This dissertation examines the resilience mechanisms of the newly emerging livelihood activities of peasants, farmers, and traders in rural areas in post-Soviet Uzbekistan. Women’s coping, preserving, and accumulating resilience demonstrate their capabilities for transforming and mobilizing assets to develop livelihood activities and expand them through social networks with the markets and state. The livelihood analysis is complemented by the examination of indigenous saving networks such as gap, and savings networks that are local and emerged during Soviet times such as chernaya kassa. These savings networks serve as a livelihood resilience mechanism for social and economic empowerment in the Tashkent region. These networks represent a collective movement and action against economic dependency of women on men and state micro-loan bank system to which women at the grassroots level do not resort to. These social and economic networks that do not require external donor interventions and function outside the mainstream economic assessment have been able to empower women for social justice, redistribution of resources, knowledge, voice, and conflict resolution in ways that are vital for peace and community development. Using in-depth interviews and narrative methodology, this study examines women’s indigenous conflict resolution practices used in rural communities. It examines such ceremonies as mavlud, ihson, Bibi Seshanba (Lady Tuesday), and Mushkul Kushod (Solver of Difficulties); healing practices; and grassroots peacebuilding methods. This research emphasizes how the conflict resolution practices of women are woven into their everyday life, and function autonomously from the hierarchical elite-driven Women’s Committees and state court systems established in Soviet times. Within the ethnographies of conflict at micro and macro levels, many local healers and otins (religious teachers) understand the structural roots of inequalities, which decrease women’s access to resources and consequently their fair distribution and women’s choices. These religious leaders use their discursive knowledge, based on Islam, Sufism, shamanism, and animism to challenge and transform women’s subordination, abuse, limited property rights, and other practices that impinge on women’s needs and rights. These female religious leaders, through different ceremonial practices, create space for raising the critical consciousness of women and transform the social order for maintaining organic peace in the communities.

Many protected areas around the world face degradation in the face of poverty, maladapted agricultural practices and population growth in their surroundings. This research uses a multidisciplinary approach to study this complex problem in the context of a montane ecosystem. The study area comprises Ngel Nyaki and Kurmin Danko Forest Reserves on the Mambilla Plateau in Eastern Nigeria and the surrounding landscape, comprising pastoral lands, farmland, villages and homesteads. Ongoing degradation of the Forest Reserves through their illegal use as grazing areas by the local Fulani pastoralists indicates that the exclusionary protection of the forest is not working. It may be that a participatory forestry approach to conservation would be more successful. The research presented in this thesis uses a variety of methods (interviews, remote sensing, geographic information systems (GIS) and ecological monitoring) to evaluate the current situation in the study area with the aim of determining the likelihood of such a participatory approach to conservation being successful. Satellite images from the years 1988, 2000 and 2009 were used to quantify changes in forest cover to measure deforestation and regeneration rates. Interviews were used to understand the Fulani's pastoral management systems, land ownership status, cattle movements and living situation. Data from interviews and observations as well as from satellite imagery were combined in a GIS to approximate stocking rates and property boundaries and to identify the level of livelihood diversification the different Fulani families have undergone. As grass and water availability have been identified as the main environmental factors determining grazing and cattle movements, environmental data was collected to determine changes in the rates of grass productivity and streamflow over the course of one dry season. The study found that the extent of natural forest is decreasing all over the study area, on privately owned properties, commonly owned properties and in the Forest Reserves. Evidence of human impacts such as charred grassland by late burning and cattle tracks were clearly visible throughout the reserves, with the exception of the core forest area, indicating ongoing intensive use and management of the reserve for cattle grazing. The stocking rates in dry and wet seasons have been found likely to exceed carrying capacities, which results in overgrazing and a reduction in vegetation cover. The Fulani in the study area have already undergone a transition from relying purely on livestock and livestock products to relying on a mix of livestock, agriculture and silviculture. This transition shows potential for forest transition according to the 'forest transition theory', which, supported by the right policy incentives could be transformed into landscape scale conservation of endemic flora and fauna. xii Biomass productivity and water availability in wet and dry seasons were found to be highly asymmetric, which seriously restricts the number of suitable cattle management systems. Data indicate that tall riverine vegetation may have effects on stream water availability during the dry season. The findings of this section point to the need of carefully reassessing the current management of tall riverine vegetation on the Mambilla plateau, also in view of the sustainability of the water supply for pastoral livelihoods.

Shandong Province, renowned as China’s greatest agricultural province, is dominated by smallholders growing rain-fed crops and vulnerable to severe weather shocks that can increase poverty rates. Weather index insurance, an innovative agricultural risk management product, may be an effective mechanism to address vulnerability to catastrophic weather risk in rural regions of China, including Shandong. This project evaluated current household livelihood and risk management strategies and farmer interest in weather index insurance. Data from 174 participants were collected using a methodology that included focus groups, questionnaires, and personal interviews. Despite limited access to formal financial services, Shandong farmers generally employ informal, well-diversified income strategies and rely on no-interest informal loans from community members to manage adverse impacts of natural disasters, such as drought. Households sometimes rely on reducing consumption as a risk coping strategy; however, unlike many regions of the world, Shandong farmers do not tend to sell livelihood assets to manage weather shocks. A majority of interviewed participants were interested in weather index insurance after they understood its basic concept; however, participants expressed concerns regarding basis risk and program implementation.

This dissertation examines the resilience mechanisms of the newly emerging livelihood activities of peasants, farmers, and traders in rural areas in post-Soviet Uzbekistan. Women’s coping, preserving, and accumulating resilience demonstrate their capabilities for transforming and mobilizing assets to develop livelihood activities and expand them through social networks with the markets and state. The livelihood analysis is complemented by the examination of indigenous saving networks such as gap, and savings networks that are local and emerged during Soviet times such as chernaya kassa. These savings networks serve as a livelihood resilience mechanism for social and economic empowerment in the Tashkent region. These networks represent a collective movement and action against economic dependency of women on men and state micro-loan bank system to which women at the grassroots level do not resort to. These social and economic networks that do not require external donor interventions and function outside the mainstream economic assessment have been able to empower women for social justice, redistribution of resources, knowledge, voice, and conflict resolution in ways that are vital for peace and community development. Using in-depth interviews and narrative methodology, this study examines women’s indigenous conflict resolution practices used in rural communities. It examines such ceremonies as mavlud, ihson, Bibi Seshanba (Lady Tuesday), and Mushkul Kushod (Solver of Difficulties); healing practices; and grassroots peacebuilding methods. This research emphasizes how the conflict resolution practices of women are woven into their everyday life, and function autonomously from the hierarchical elite-driven Women’s Committees and state court systems established in Soviet times. Within the ethnographies of conflict at micro and macro levels, many local healers and otins (religious teachers) understand the structural roots of inequalities, which decrease women’s access to resources and consequently their fair distribution and women’s choices. These religious leaders use their discursive knowledge, based on Islam, Sufism, shamanism, and animism to challenge and transform women’s subordination, abuse, limited property rights, and other practices that impinge on women’s needs and rights. These female religious leaders, through different ceremonial practices, create space for raising the critical consciousness of women and transform the social order for maintaining organic peace in the communities.

This dissertation uses a livelihood analysis approach to examine the potential role of tourism as a strategy for poverty reduction. While many studies have examined the role of tourism in economic and local area development in developing countries, this research focuses on understanding the impact of tourism upon the livelihoods of poor people, in this case Narok in Kenya. The thesis first reviews the theoretical explanations and definitions of poverty within the discourse of development studies. The key argument of the thesis is that the continued macro economic focus for tourism development in developing countries is inappropriate for targeting poverty. The macro economic discourse assumes that the benefits of economic growth from tourism will trickle down through a series of economic multiplier processes to 'poorer' sections of the population. Yet, this research shows that poor people have different definitions of poverty from those that are conventionally used in macroeconomics. Poor people's definitions are based upon their own local circumstances of making a livelihood. It is argued that it is therefore necessary to understand the term 'poverty' as defined by the 'poor' in order to produce tourism strategies that are 'pro poor'. Using multiple methods and narratives of poverty experiences in the Narok District of Kenya, the study investigates the local perceptions of poverty amongst poor people that participate in tourism livelihood activities. Using a livelihood analysis, the study examines the economic, social and political factors that affect how poor are able to access and use tourism in their livelihoods. Subsequently, recommendations are made on the institutional structures that would enhance the livelihood opportunities for poor people in Narok. The research concludes that for tourism to maximize its contribution to poverty reduction, various policy and institutional adjustments are necessary in order to shift the economic benefits of tourism towards poor people. Such changes would not only secure the livelihoods of those already involved in tourism, but also expand the potential for poor people who are currently excluded from economic participation in tourism.

This thesis explores different geographies of tourism, gender, work and liveli­hood in post-socialist Latvia. The study puts focus on the overall transforma­tion process and the reshaping of the tourism sector, in how Latvia is reimag­ined both as a nation state and as a tourism destination. One central aim is to analyse the transformation process as genderised, and how existing gender identi­ties in general and femininities more specifically are being transformed and mirrored within tourism. The thesis first contain an analysis of how Latvian tourism-mar­ket­ing carries genderised meanings and identities, based on three interrelated ‘geog­raphies’ as part of the transforming ‘national common space’: geogra­phies of neo-nationalism, geographies of Euro­peanisation and geographies of relic-communism. These hold certain imaginations and conceptions of space and place, and in­clude aims and priorities of the transition process. Secondly, focus is placed on the chang­ing conditions for women’s livelihood within rural tourism in the Cēsis district, and spa/health tourism in Jūrmala. The thesis has mainly a quali­tative approach, including semi-structured interviews and text analysis, but the case studies also comprise a survey. The thesis illustrates how tourism becomes an arena for reclaiming a Latvian national identity rooted in a pre-Soviet past, while also manifesting a Western European identity, and negotiating the remains of the controversial Soviet heritage. This process reveals, for example, traditional feminised features of the nation state, portraying women as the ‘mothers’ of the nation. Two case studies of female employees and entrepreneurs within rural tourism and spa/health tourism also show how women negotiate different ideals of femininities, in­cluding ‘traditional’, ‘Western’ and ‘socialist’ ideals, through their everyday live­lihood practices within both the public and the private sphere. Their negotia­tions for a more independent liveli­hood are also affected by structural factors, such as wages and taxes, but also by the local socio-cultural context and related gender identities, including class, family structure, age and ethnicity.

Thesis (M.A.)--Miami University, Dept. of Geography, 2007. / Title from first page of PDF document. Includes bibliographical references (p. 56-60).

The study of conflicts in conservation (also known as human-wildlife conflicts) is a growing field of research in areas where people and wildlife interact, because of the negative impacts each can have on the other. Addressing conflicts is certainly challenging because of the complexities of considering diverse interests from numerous stakeholders and the specific ecological and socio-economic characteristics of a given study system. No matter how complex the system under study is, the aim is in all cases to find effective and sustainable mitigation strategies for local people, as well as for wildlife conservation and local authorities. In this thesis, I look at two of the preliminary steps required to address conservation conflicts and develop efficient long-lasting management solutions: the gathering of ecological data and the assessment of mitigation strategies in the field. To do this, I use two case studies: crop-foraging by African elephants (Loxodonta africana) in northern Botswana, and selective hunting of the red deer (Cervus elaphus) population on the Isle of Rum in Scotland. In Chapter 2, I built a baseline for the level of conflict in the Okavango Delta Panhandle (Botswana) using temporal trends of crop-foraging by elephants as an index of the level of conflict, and subsequently looked at how this relates to trends in agricultural land allocated in the study area, as well as with trends in human and elephant population size. In Chapter 3, I mapped the distribution of the local population of elephants and assessed its interaction with landscape features and sites where crop-foraging events had been recorded. In both chapters (2 & 3) I found that -in general- the number of elephants was not a determinant of the level of conflict in the study area, but that the spatiotemporal distribution of the species as well as the spatial and temporal scales considered were. In the second half of my thesis, I assessed the effects of two common conflict mitigation methods: the use of deterrents (Chapter 4) and lethal control (Chapter 5). I first evaluated the effectiveness of chilli-briquettes in deterring elephants and secondly, I used a modelling approach to predict the demographic effects of increasing levels of selective hunting in a male red deer population. I found that both mitigation methods showed unexpected results, which would not have been detected had I not tested for them. This thesis highlights the advantages of applying methods that are based on informed decisions in areas of conflict, as well as the value of sharing results in conservation management. My findings contribute towards a better understanding of the negative impacts of human-wildlife interactions, which often lead to conservation conflicts, as well as contributing protocols and methodologies that can be adapted and applied elsewhere.

Esta dissertação aborda o tema das estratégias de meio de vida à luz das mudanças climáticas. Nesse sentido, a pesquisa se propõe a combinar três temáticas: o modo de vida dos camponeses, a percepção ambiental e a estratégia de meio de vida. Assim, a pesquisa procurou responder quais estratégias de meio de vida, as famílias adotam para enfrentam a seca que afeta a vida dos camponeses do posto de administrativo de Mahel, no distrito de Magude, na província de Maputo, em Moçambique. O objetivo principal da pesquisa é compreender as estratégias de meio de vida (reação ou adaptação) que as famílias camponesas adotam em função dos ativos disponíveis na unidade produtiva familiar, numa situação de mudanças climáticas, neste caso da seca que aflige as famílias camponesas do posto administrativo de Mahel. Para tal, formularam-se três hipóteses: (1): as famílias elaboram estratégias de meio de vida; (2): as estratégias de meio de vida estão em função dos ativos disponíveis na unidade produtiva familiar e dos fatores sociodemográficos; e (3): A partir de percepção das mudanças climáticas, os homens elaboram estratégias de meio de vida para responderem o impacto das mudanças climáticas. Convém mencionar que em função da complexidade dos dados que se pretendia coletar, estabeleceu-se método qualitativo (estudo de caso), através de entrevistas semiestruturadas centralizadas nos chefes dos agregados de onze famílias. A escolha das onze famílias deriva de um conjunto de fatores, como dispersão da população em pequenos territórios e produção na propriedade. Portanto, estabeleceu-se metodologia por etapa, isto é, uma pesquisa a partir de um local específico para posteriormente expandir para outras áreas. Vale mencionar que a escolha dos chefes dos agregados deve-se ao fato destes influenciarem nas estratégias de meio de vida nas unidades produtivas familiares. As variáveis de análise foram os ativos: humanos, naturais, sociais, financeiros e físicos. Deste modo, estavam criadas as condições para a realização da pesquisa, a qual veio confirmar as hipóteses, porque as famílias estabelecem estratégias de meio de vida em função dos ativos disponíveis na unidade produtiva familiar, sendo as estratégias determinadas pelos fatores sociodemográficos da unidade produtiva familiar. Para o caso específico do posto administrativo de Mahel, os ativos humanos e naturais têm mais impactos que os demais ativos. Assim, as famílias elaboram estratégias de reação, garantindo assim a manutenção do modo e condição de vida campesina, neste caso em apreço, a sobrevivência, o que significa que satisfaz a demanda interna com menor penosidade. / This dissertation addresses the issue of the strategies of livelihood in the light of climate change. In this sense, the research aims to combine three themes: the way of life of farmers, environmental awareness and the strategy of livelihood. Thus, the research sought to address what livelihood strategies, families adopt to face the drought that affects the lives of peasants Mahel administrative post in the Magude district of Maputo province in Mozambique. The main objective of the research is to understand the livelihood strategies (reaction or adaptation) that peasant families adopt depending on the assets available in the family production unit, in a situation of climate change, in this case the drought afflicting the peasant families of the post administrative Mahel. For this, three hypotheses were formulated: (1): families prepare livelihood strategies, (2): living through strategies are depending on the assets available in the family production unit and sociodemographic factors; and (3): From perception of climate change, the men prepare livelihood strategies to respond the impact of climate change. It should be noted that due to the complexity of the data that was intended to collect, was established qualitative method (case study), through centralized semi-structured interviews in the heads of households eleven families. The choice of the eleven families derived from a set of factors such as dispersion of the population of small regions and the production property. Therefore, it was established methodology by step, that is, a search from a specific location to further expand into other areas. It is worth mentioning that the choice of the aggregates of the heads is due to the fact that these influence the strategies of livelihood in family production units. The analysis variables were assets: human, natural, social, financial and physical. Thus were created the conditions for the research, which confirmed the hypothesis, because families establish livelihood strategies depending on the assets available in the family production unit, and the strategies determined by sociodemographic factors of family production unit . For the specific case of the administrative Mahel post, human and natural assets have more impacts than other assets. Thus, families prepare response strategies, thus ensuring the maintenance of order and peasant living conditions, in this case, survival, which means it meets domestic demand with less painfulness.

This study aimed at evaluating the effectiveness of the 2011 to 2012 famine response in Somalia in saving lives and livelihoods, offering livelihood opportunities, supporting quick recovery and complying with accountability standards in the delivery of humanitarian assistance. Understanding the performance and effectiveness of the humanitarian response to emergencies such as the 2011 to 2012 famine in Somalia is important for managing similar large-scale disasters which tend to be more frequent than ever before. It is also vital for addressing the chronic food insecurity in sub-Saharan Africa. The study was conducted in the Dolow district, Gedo region, Somalia. The study was largely rooted in the qualitative paradigm even though quantitative methodologies were employed to explain certain aspects in order to adequately answer some of the research questions. The case study approach was employed to conduct this study and achieve the research objectives. Despite the need for more evidence-based and local community-driven response to droughts, the 2011 to 2012 famine response was largely relevant to meet the priority needs of affected populations. The response was too late to prevent the death of hundreds of thousands and the suffering of millions of people and the response had to struggle for quite some time to stabilise and reverse a devastating situation. Although the response was not adequate to cover the needs of all affected populations, it had a commendable impact by saving the lives of malnourished children and mothers; minimising suffering from lack of food, water and shelter; restoring livelihoods for host communities; and creating livelihood opportunities for internally displaced families. Compliance with the NGO Code of Conduct and the application of Sphere standards were fair. Strong accountability mechanisms are required to ensure effective beneficiary targeting and curb aid diversion. The beneficiaries of the response stated that they are equally vulnerable to droughts despite an increase in income and agricultural production as a result of the response. Long-term livelihood projects that address structural vulnerabilities and create multipleincome sources are essential for strengthening resilience to droughts. / Development Studies / M.A. (Development Studies)