" has gained prominence among development specialists and environmentalists, yet such projects are often implemented from the top-down in Africa. This dissertation contends that only a bottom-up approach can foster resilient livelihoods and environmental stewardship. This study focused on determinants of household resilience within a poverty-stricken agricultural community near Gombe Stream National Park (GSNP) in western Tanzania. The research purpose was to explore: 1) relationships between villagers and GSNP management; 2) how groups and individuals view priority livelihood problems and solutions; 3) various attributes of households; and 4) perceived trends for household resilience and how these are related to natural, social, human, and financial capital as per the Sustainable Livelihoods Framework (SLF). A mixed-methods approach provided qualitative and quantitative assessments. Data collection consisted of Rapid Rural Appraisal (RRA), key informant interviews, focus group discussions, and household surveys. The RRA was conducted adjacent to GSNP while other work was implemented over a larger area. Survey data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, chi square, and logistic regression. Regression examined relationships between trends in resilience variables (quality of life or ability to solve problems) versus trends in capital. Results from the RRA indicated high polarization and problems between villagers and GSNP management. A more complex picture, however, emerged from subsequent investigations revealing that the most important issues facing local communities were inadequate public services, ineffective leadership, and development isolation. This situation was exacerbated by population growth, poverty, and environmental decline. Regression results identified lack of income, manual labor, and skills and knowledge as factors undermining household resilience. Other data indicated a need for improving farming systems. In conclusion, while all forms of capital mattered to resilience, human and financial were most lacking. Knowledge of such variation strengthens future applications of the SLF. Practical implications include how an indigenous educational institution, the Gombe School of Environment and Society (GOSESO), could operate in the area. The GOSESO needs to adopt a bottom-up, participatory approach that emphasizes capacity building for poverty reduction and conservation. This could allow for broader goals of economic and cultural vitality, as well as environmental stewardship, to be achieved. Gombe Stream National Park GOSESO Indigenous institutions Participatory methods Poverty reduction Wildlife conservation Sub-Saharan African studies Natural Resources Management and Policy Sustainability
2	Calibration and Interpretation of Holocene Paleoecological Records of Diversity from Lake Tanganyika, East Africa Alin, Simone Rebecca January 2001 (has links) Lake Tanganyika is a complex, tropical ecosystem in East Africa, harboring an estimated 2,100 species. Extensive watershed deforestation threatens the biodiversity and ecological integrity of the lake. In this dissertation, ecological and paleoecological methods were employed to study the distribution of invertebrate biodiversity through space and time, with particular emphasis on linkages between biodiversity and land –use patterns. Ecological surveys of fish, mollusc, and ostracod crustacean diversity at sites in northern Lake Tanganyika representing different levels of watershed disturbance revealed a negative correlation between biodiversity and intensity of watershed disturbance. To elucidate the long -term relationship between disturbance and biodiversity, paleoecological records of invertebrates offshore from watersheds experiencing different degrees of anthropogenic disturbance were examined. Life, death, and fossil assemblages of ostracod valves were compared to assess the reliability and natural variability inherent to the paleoecological record. These comparisons indicated that paleoecological (i.e. death and fossil) assemblages reliably preserve information on species richness, abundance, and occurrence frequency at comparable -to- annual resolution. Unlike life assemblages, species composition of paleoecological assemblages reflects input of species from multiple habitat types. Ostracod paleoecological assemblages are characterized by spatiotemporal averaging that renders them representative of larger areas and longer time spans than life assemblages. Thus, paleoecological assemblages provide an efficient means of characterizing longer -term, site -average conditions. Natural variability in ostracod fossil assemblages from a sediment core representing the Late Glacial to the present indicates that abundance of individual ostracod species is highly variable. Ostracod assemblages were preserved in only the most recent 2,500 years of sediment. Species composition of ostracod assemblages reflects lake water depth. Core geochemical data indicate that the coring site may have been below the oxycline for ~2,000 years, inhibiting ostracod survival and preservation. Paleoecological, sedimentological, and stable isotope data revealed differences in biodiversity and watershed disturbance through time offshore from a pair of sites. The protected site is offshore from Gombe Stream National Park (Tanzania), the other offshore from a deforested watershed outside the park. Offshore from the deforested watershed, sedimentation rates increased, and turnover in ostracod species composition occurred during the past 50 years. Comparable changes were not observed offshore from the park. Africa Arthropoda assemblages biodiversity Cenozoic Chordata cores Crustacea deforestation East Africa East African Lakes ecology ecosystems Gombe Stream National Park habitat Holocene human activity interpretation Invertebrata lake sediments Lake Tanganyika land use Mandibulata Mollusca Ostracoda paleoecology patterns Pisces preservation Quaternary sedimentation rates Tanzania thanatocenoses tropical environment Vertebrata watersheds Geosciences

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Conservation from the Bottom-Up: Human, Financial, and Natural Capital as Determinants of Resilient Livelihoods in Kigoma Rural, Tanzania

Calibration and Interpretation of Holocene Paleoecological Records of Diversity from Lake Tanganyika, East Africa