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In most developing countries, forest resources are a major source of livelihood for forest dwellers. Forests provide fuel wood, farm products, meat, timber and plants of high medicinal value, including Prunus africana. The collection of medicinal plants is also an important source of cash income for some forest communities, and widely relied on to cure illnesses (Poffenberger, 1993). Because of this, the poor forest dwellers in particular are forced to exert pressure on their surrounding environment to make ends meet. Indiscriminate exploitation of forest resources has cost some forest dwellers dearly as they are now experiencing marked reduction of wildlife, forest cover, soil fertility and most importantly water supply, which is a key to life. Prunus africana has a very high economic and medicinal value locally as well as internationally. The exploitation of this species is a very profitable activity in most parts of Africa where it occurs, including the Mount Cameroon region. In recent years, most youths and young men in the Mount Cameroon region have seemingly become less interested in their usual income generating activities (farming, hunting, etc.) because of reduced productivity and have taken up Prunus harvesting as their major source of income. Increase in demand for this species by the French pharmaceutical company (Plantecam), weak institutional capacity to control exploitation, uncontrolled access into the forest, scramble for diminished stock by legal and illegal exploiters, destruction of wild stock by unsustainable practices, and insufficient regeneration of the species in the past have almost driven this species to extinction in certain parts of Cameroon and made it severely threatened in others. Prunus africana is presently threatened with extinction in the entire Mount Cameroon region. In response to this, the Mount Cameroon Project (MCP) and the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MINEF) helped some communities (Bokwoango and Mapanja) in the Mount Cameroon region to form Prunus africana harvesters’ unions with the aim of preserving the resource and improving the socio-economic benefits. The principal aim of the Bokwoango Prunus africana harvesters’ union is to ensure sustainable exploitation of Prunus africana while saving money for important development projects for individual members, their families and the entire community. This piece of work highlights the different facets of Prunus africana management in Cameroon in general and the Bokwoango community in particular. The study examines the socio-economic impact of Prunus africana management in the Bokwoango community and shows specifically the management role played by the Bokwoango Prunus africana harvesters’ union to reduce the rate of exploitation of Prunus africana and also to ensure benefit sharing of the earnings from sales of Prunus bark. It at the same time brings out the constraints encountered by harvesters as well as the opportunities that can make the union become more viable to the socio-economic development of the Bokwoango community. Results of this study show that for the short period that the Bokwoango Prunus africana harvesters’ union has existed, the socio-economic changes in this community are encouraging if one compares the present situation with that before the formation of the union. Most importantly, there has been increased awareness on the great need to conserve not only the threatened Prunus africana species but also other threatened plant and animal species in the region through sustainable hunting, harvesting and regeneration. Some proposals are made for efficient natural resource management and improvements on livelihood through alternative income generating activities. The study ends with recommendations for policy and institutional reforms as well as suggestions for further research in sustainable management of Prunus africana.

The main argument of this dissertation is that the White Mountain Apache Tribe's appropriation of ecological restoration played a vital role in reinstituting control over knowledge production and eco-cultural resources on the Fort Apache Indian Reservation in the second half of the twentieth century. As a corollary, I argue that the shift in knowledge production practices from a paternalistic foundation to a community-based approach resulted in positive consequences for the ecological health of the Apachean landscape and Apache culture. The democratization of science and technology on the reservation, therefore, proved paramount to the reestablishment of a relatively sustainable Apache society. Beginning with the Indian New Deal, the White Mountain Apache slowly developed the capacity to employ ecological restoration as an eco-political tool to free themselves from a long history of Euro-American cultural oppression and natural resource exploitation. Tribal restoration projects embodied the dual political function of cultural resistance to and cultural exchange with Western-based land management organizations. Apache resistance challenged Euro-American notions of restoration, nature, and sustainability while maintaining cultural identity, reasserting cultural autonomy, and protecting tribal sovereignty. But at the same time, the Apache depended on cultural exchange with federal and state land management agencies to successfully manage their natural resources and build an ecologically knowledgeable tribal workforce. Initially adopting a utilitarian conservation model of land management, restoration projects aided the creation of a relatively strong tribal economy. In addition, early successes with trout, elk, and forest restoration projects eventually granted the Tribe political leverage when they sought to reassume control over reservation resources from the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Fish and Wildlife Service. Building on this foundation, Apache restoration work significantly diverged in character from the typical Euro-American restoration project by the 1990s. While striving toward self-sufficiency, the Tribe hybridized tribal cultural values with Western ecological values in their restoration efforts. These projects evolved the tripartite capacity to heal ecologically degraded reservation lands, to establish a degree of economic freedom from the federal government, and to restore cultural traditions. Having reversed their historical relationship of subjugation with government agencies, the Apache currently have almost full decision-making powers over tribal eco-cultural resources. / Ph. D.

<p>Three prescribed burn sites and seven selective timber harvest sites were surveyed using a UAS equipped with a PPK-triggered RGB sensor to determine optimal image collection parameters surrounding each type of disturbance and land cover. The image coordinates were corrected with a third-party base station network (CORS) after the flight, and photogrammetrically processed to produce high-resolution georeferenced orthomosaics. This addressed the first objective of this study, which was to <i>establish effective data procurement methods from both before and after planned </i>disturbances. <br></p><p>Orthomosaic datasets surrounding both a prescribed burn and a selective timber harvest, were used to classify land covers through geographic image-based analysis (GEOBIA). The orthomosaic datasets were segmented into image objects, before classification with a machine-learning algorithm. Land covers for the prescribed prairie burn were 1) bare ground, 2) litter, 3) green vegetation, and 4) burned vegetation. Land covers for the selective timber harvest were 1) mature canopy, 2) understory vegetation, and 3) bare ground. 65 samples per class were collected for prairie burn datasets, and 80 samples per class were collected for timber harvest datasets to train the classifier. A supported vector machines (SVM) algorithm was used to produce four land cover classifications for each site surrounding their respective planned disturbance. Pixel counts for each class were multiplied by the ground sampled distance (GSD) to obtain area calculations for land covers. Accuracy assessments were conducted by projecting 250 equalized stratified random (ESR) reference points onto the georeferenced orthomosaic datasets to compare the classification to the imagery through visual interpretation. This addressed the second objective of this study, which was to <i>establish effective data classification methods from both before and after planned </i>disturbances.<br></p><p>Finally, a two-tailed t-Test was conducted with the overall accuracies for each disturbance type and land cover. Results showed no significant difference in the overall accuracy between land covers. This was done to address the third objective of this study which was to <i>determine if a significant difference exists between the classification accuracies between planned disturbance types</i>. Overall, effective data procurement and classification parameters were established for both <i>before </i>and <i>after </i>two common types of <i>planned </i>disturbances within the CHF region, with slightly better results for prescribed burns than for selective timber harvests.<br></p>

Despite decades of development efforts to combat desertification processes in southern Zimbabwe, a development deadlock occurs. Using the local knowledge systems as a basis, and making an effort to strategically facilitate the revival of their capacity for checks and balances as a development approach, endogenous development could become more realistic. The actor-oriented RAAKS.methodology offers relevant tools for a case study'in which an insight into the processes of innovation is obtained in order to confirm this. The Charurnbira case study shows that many local interfaces hinder development. Although the facilitation of platform processes could enhance endogenous development, the external environment provides a serious constraint. The method employed did ndt permit broad conclusions, but a deeper examination of recent experiences suggested that by giving local people a greater say in natural resource use, local knowledge could be utilized more effectively and better use could be made of traditional management structures. / Development Administration / M.A. (Development Administration)

This study sets out to analyse the relevance of cultural values and perceptions, which form the basis of the "local knowledge" of grassroots people, in the natural resource management of the Laka of Mapela who live in the former Lebowa homeland in the Northern Province of South Africa. Due to the fact that political transitions affect the traditional authority system, it further explores the role of traditional leaders regarding control and decision-making over natural resources as well as the activities of oppositional groups at local level, and their attitudes towards land tenure issues. Natural resource management is approached holistically because, in grassroots perceptions, the natural world does not "stand on its own" and is not dissected into manageable units but forms part of a wider cosmos which is made up of human beings, nature and the supernatural. A happy life of people, fertile soils and rich botanical resources are inseparable from harmony in the cosmos. Misfortune, natural resource degradation and scarcity are consequently explained with a state of flux, or imbalance, in these cosmic relationships which have to be restored by people in order to survive. The general conclusions suggest that these local perceptions of natural resource management cannot be ignored from the development arena as well as by outside scientists and practitioners. Rather, in order to develop more progressive approaches for sustainable management in the former homelands, policies and plans have to be compatible with the worldview of local people to enhance their acceptance and implementation. / Anthropology and Archaeology / D. Litt. et Phil. (Anthropology)

Thesis (PhD (Dept. of Forest and Wood Science))--University of Stellenbosch, 2009. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This study aimed to analyze under which conditions the structure, organization and integration of knowledge systems can provide the implementation of adaptive collaborative management of natural resources under conditions of high biodiversity in the humid forest zone of southern Cameroon. The study specifically did the following: characterized sustainable slash-and-burn agriculture innovations; examined the influences of local perceptions of nature and forest knowledge management systems on adaptive slash-and-burn agriculture practices; analyzed the influences of the social representation of land use patterns and their local indicators on agro-ecological sustainability; characterised the biophysical dimensions of local management of agricultural biodiversity knowledge systems; analyzed how local agricultural biodiversity knowledge is used to adapt and to satisfy household consumption needs, market preferences, and sustainable livelihoods; examined the influences of local perceptions of climate variability for the ability and adaptive capacity of people to use local knowledge to deal with the effect of pests-diseases on crop yield, corrective management actions, and adaptive slash-and-burn agriculture management. The study was conducted in three blocks within the humid forest zone of southern Cameroon along a gradient of natural resource use management intensification and population density. Data were collected via structured and semi-structured interviews, multi-disciplinary landscape assessment and a review of secondary information. Chisquare tests were used to show how local knowledge influences - natural resource management at the forest-agriculture interface, while binary logistic regressions were used to understand the influences of biophysical and socio-economic factors on farmers’ decisions to domesticate tree species and to cultivate several crop cultivars. Fourteen research and development (R&D) themes were identified and found to be equally distributed among blocks but unequally distributed across technical, marketing and socio-organisational types of innovation. There was a gap between social demand and innovation offer. Innovations offered covered more technical issues, such as crop variety development, indicating their agricultural focus rather than the integration of forest and agriculture issues. The local perceptions of nature and forest resources are based on social representation of the vital space into components having a specific function for the social, physical and spiritual life of people. Needs of the human world determine the role of local forest knowledge systems in the interpretation and responses of the natural environment, and guide the trajectories of natural resource management practices. The management of agro-ecological sustainability is based on the local definition of well-being, social representation of space and on a multi-criteria approach combining bio-indicators such as plants, earthworm activities, age of vegetation or forest cover, soil colour and quality but it is also positively influenced by land use history, the use value of wild plant and crop species, the knowledge of crop qualities, the knowledge of interactions between crops, and between crops and other wild plant species, the tree size of tree species used, the future use of a current land use, the estimated land use for own use and market access. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die doel van hierdie studie was om te bepaal onder watter omstandighede die struktuur, organisasie en integrasie van kennissisteme kan bydra tot die implementering van aanpasbare deelnemende bestuur van natuurlike hulpbronne onder toestande van hoë biodiversiteit in die vogtige woudsone van suidelike Kameroen. Die studie het spesifiek die volgende gedoen: volhoubare kap-en-brand landboukundige ontwikkelinge gekarakteriseer; die invloede van plaaslike persepsies van die natuur en woudkennisgebaseerde bestuursisteme op aanpasbare kap-en-brand landboupraktyke ge-evalueer; die invloede van die sosiale verteenwoordiging van grondgebruikspatrone en hul plaaslike indikatore op agro-ekologiese volhoubaarheid ontleed; die biofisiese dimensies van die plaaslike bestuur van landboukundige biodiversiteitskennissisteme gekarakteriseer; geanaliseer hoe die plaaslike landboukundige biodiversiteitskennis gebruik word om aan te pas by en bevrediging te verkry vir huishoudelike gebruiksbehoeftes, marksvoorkeure en volhoubare bestaansbehoeftes; die invloede en gebruik van plaaslike kennis en persepsies van klimaatsvariasie beoordeel in die vermoë en aanpassingskapasiteit van mense om die effekte van siektes-peste op gewasproduksie, regstellende aksies en aanpasbare kap-enbrand landboubestuur te hanteer. Die studie is uitgevoer in drie blokke binne die vogtige woudsone van suidelike Kameroen langs ‘n gradient van natuurlike hulpbrongebruiksbestuursintensiteit en populasiedigtheid. Data is versamel deur gestruktureerde en semi-gestruktureerde onderhoude, multi-dissiplinere landskapsevaluering en ‘n oorsig van sekondere inligting. Chi-kwadraat toetse is gebruik om te wys hoe plaaslike kennis die bestuur van die woudlandbou konneksie beinvloed asook binêre logistiese regressies om die invloede te verstaan van biofisiese en sosio-ekonomiese faktore op die boere se besluite om boomsoorte te domestikeer en om verskeie gewaskultivars te kweek. Veertien temas in navorsing en ontwikkeling (N&O) was gelyk versprei tussen die blokke en ongelyk versprei tussen tegniese, bemarking en sosio-organisatoriese tipes innovering. Daar was ‘n gaping tussen sosiale aanvraag en innoveringsaanbieding. Innoverings het meer tegniese aspekte gedek, soos ontwikkeling van ‘n verskeidenheid gewasse, wat wys op ‘n landboukundige fokus eerder as ‘n integrasie van woud en landboukundige aspekte. Die plaaslike persepsies van die natuur en woudhulpbronne was gebaseer op sosiale verteenwoordiging van lewensbelangrike ruimte in komponente met ‘n spesifieke funksie vir die sosiale, fisiese en geestelike lewe van die mense. Behoeftes van die menslike wereld bepaal die rol van plaaslike woudkennissisteme in die interpretasie van en reaksie op die natuurlike omgewing, en rig die gebruik van hulpbronbestuurspraktyke. Die bestuur van agro-ekologiese volhoubaarheid is gebaseer op die plaaslike definisie van geluk, sosiale verteenwoordiging van ruimte en op ‘n multikriteria benadering wat bio-indikatore kombineer soos plante, erdwurmaktiwiteite, ouderdom van plantegroei- of woudbedekking, grondkleur- en kwaliteit, maar is ook positief beinvloed deur grondgebruiksgeskiedenis, die gebruikswaarde van natuurlike en gewassoorte, die kennis van gewaskwaliteite, die kennis van die interaksie tussen gewasse en tussen gewasse en natuurlike plantsoorte, die boomgrootte van boomsoorte wat gebruik word, die toekomstige gebruik van ‘n huidige grondgebruik, die beraamde grondgebruik vir eie gebruik en vir toegang tot die markte.

La gestion participative intégrée a obtenu une reconnaissance internationale en Europe avec les approches de gestion intégrée des zones côtières (GIZC). Avec le protocole GIZC de la convention de Barcelone, le mouvement a dépassé les frontières de l'Europe pour inclure tout le bassin méditerranéen. Cette recherche soulève la question de l'application de modèles standardisés de gestion environnementale dans différents contextes géopolitiques et socioculturels. L'objectif global de cette étude est d'améliorer la mise en place et l'impact des projets de conservation par une meilleure compréhension de leurs dimensions sociales, culturelles et géographiques. Cette recherche propose une analyse de la complexité des perceptions socioculturelles et des dynamiques de gouvernances dans deux sites d'étude (la Camargue en France et le Delta du Gediz en Turquie). Quatre-vingt treize entretiens qualitatifs et quantitatifs ont été menés suivant une méthode d'échantillonnage raisonné. L'application possible de la gestion participative intégrée a été envisagée à travers l'optique des réseaux sociaux, des discours environnementaux, et des valeurs et perceptions environnementales en mobilisant les outils de la géo-gouvernance. En utilisant chacun de ces points de vue, nous avons démontré que la participation est considérée, pensée et appliquée de manière différente au sein de chaque site. Ces différences soutiennent l'hypothèse dominante de ce travail : les stratégies environnementales doivent être adaptées pour s'adapter à chaque contexte local. Nos résultats rappellent qu'il ne faut pas survoler les contextes locaux si l'on veut garantir l'efficacité des institutions. / Participatory integrated management gained international recognition in Europe with integrated coastal zone management (ICZM) approaches. The movement has spread beyond the European borders and includes the entire Mediterranean basin with the ICZM Protocol under the Barcelona Convention. This research raises the question on the application of standardized environmental management models in distinct geopolitical and socio-cultural contexts. The overall objective of this analysis is to improve the implementation and impact of conservation projects through an improved understanding of social, cultural and geographical dimensions. This research analyzes the complexity of socio-cultural perceptions and dynamics of environmental governance within and between sites (the Rhone delta, France and the Gediz delta, Turkey). Base lines were established for political and administrative contexts, ecological states and socio-cultural perspectives to analyze the similarities and differences. Ninety three qualitative and quantitative interviews were conducted using a purposive sampling methodology. The potential application of integrated participatory management was studied through the lenses of social networks, environmental discourses, and environmental values and perceptions with a geo-governance approach. Using each of these views, we demonstrated that participation is considered, sought and implemented in distinct ways in each site. These differences support the dominant theme of this work: environmental strategies must be adapted to suit site specific contexts. The results are a reminder that we should not overlook local contexts if we want to promote institutional effectiveness.

<p>Effects of prairie restoration on arthropod diversity was investigated at Gabis Arboretum, Valparaiso, Indiana. A total of 35,408 arthropods belonging to 13 taxa in the restored prairie (RP1 and RP2), old field (OF), and monoculture stand of Phalaris arundinacea (reed canary grass – RCG) sites, were captured, counted, and compared. The enhanced plant species diversity in the restored prairies did not appear to promote the diversity of arthropod taxa. However, the restoration led to a more balanced composition of arthropod functional groups and thus elevated the diversity of functional groups. The arthropod assemblages in the three sites diverged clearly according to my canonical correspondence analysis (CCA) ordination. Pollinator abundance was greatest at RP and least at RCG site, positively correlating with greater forb diversity, and suggesting greater potential for nectar feeding and pollination potential at RP sites. Herbivore abundance was greatest at the RP sites, positively correlating with increasing plant species diversity. Predator abundance was significantly greater at the RCG site compared to the OF and RP sites; it was positively correlated with greater C3 grass cover, a characteristic of the structurally homogenous RCG site, and negatively correlated with increasing plant diversity and forb cover, a characteristic of the diverse and more structurally complex RP sites. Given the apparent non-random distribution of arthropods among the field types, my results suggest plant species composition has a significant effect on arthropod assembly. The monoculture grass stand was found to have a predator dominated arthropod community supported by a small, diverse herbivore community. It is concluded that the prairie restoration has resulted in alteration of arthropod communities supporting greater pollinator and herbivore abundance and a more balanced ratio of herbivores to predators due, in part, to increased plant structural diversity.</p>