Recreational SCUBA diving has grown tremendously along most of the southern Mozambican coastline in the last eight years. This growth was not accompanied with management actions, largely due to a lack of baseline information and appropriate regulations. A number of aspects of the industry were thus covered in this study to redress this shortfall. Information was collected on divers and diving pressure in southern Mozambique using questionnaires and dive log sheets distributed through local dive centres. The diving pressure was estimated at 42 500 dives in 2001 and 62 000 dives in 2002, and occurs at about 20 dive sites. More than 50% of the diving occurs on five reefs, three of which were included in the study. Surveys using visual techniques were conducted on six reefs subjected to different diving pressures, ranging from minimal ( 6 000 dives.year-I). Divers visiting southern Mozambique were found to be mostly educated South African males in their 30s. They are experienced and committed divers, satisfied with their diving experiences in the area and sensitive to reef conservation issues. The reefs differed in benthic composition, with three mam reef groups identified through multivariate analysis. All were typified by prolific soft corals but one included an abundance of branching Acropora and the other an abundance of foliose hard corals, thus differentiating the three groups. Reef fish communities also differed among the reefs. While prey species diversity was generally similar on all the reefs, two included high densities of piscivorous species. The present levels of SCUBA diving appeared to be having no deleterious effects on the reef communities, especially when compared to other disturbances such as storms and fishing. The sustainable diving capacity was estimated to be 7000 dives/year/dive site. The overall effects of recreational diving activities in southern Mozambique are discussed, along with future research needs and the management implications of the study. / Thesis (M.Sc.)-University of Natal, Durban, 2003.

Most of the arable land in the lowlands of Lesotho including Maputsoe is under infrastructural development of residential settlements, large scale industries, roads and slum settlements which includes shacks and roadside spaza shops. These settlements have large human populations that derive their livelihood through wide range of activities. These activities comprised of subsistence agriculture in the form of crop production, livestock and vegetable production, formal work in both primary and secondary labour market, informal work such as niche markets in the service sector, petty commodity production and others. This thesis attempts to shed light on the impact of urban development on household livelihood strategies in the lowlands of Lesotho with specific focus to Maputsoe town. Although literature review indicates livelihood and urbanisation as two broad subjects that need special research on their own, the aim of this research focuses on impact of urbanisation on livelihood strategies. To achieve this the study looks at the activities entitled to households to generate livelihood as well as social and economic characteristics determining household livelihood strategies. To determine whether urban development has an effect to household livelihood strategies, the study compares household livelihood strategies in urban household sample (Maputsoe) to rural household sample (Fobane). The basis for choosing these two settlements was based on the understanding that household perceptions and opinions on impact of urbanisation on livelihoods will be different since Maputsoe is located in urban and Fobane in the rural area. To gather household perceptions, survey was conducted in both urban and rural area. Survey questions were formulated so as to determine factors affecting livelihood strategies as well as activities entitled to households to generate livelihood strategies. The analysis of results suggests three mam points influencing household livelihood strategies (they include household characteristics and social structure among both urban and rural households in the sample. They further include opportunities to employment among urban and rural households in a sample as well household assets among both urban and rural households. They show that both two samples are liable to less diverse livelihood strategies but due to conducieve environment favouring urban location. Maputsoe narrowly has more livelihood strategies per household than did Fobane. The results further prove the contention that urban development is likely to affect household livelihood strategies negatively or positively. / Thesis (M.Sc.)-University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2001.

This dissertation describes the design, development and formative evaluation of an educational adventure game entitled Food for Thought to address student misconceptions in genetics within the context of a development research paradigm, and reflects on the lessons learnt during the process. The current investigation was a response to an assessment of learning misconceptions in genetics. Several factors were identified as contributing to these problems with a focus on the abstract nature of the subject and the decontextualised manner in which students encounter these concepts. The tenacity of the problem suggested the need for of a novel intervention. A constructivist concept of learning emphasises active learners internally constructing their own meaning in rich complex environments. While not a theory of teaching, it offers a number of principles to guide the design of learning environments. Elements from computer based adventure games embody aspects of these principles and offer possibilities of developing a tool to address student misconceptions. Here, learners may explore biological concepts as they engage in contextual problems embedded in the narrative structure of a detailed and immersive virtual world. The implementation of the design was guided by a number of conceptual models, namely the Game Object Model (GOM) and Game Achievement Model (GAM) which clarify the relationship between pedagogical principles and game design elements. The identification of specific learning misconceptions provided the basis for developing a set of learning objectives for the game which were used as a foundation for the design of the environment, which was then created using a combination of commercial and proprietary 3D graphic and image editing software. Both the GAM and GOM are effective tools for categorizing a variety of different components in a very complex development. A formative evaluation of the game was undertaken probing both expert and user (student) responses through post-gameplay questionnaires and interviews. The game was favourably received, with feedback and suggestions on improvements. Most notable was the need for greater guidance in the game environment. In addition Activity theory was employed as framework of analysis. Activity systems for both players and the designer were developed and contradictions within and between them analysed. These were used to modify the original designer activity system and in so doing refine the practice of game design in the context of the development research paradigm. / Thesis (M.Sc.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Westville, 2008.

This thesis reports on the findings of a three year study on the economIc aspects of the woodcarving industry in Kenya. Woodcarving provides one of the most important uses of wood in Kenya both in terms of economic returns (export value estimated at US$ 20 million annually) and generation of self-employment opportunities (60,000 carvers and estimated 350,000 dependants). The industry is facing an imminent collapse owing to the depletion of prime carving tree species which has supported it since 1919. The key objectives of the study were; (a) To quantify the diversity of species in trade (volumes) and their pricing trends both for the raw materials and products (carvings); (b) determination of profit margins that accrue from carving activities and prices of these species for alternative uses; (c) to look into the possibility of onfarm production of fast growing species (Azadirachta indica) for carving, as well as Brachylaena huillensis . Each of these was pursued mainly through field surveys at seven main areas where carving is carried out in Kenya. The annual carving volume consumed in Kenya is in excess of 15,000 cubic metres concentrated on about ten tree species. However about 57% of this volume is contributed by Brachylaena huillensis. Diameter profiles of logs of the carving wood is dominated by 10-16 cm diameter timber which is an indication of resource scarcity where juvenile trees are increasingly being targeted. The prices of carving wood are distorted and are far helow the market prices largely due to the prevalence of illegal sourcing from state forests. The study has estimated that the stumpage level for Brachylaena huillensis should be raised from Ksh 4 053 to Ksh 12 000 per m3 if control on the current level of depletion is to be ensured. For the other species, the current stumpage levels need to be raised three fold. The weaknesses of the existing policies and legislation governing the access to carving wood have been examined and appropriate recommendations have been given. However, as a long term measure to benefit the carvers and conservation of the last remaining East African forests, changing buyer and carving wood sourcing behaviour from unsustainable felling of slow growing hardwoods to sustainable on-farm production is discussed. The study demonstrates that Azadirachta indica can attain a carvable size with a dbh of 16 cm in 17 years. The study has also established that potential profits (revenue) which can accrue from carvings made per unit wood volume (one cubic metre of wood or equivalent to about 20 logs of I.Sm long, 20cm diameter) can be as high as Ksh 270,000 within a period of four months. This is about four times the unit value of sawn timber of some of the finest hardwoods in the Kenyan market. The study therefore calls for restrictions on the utilization of these prime carving species on uses other than carving. / Thesis (M.Sc.)-University of Natal, Durban, 2001.

This thesis explores gambling as a leisure activity and consumption experience. Casino development in South Africa - formerly illegal in the country - is occurring at an unprecedented rate. In 1996. the new democratic Govemment passed legislation to allow up to forty casinos to be developed throughout South Africa. This was viewed as a means of developing tourism as well as the input of revenue into the country's economy. South Africa's gambling industry is now similar to that of the United States and Australia. Starting with remotely situated casinos, accessible primarily to upper income clientele, legislation has softened to allow for the licensing of casinos within the major urban areas of this country. This has led to casino gambling being accessible to thousands of people, those who can afford to indulge in this leisure activity and those who cannot. This thesis explores the engineering of space to create an atmosphere of compulsion, and the response of communities given access, for the first time, to casino gambling close to home. The second legal casino in KwaZulu-Natal, the "SugarMill Casino", opened on 2 February 2001, on a temporary site in Mount Edgccombe, north of Durban, adjacent to the predominantly Indian suburb of Phoenix. Phoenix was planned and developed in 1976, as a residential area for the low-income Indian population. Therefore, the location of this casino has been subject 10 much criticism. This study looks at the symbolic economy of the SugarMill casino in terms of the symbols used in marketing the casino as well as its architectural symbolism. The symbolic economy of the casino uses locally based ' cultural capital ' to create a space of compulsion, through space planning and marketing campaigns. Although the casino has only being in operation for a short time, an important aim of this thesis is to determine whether these strategies are working and why. The perceptions and attitudes of Phoenix residents towards the casino, their use of and expenditure at the facility as well as the creation of problem or compulsive gamblers are explored. The importance of gambling in relation to other leisure activities is also assessed. The findings of this study suggest that the architectural theme and symbols as well as the marketing campaigns employed by the SugarMill casino have been successful in attracting gamblers to the casino because the majority of respondents have visited the casino and gambled there. Whilst gambling is not the main leisure activity that respondents engage in, it is certainly a significant form of leisure since forty-eight percent of the sample cited gambling as their main leisure activity. Reasons for this vary but contribut ing factors include the accessibility of the casino in close proximity to their homes as well as the general lack of a variety of recreational alternatives in Phoenix. / Thesis (M.Sc.)-University of Natal, Durban, 2001.

This study was carried out to investigate different aspects of the epidemiology of the common intestinal protozoan infections in children in KwaZulu-Natal. The main aspects studied were to: i . monitor changes in the prevalence and intensity of the common intestinal protozoons in children after receiving antihelmintic drugs, ii. determine whether environmental and/or socio-economic factors are important in the prevalence of the common intestinal protozoons, iii. determine the occurrence of Cryptosporidium parvum in stool samples of paediatric patients with gastroenteritis and in healthy school children. Intestinal protowan species often co-occur with intestinal nematodes in infected children and it is important to determine the effect that anti-nematode treatment has on concomitant protozoan infections. The study included the analysis of stool samples by the Formol-Ether Concentration Technique, exam ination of the obtained sediments for intestinal helminths and protozoan species, and treatment of nematode-infected individuals. Four surveys were carried out to determine the prevalence and intensity of intestinal protozoons in school children before and after anthelmintic chemotherapy, and the X(2) test was used to determine significant changes. Prevalences and intensities of helminths were determined for significant changes after treatment using the Student's t-test. Additional pre- and post-treatment prevalence data were obtained from four schools in Health Region A of KwaZulu-Natal. The prevalence of Ascaris lumbricoides decreased significantly from 75.2% to 9.7% after the first treatment, that of Trichuris trichiura decreased from 77.7% to 62. 1%, and hookworm infections (presumably Necator americanus) dropped fromI2.7% to 1.0% and remained very low for the rest of the study. Very few individuals were infected with protozoan species and for statistical analysis, these were combined. The prevalence of protozoan infections increased from 33.0% to 50.3% after the first treatment and from 35% to 42% after the second treatment. The prevalence of A. lumbricoides decreased significantly again after the second treatment while there was no significant decrease in the prevalence of T. trichiura. The intensities (number of eggs/gram of feaces) of the three nematodes also decreased significantly after the two treatments. It is recommended that children who have been treated for nematode infections should also be examined for protozoan infections, and these should also be treated accordingly. A retrospective analysis of protozoon prevalence data from different surveys in KwaZulu-Natal was done in order to detennine the importance of environmental and/or socio-economic factors in the distribution of intestinal protozoons. These data were plotted on the map of KwaZulu-Natal using Geographic Information System (GIS). Univariate analysis was carried out to determine significant correlations between the prevalences of protozoan species and selected variables. The significant correlations obtained were moderate and no strong correlations were obtained. Univariate stepwise regression analysis was performed to determine the factors that combine best in facilitating the transmission of protozoan species and significant associations were obtained between the prevalence of protozoon species and a combination of environmental and socio-economic factors. In most cases, the association between prevalence and mid-summer temperature and rainfall were the most significant. This is an indication of increased summer transmission. Altitude was significantly correlated only with the prevalence of Endolimax nana. The fact that moderate correlations were obtained between prevalence of intestinal protozoons and climatic and socio-economic factors indicates that these factors are important in the distribution of the common intestinal protozoons. However, lack of strong correlations suggests that in addition to climatic and socio-economic factors, there are other factors that have an effect on the distribution of intestinal protozoan species. In the multivariate analysis where the variables were simultaneously considered, the presence of electricity was the only factor that was significantly associated with the variation seen in the prevalence of intestinal protozoons in the different study locations. Cryplosporidium parvum is a parasitic protozoon that is associated with severe fatal diarrhoea in children and immunocompromised individuals. Oocysts of this parasite were found in 18.2% of stool samples collected from children (aged 6 to 48 months) who were admitted in the paediatric wards at King Edward VIII Hospital, Durban. The stool samples were firstly concentrated using the Formal-ether method and the obtained sediment was mixed with the Sheather's Sucrose solution and examined microscopically. No oocysts were found in stool samples collected from older primary school children. Although the diarrhoea in these children might have also been due to other causes, the results obtained further show the importance of C. parvum as a cause of diarrhoea in children below the age of five years. Knowledge of the epidemiology of C. parvum is crucial in the control of this parasite as there is currently no effective treatment. More intensive surveys are needed in detennining the epidemiology of this pathogen in the South African population. / Thesis (M.Sc.)-University of Natal, Durban, 2001.

The relationship between protected areas and the surrounding communities is important in enhancing the success of both parties. The aim of this study was to examine the socio-economic impacts of tourism on poor rural communities adjacent to the Hluhluwe-Umfolozi Park with specific reference to Mpembeni community. Triangulation (a multi method approach) was used to find out attitudes and perceptions of the communities towards tourists, resources within the park as well as the role of communities in the development and promotion of tourism in the park. The study of the Mpembeni Community adjacent to the Hluhluwe-Umfolozi Park (HUP) shows that this community benefits in various ways. Accessibility to natural resources such as meat, grass, firewood and water was cited as one of the benefits. Participation in the operation and management of the park was yet another benefit that was identified. In addition, the results show that a range of opportunities for positive interactions with park's management/staff include job opportunities, good working relations and joint problem solving. Tourism development as a benefit was revealed through two specified areas namely interaction with the tourists as well as the desire to have more tourists visiting the community and the establishment of other tourist facilities in the community. The respondents also cited opportunities for tourism and related incomes, which involve the sale of handicraft products, job opportunities and cultural activities. Furthermore, education/ training programmes particularly children wildlife camps, capacity building and the training of tour community guides were also cited. In addition, natural resource management including the establishment of the Community Conservation Game Reserve (CCGR) and participation in decision-making were also identified as speci fic benefits. The socio-economic impacts in all the identified specified areas except with participation in the management of the park where local communities are not fully involved were positive. This suggests that there is a need to involve local communities in the operation and management of the park as well as other community-based tourism ventures in order to uplift their standards of living. KEY TERMS: socio-economic. impacts, tourism, poor rural communities / Theses (M.A.)-University of Durban-Westville, 2001.

There is an increasing recognition that conservation projects need to provide tangible benefits to the communities involved in them. In Africa a common method of providing economic benefits to communities is to sell the right to hunt wildlife in conservation areas. The Makasa Nature Reserve is a joint project between a conservation body and a community. The reserve is a conservation project that aims to provide economic benefits to the community involved. There are a number of possible income generating strategies for the Makasa Nature Reserve. This study is an examination of the revenue that the reserve could generate from game hunting. There are a number of wildlife species on the reserve that can be hunted but buffalo are the most attractive to hunters and the most lucrative for the reserve. In order to determine the number of buffalo that can be harvested a two-stage approach was used. Firstly, a deterministic mathematical model of the buffalo population was developed in the study. This model was used to establish age structures of the buffalo population which will maximise a given objective function. An age structure that has a harvest level that will maximise the revenue of the reserve was selected as being the most appropriate for the buffalo population at Makasa. In the second stage a stochastic model of the buffalo population was developed which incorporated environmental and demographic stochasticity. A management policy for the buffalo population, which was based on the age structure that maximises revenue, was developed. The stochastic model was used to aid the development of the management policy and to determine the average harvesting rate of buffalo from the Makasa reserve. Using the information gathered on the harvesting rate of buffalo and combining it with the likely harvesting rate of other species from the reserve, it is possible to get a broad picture of the likely economic potential of game hunting on the Makasa Nature Reserve. This approach of determining the offtake of the economically dominant species in the reserve and then combining this information with the likely offtake of other species in the reserve can be generalised and applied to similar reserves. / Thesis (M.Sc.)-University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 1997.

This dissertation provides an exploratory study of the environmental history of the Keate' s Drift area, Umvoti Magisterial District, KwaZulu-Natal. The broad objectives are to explore the past and present modes of resource use of people living in the area, human reproduction, human consciousness and ecology from the Stone Age to the present day. Thereby we can deduce how, through the application of the techniques and methodology of environmental history, these findings can help establish baselines for understanding the problems facing environmentalists and policy makers in South Africa today. Such understanding can inform the formulation of more effective policies for the future. The study provides a history of how significant change at all levels of production, reproduction, consciousness and ecology initiated the first complete ecological revolution in KwaZulu-Natal between the Stone and Iron Age societies. Using the same methodological parameters, the dissertation then proposes that an incomplete ecological revolution has occurred in Keate's Drift since colonial times. It has found that the pre-colonial mode of resource use still exists in some form, but relies heavily upon migrant remittance money obtained from the modem industrial mode of resource use. The two modes of resource use operating together underlie the conflict between modernity and traditionalism in the Keate's Drift area. Interpretation of the historical evidence proposes that planners in charge of land redistribution in the Keate's Drift area must realise the role of the legacy of the past in development proposals. Planners must realise that the traditional mode of resource use exists alongside elements of the industrial mode. This is a situation resulting from the area's history, and any long term development plan that is going to work, needs to understand the historical legacy of the problems if they are to be resolved. / Thesis (M.Env.Dev.)-University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 1999.

South Africa is a country poorly endowed with natural forests, which account for less than 1% of the total land area. Due to the increase in the demand for forest products in the 1970's and 1980's, which could not be met by the natural forests , the two South African pulp and paper giants, Sappi and Mondi, started the Project Grow and Khulanathi schemes respectively. One of their objectives was to encourage rural communities, through financial assistance, to plant trees on their farms for sale to the forestry companies. Planting of trees by farmers on their own land for their economic, social and environmental (reafforestation) benefits is called social forestry . Social forestry should bring economic activity, capacity building and community empowerment. The benefits from social forestry are two dimensional. The growers benefit from the financial assistance and the readily available market provided by the company, while the company satisfies its demand for timber (pulpwood). The primary objective of this study is therefore to identify factors that influence the choice of trees as a land use in communal areas, and to recommend ways of improving benefits accruing to the growers in particular and the community in general. The factors were determined through structured face to face interviews consisting' of both closed and open-ended questions. The results of the study show that the major motivating factor in tree planting is the perceived financial benefits while lack of land is the major limiting factor. Even though tree planting contributes to social upliftment , it was found that there is 'insufficient capacity building, community empowerment and environmental awareness among growers. Cooperatives are recommended as institutions that will enhance growers' participation in tree planting and maximise the grower benefits from trees . As institutions, cooperatives will be better placed to access relevant information in areas such as marketing and have more bargaining power than individual growers. It is further recommended that the afforestation permit system should be reformulated to include permits for communally owned areas. / Thesis (M.Sc.)-University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 1997.