People and elephants share landscapes throughout Mozambique. Here elephant conservation management focuses on protected areas but fails to address the conflict that exists between elephants and people. In this thesis I develop a landscape approach to conflict mitigation that is designed to accommodate the needs of people and of elephants in human-dominated landscapes. Mozambique faces a dilemma: politically it is required to reduce poverty while at the same time adhere to international agreements and requirements to protect biodiversity with relatively scarce financial resources. Reactive mitigation of human-elephant conflict (HEC) at the site-specific scale have proven to be costly and with low efficacy. A shift from reactive to proactive HEC mitigation approaches at the county-wide scale (e.g. a district level, the administrative planning body) may provide opportunities to reconcile such apparent contrasting requirements in Mozambique. The elephant population of Mozambique is fragmented and remnant sub-populations are limited to clusters of protected areas in a matrix of human-dominated landscapes. A meta-population perspective may accommodate this spatial structuring and allow for a conservation plan that ensures population persistence and moderate impacts with other species in the landscape. I assessed HEC throughout human-dominated landscapes of Mozambique to examine some assumptions associated with the landscape approach advocated here. I used spatially explicit human activity data, landscape features and elephant distribution at the grid cell of 25 km2 and at the district scale to test the practicality of landscape approaches to elephant conservation and mitigating HEC in the human-dominated landscapes of Mozambique. I then tested whether human activities have significant impacts on elephant numbers and distribution across Mozambique. Furthermore I tested if the costs and benefits of sharing space with elephants influenced HEC. Thereafter, I explored at the grain scale of 25 km2 if the degree of overlap between them on the use of resources can be used to predict the likelihood of HEC across the landscape. Direct and indirect human activities explained trends and rates of elephant population changes in Mozambique. Because most rural households of Mozambique rely on subsistence farming by extracting or cropping from the land, primarily for their own purposes, living close to elephant refuge areas represented a potential risk to humans. However, conflict with elephants does not centre on food security, but on lifestyle being affected by the presence of elephants, which itself was a function of human density. Rodents and insects are the primary agents responsible for food loss during food storage. HEC was not a function of elephant density – a combination of human density, percent cultivated area and human population growth rate best explained HEC incidences. Although at human densities beyond 60 people/km2, elephants disappeared, at low levels of land transformation and low human densities people and elephants co-existed, which may induce higher incidences of HEC. Proximity to roads and suitable land for agriculture were the best predictors for HEC in the rural areas of Mozambique. These results imply spatially driven causes of HEC. These findings supported assumptions that conservation landscapes embedded in different land uses that accommodate ecological needs of people and elephants as well as the likelihood of severity of HEC can ensure elephant conservation without forcing people into poverty. While reactive HEC mitigation actions at site-specific scales are attractive for local communities, proactive measures at the landscape scale may be more effective in the rural context of the distributional range of elephants in Mozambique. HEC can be mitigated proactively through an effective land-use planning that involves zonation and implementation. To address this I extrapolated the relevant findings from resources selection functions models at the 25 km2 grain scale for study locations to a country-wide scale and proposed a model of a likelihood of HEC. The country-wide HEC model yielded high predictive power and confirmed protected areas as sites of high elephant dependability. These models indicate focal areas for short to medium term reactive HEC mitigation measures and local community programs at specific site level. This dissertation suggests that human and elephant co-existence is possible in Mozambique. The apparent increase of HEC is not a function of numbers of elephants but of improper land use planning. In this thesis I argue in favour of a landscape approach to mitigate conflict between elephants and people. This approach should be considered in all national plans that aim to reduce conflict and enhance conservation. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / Zoology and Entomology / unrestricted

Boston University. University Professors Program Senior theses. / PLEASE NOTE: Boston University Libraries did not receive an Authorization To Manage form for this thesis. It is therefore not openly accessible, though it may be available by request. If you are the author or principal advisor of this work and would like to request open access for it, please contact us at open-help@bu.edu. Thank you. / 2031-01-02

Recent conflict research has relied on proxy variables of horizontal inequality to make causal assumptions, but these do not reveal the root of deprivation in aggrieved populations. However, it is important to continue to explore the greed-grievance dichotomy to explain the persistence of violent civil conflict. The purpose of this quantitative study was to expand this line of inquiry by investigating the relationship between indicators of vertical deprivation and reported civil conflict incidents to determine whether a significant correlation exists. Relative deprivation theory provided the framework for this study, which consisted of 10,779 survey responses regarding lived experience across 7 countries experiencing a total of 890 civil conflict incidents in 2016. Although tests of multiple linear regression indicated statistically significant relationships (p < .001) between two of the predictor variables and reported civil conflict incidents, the availability of electricity when connected to the main made the most substantial contribution to the model in both predictability and correlation. Therefore, the findings provide insight into the type and nature of deprivations, such as those associated with access to and availability of electricity, that have the greatest potential of becoming grievances susceptible to exploitation by conflict entrepreneurs. Implications for positive social change include using this analysis to promote increased conflict inquiry among public administration scholars and to inform a more substantive role of local government managers in identifying and remediating vertical grievances, thereby mitigating civil conflict.

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This study proposes a framework and a process promoting creation of sustainable jobs and businesses in rural, arid and semi-arid agricultural conflict zones of Sub Saharan Africa, focusing on Somalia's societal stabilization and conflict mitigation. This task requires developing risk-reducing measures for infrastructure and service delivery in rural, post-conflict zones. Literature reviews identified two economic growth theories rooted in sustainability concepts for localized, pro-poor development. Ecological Economics Theory (EET) and Endogenous Growth Theory (EGT) are the philosophical bases establishing investment priorities. Additional research regarding Somali culture, key conflict factors, and potential business opportunities, provides an understanding of salient facts in Somalia's on-going, 27-years of war and potential culturally acceptable development pathways. Informal sources, Somali and non-Somali, were consulted to further identify and verify potential avenues for economic growth, sustainability, educational opportunities, allowing Somalia to emerge from the strife it has endured. Visits to Somalia and Somaliland confirmed that livestock, its products and related requirements, are key components for economic growth and job creation. Investigation, via pilot testing and case studies, was undertaken of technologies with potential to improve productive capacity and disrupt existing value chains. Initial framework elements were evaluated for job and business creation, through unstructured, semi-structured interviews, and questionnaire of Somali officials, and Somali and non-Somali conflict zone development practitioners. The pilot test used a small sample size and is a limitation of this work. Findings from the literature review, informal discussions, and the pilot test are synthesized into the framework presented in Chapter 5. The framework proposes development of an innovative, disruptive, and scalable business model that facilitates the simultaneous implementation of renewable energy production. It targets education for the livestock and agroforestry industry of Somalia, improving job and business opportunities. The model proposes modification of used shipping containers for the creation of modular elements, to satisfying infrastructural building components to initiate skills practice, job, and business growth. / Doctor of Philosophy / The wars and conflicts of various types in Africa have made the continent poorer and prevented development in many countries. One of the major, and seemingly intractable conflict locations, is Somalia located in the East Horn of Africa (EHA). This research provides an understanding of salient facts in Somalia's 27 years of war by examining culture and key conflict factors. The objective of this assessment is to identify potential culturally acceptable pathways that will lead to business opportunities and development as a means of conflict mitigation. The improvement of job opportunities for youth is viewed as a means to offset the current participation in the ongoing conflict. Somali and non-Somali sources were consulted to identify and verify avenues for economic growth, sustainability, and educational opportunities. Visits to Somalia and Somaliland confirmed that livestock, and related products, are key components for development and job creation. Technologies with potential to improve productive capacity and disrupt existing value chains were also evaluated. Findings from informal discussions and a pilot test of a proposed framework are presented. The framework identifies elements for development of an innovative, disruptive, and scalable business model that facilitates the implementation of renewable energy production. In addition, it targets education for the livestock and agroforestry industries, improving job and business opportunities.

With the increasing interest in Virtual/Augmented Reality, the next generation of application platforms is emerging in the form of immersive and engaging experiences. The company Dewire Knightec is exploring an application platform based on the web technology WebXR where users can interact with multiple applications simultaneously. However, numerous independent applications rendering content in the same 3D environment can lead to objects intersecting and occluding, leading to visual conflicts. In this thesis work, we discuss the concept of visual conflicts and avoidance strategies. We present a fully working prototype of a conflict mitigation framework for concurrent WebXR applications. The framework mitigates conflicts using two main collision avoidance strategies in the form of multiple render options and position offsetting. The proposed framework is demonstrated in a scenario where applications render contents on top of buildings in the user’s surroundings. By running multiple applications, a user can for example read a restaurant menu, see mall opening hours, and get travel directions simultaneously. The feasibility and efficiency of the proposed avoidance strategy in developed framework has been evaluated using a focus group of developers and software architects. After the evaluation, the framework can be summarized as a good foundation for future multi-application XR platforms.

The motivation for this research comes from the belief that an over reliance on a social constructivist perspective has caused development studies in general, and post-development in particular, to under-theorize the role of discourse in development. A key issue in post-development studies concerns whether or not development organizations depoliticize their interventions. The notion of depoliticization provides a perfect occasion for examining more deeply the role of discourse in development. This research uses the actor-network theory constructivist framework to analyze a USAID funded development program in Central Asia (Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan): Mercy Corps' Peaceful Communities Initiative (PCI). The research approach used in this study involved both traditional ethnographic methods and document analysis. The ethnographic case material comes from multiple field visits to PCI offices in Central Asia and multiple visits to a variety of PCI community sites. The documentary evidence comes from a variety of organization and project specific documents. The embedded case studies demonstrate that materiality cannot be easily separated from sociality and that indeed the two are inseparable. Thus development discourse cannot be solely understood as a social phenomenon but could instead be understood as an assemblage of material elements through which both power and sociality flow.

Non-UN peace operations are becoming an increasingly important conflict mitigating tool. Whilst many studies find these operations unable to mitigate conflict and promote peace, the explanations for these findings mainly focus on material aspects like mission size and peacekeepers’ capability. In order to better understand the discrepancies between UN and non-UN peace operations’ success, this thesis argues that UN operations might be more efficient due to higher perceived legitimacy. In order to analyze whether the superior legitimacy of the UN explains their higher ability to mitigate conflict, this study analyzes whether non- UN peace operations authorized by the UN are more able to mitigate conflict than non-authorized peace operations. The argument is tested by applying an OLS regression to a data frame including all intrastate conflicts between 1993 and 2016 to study the covariation between conflict intensity and the presence of UN authorized and non-authorized peace operations. The results do not support the hypothesis that UN authorization increases non-UN peace operations’ conflict mitigating abilities. This suggests that material factors might better explain peace operations’ success or that UN authorization does not substantially increase the perceived legitimacy of non-UN peace operations.

This study addresses the question: "What are the incentives and disincentives for conflict prevention and mitigation in the Bureau of Reclamation (Reclamation), and how do they factor into Reclamation's management of water in the western United States?" Incentives and disincentives for conflict prevention (i.e., actions taken to avoid conflict) and mitigation (i.e., actions taken to resolve, manage, or temper a conflictive situation after conflict has occurred) are identified through a survey and focus groups of Reclamation employees. The two dominant disincentives identified are a lack of resources and Reclamation's organizational culture--specifically its reliance on crisis management, water delivery tunnel vision, and being slow to change. Other disincentives include a lack of forward planning, the existence of an acceptable bandwidth or level of conflict, a perception that conflict is unavoidable or entrenched, politics, and limits on acceptable actions associated with the legal authorization of Reclamation projects. Fewer incentives for conflict prevention and mitigation were identified, but include, pressure from higher management, the promotion of collaboration within the Bureau, and a desire to avoid litigation. The institutional analysis and development (IAD) framework offers some insight into how these incentives and disincentives factored into the implementation of the Water2025 Initiative, and Reclamation’s experience with the Middle Rio Grande silvery minnow and the Endangered Species Act. As attributes of the community and rules-in-use, incentives and disincentives such as organizational culture, politics, funding availability, the desire to avoid litigation, the promotion of collaboration within the agency, and a lack of planning effort offer possible explanations of why Reclamation chose to act as it did. / Graduation date: 2012