Thesis (MScFor (Forest and Wood Science))--University of Stellenbosch, 2009. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This thesis assesses the livelihoods of rural households in a proposed green field forestry area, located in Sanga District of Niassa province, Mozambique. The livelihood analysis was used to analyze potential socio-economic impacts of introducing forest plantations to rural households located within the proposed afforestation area. The study made use of household interviews, key informant interviews and secondary data. The sustainable livelihoods framework was used in the research process to develop the household questionnaire and to identify livelihood strategies. Data was analyzed using 331 household questionnaires collected throughout the proposed afforestation area in various communities in the study area. Findings from the study indicated that there is minimal wealth gaps between rural households; but that the introduction of the forestry industry and the subsequent employment created thereof may result in larger wealth gaps between wage earning and non-wage earning households. The study further concludes by linking the potential socio-economic impacts with mitigation recommendations that could be harmonized with FSC Standard requirements for forestry companies interested in developing a forest industry in the study area. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie tesis ontleed die lewensbestaan van landelike huishoudings in ‘n voorgestelde nuwe bosbou area, gelee in die Sanga distrik van die Niassa provinsie, Mosambiek. Die lewensbestaan ontleding was gebruik om die potensiele sosio-ekonomiese impak van die vestiging van bosbou plantasies op landelike huishoudings in die voorgestelde bebossings area te analiseer. Hierdie studie het gebruik gemaak van huishoudelike onderhoude, sleutel informant onderhoude asook sekondere data. Die volhoubare lewensbestaan raamwerk was gebruik in die navorsings proses om die huishoudelike onderhoude te ontwikkel en om die huishoudelike strategiee te identifiseer. Data was geanaliseer van 331 huishoudelike onderhoude afgeneem in verskeie gemeenskappe binne die studie areas. Bevindinge van die studie het aangetoon dat daar minimale inkomste gapings is tussen landelike huishoudings, maar met die vestiging van kommersiele bosbou en geassosieerde werskeppings moontlikhede, mag groter inkomste gapings ontwikkel tussen huishoudings wat inkostes uit bosbou verdien en huishoudings daarsonder. Verder het die studie aangetoon dat daar ‚n potensiele sosiale impak is van mense wat na die area migreer en dat sulke impakte deur FSC sertifisering beheer kan word.

Construction of municipal utility complexes has to support continuing population growth, economic development, and a widespread of social interest in environmental preservation. Municipalities face challenges in designing, constructing, and operating environmentally sustainable utility complexes, and their primary goal in developing such a complex is to minimize the environmental impact resulting from energy production and waste treatment (both liquid and solid), management, and disposal. However, decision and policy makers lack a system of systems approach that takes into account multiple interdependent systems comprised of the functional system (infrastructure, facilities, operations within the complex…), the economic system, the social/cultural system, and the environmental system (environmental impact on air, water, soil…). This research proposes a decision support system (DSS) with a new methodology using Vensim software and system dynamics methodology to assess the sustainability of a municipal utility complex system. This DSS incorporates 1) multiple interdependent systems, 2) multiple sustainability/performance indices, and 3) composite sustainability index. Engineers, managers, and researchers should benefit from a system of systems perspective, and from the application of a sustainability assessment method that is developed to provide an environmentally-conscious design, construction and management. Although a municipal utility complex is built with synergistic opportunities for integration of processes of a wastewater treatment plant, a resource recovery facility (aka waste-to-energy (WTE) or incineration facility), a material recycling facility (MRF), and a landfill; engineers tend to use the traditional sustainability assessment methods only to assess the life cycle (LCA) of each system's process over time. They might not necessarily incorporate an assessment based on system dynamics of the functional, economic, environmental, and social/cultural systems. Data from a case study is utilized in this dissertation based on the municipal utility complex in Pasco County in the western region of the State of Florida, USA.

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.

<p>There are two central themes to this thesis. Firstly, it shows how the adoption of people-centered and greening development paradigms, designed to improve mainstream development problems of the late 20^th century, continue to produce unsatisfactory and unsustainable results for intended beneficiaries in the 21^st century. Secondly, it shows how the “intended beneficiaries” use their experiences and their knowledge of the development processes to analyze, explain and voice why it has not worked for them. Their <em>local knowledge</em> illustrates how beneficiaries continue to remain on the “outside” or peripheral to development instead of being equal partners as the people-centered discourse claims.</p> <p>This thesis reviews the development of the Wadi Rum Protected Area (WRPA) in southern Jordan. This development fostered both conservation and tourism projects to assist members of the seven local Bedouin communities or clans whose historical rangelands constitute the protected area. Four significant development decisions and projects are examined to better understand how this development functioned. Many Bedouin commentaries and those of some non-Bedouin involved in the projects provide social, economic and environmental assessments of the protected area's progress over a ten year continuum. What emerges is a nuanced awareness of how the WRPA has not achieved its stated goals or the benefits promised to the Bedouin, but did support other developers', lenders' and government objectives. Bedouin knowledge also highlights how “development” has contributed to a near dissolution of their control over what had been their tourism industry, how it has usurped their control of their lands and villages, how the project has created greater divisiveness between and within the clans and how it has come to support the growth of tourism over environmental protection. In general, the development of the Wadi Rum Protected Area has not achieved its people-centered and green goals.</p> / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

The main objective of this research is to evaluate the socio economic impact of the development programs like MGNREGA, JnNURM and development of Roads project, on the intended target area. The entire thesis can be divided in to two parts; (1) developing method to evaluate the socio economic impact assessment and (2) case studies. Two different techniques were used to evaluate the change in the productivity. Initially the change is measure by calculating the difference in the efficiencies between two time period using base period and current period production technologies. To illustrate this method a case study of MGNREGA has been considered to evaluate the impact of seventeen districts of the country. From the results it is found that there is difficult in comparing the two efficiencies due to the scaling issue of two production technologies. Further Data Envelopment Analysis is used to evaluate the distance function in the calculation of Malmquist index (MI). MI gives the productivity change between two time periods and is calculated as the geometric mean of two ratios measured with reference to the time period and time period respectively. A new approach is presented by interpreting the two ratios of MI separately using the distance functions to identify the productivity change between two time periods. Three different regions were identified to determine the productivity change; improvement region which observe improvement in the productivity between two time periods, deterioration region which indicate deterioration in the productivity and status quo region suggesting the stagnation region. Two case studies i.e. Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation and development of roads under the name “5054-Decongestion of Roads project” were considered. The impact of Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JnNURM) funds on the performance of Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) is studied using the proposed method. The results suggest that for 50 percent of the overall productivity have improved due to the intervention. The deterioration is mainly because of the addition input surplus in terms of number of buses and output slack in terms of reduced load factor, effective distance travelled, operational costs and increase in number of breakdown and accident rates for these DMU’s. The socio economic impact of the roads developed by Government of Karnataka under the name of “5054-Decongestion of Roads project” in and around Bangalore was also studied using this method and the results shows that out of five DMU’s four DMU’s show improvement in the productivity.

Dans un contexte d’augmentation constante des dépenses de santé, la création et l'utilisation des technologies innovantes en chirurgie mini-invasive est de plus en plus tributaire de notre capacité à démontrer leur efficacité et évaluer leurs impacts. À ce jour, comme nous le montrons tout au long de cette thèse, la littérature en sciences économiques ne fournit pas aux décideurs et aux évaluateurs les outils adéquats pour réaliser de telles évaluations.Notre travail combine les meilleurs aspects de l'économie de la santé et de l'économie de l'innovation afin d’établir un cadre méthodologique commun pour l'évaluation des innovations chirurgicales hybrides. En utilisant l'institut de chirurgie guidée par l'image (IHU Strasbourg) comme fondation pour nos analyses, nous créons les bases pour une évaluation coût-bénéfice globale couvrant aussi bien ses activités de soin que de R\&D.L'utilisation des outils développés dans cette thèse permettra à l'IHU, ou tout autre institut chirurgical, de justifier l’intérêt de ces types d'activités en démontrant que les impacts socio-économiques d'une innovation chirurgicale peuvent, éventuellement, compenser le coût supplémentaire qu'elle génère pour le système de santé. / With constant rises in healthcare expenditures, the creation and use of innovative technologies in Minimally Invasive Surgery (MIS) is increasingly dependent on our ability to demonstrate their efficiency and evaluate their impacts. To date, as we show throughout this thesis, the economic literature has not provided decision makers and analysts with the adequate tools to perform such evaluations.Our work combines the best aspects of health economics and economics of innovation to establish a common methodological framework for the evaluation of hybrid innovations in MIS. Using the Institute of Image Guided Surgery (IHU Strasbourg) as a base for our investigations, we create the groundwork for a comprehensive cost-benefit evaluation covering the institute’s patient care and R\&D activities.The use of the tools developed in this thesis will allow the IHU, or any other surgical institute, to provide advocacy for these types of activities by demonstrating that the socio-economic impacts of a surgical innovation can possibly outweigh the additional cost it incurs to the healthcare system.

Magister Psychologiae - MPsych / The aim of the study was to establish what the perceptions and attitudes are of employees at different levels of the organisation with regard to HIV/AIDS testing. A further aim was to identify possible reasons for the poor employee response to voluntary HIV/AIDS testing. It was thus important for this research to gauge employee knowledge, attitude and behaviour toward HIV/AIDS in order for organisations to develop strategies for effective HIV/AIDS counselling and testing programmes.

MENVSC (Geography) / Department of Geography and Geo-Information Science / Artisanal and small-scale gold mining (ASGM) has devastating impacts on different parts of the environment and is a source of environmental degradation and contamination. ASGM degrades water resources, contaminate soil, sediments and water and lead to serious land degradation problems. ASGM activities are also associated with socio-economic issues such as child labour, prostitution and health and safety concerns. Insufficient understanding of the environmental and social problems of ASGM in Giyani Greenstone Belt has led to lack of mitigation strategies to reduce such problems. The main aim of this research was to assess and manage the environmental and socio-economic impacts of ASGM in Giyani Greenstone Belt. Remote sensing and GIS and Normalised Differential Vegetation Index were used to assess the effects of mining activities on vegetation cover. Assessment of the effects of ASGM on water, sediments and soil quality involved collection of samples in order to establish their physical and chemical properties. The concentration of toxic and trace metals were determined using Atomic Absorption Spectrometer (AAS) and X-ray Fluorescence (XRF) instruments. The pH meter was used to determine the pH level of the collected samples. Questionnaires, interviews and SPSS were used to assess socio-economic impacts of ASGM. The study culminated in devolvement of NDVI maps and this was used to assess the effects of ASGM on vegetation cover. Results showed that the mining activities in the area had caused extensive environmental degradation due to serious removal of vegetation cover in the site. ASGM had serious effects on soil, water and sediments quality such as environmental contamination by toxic and trace elements. Soil samples were found with high concentration of As, Cr, Cu, Ni, Pb and Zn as compared to the recommended South African Soil Quality and WHO threshold values for plants. It was found that Klein Letaba had high concentration of Ba, La, V, and Ce above the World Soil Averages for plants. Sediments were heavily contaminated with Cr, Ni, Pb, Zn, As and Ba as compared to the recommended standards prescribed by US EPA and WHO. The pH of water, soil and sediments samples collected from both mining sites were found to be strongly alkaline which affects the plants growth as well as aquatic flora and fauna. Socio-economic issues such as child labour, injuries, educational problems, health and safety issues, police disturbance, creation of jobs and income generation were identified at mine sites. ASGM had serious effect on vegetation cover through environmental degradation. ASGM also had serious environmental contamination by toxic and trace elements. ASGM had both positive and negative socio-economic issues at mining site which include employment opportunities, income generation, occupational health and safety, police disturbance and arrests and the use of child labour. Mine site rehabilitation is recommended in this study to reduce environmental degradation. The remediation of contaminated area by concentrated toxic and trace elements should be applied at both mining sites. ASGM should be legalised to enhance positive aspects of the mining such as increase in income generation and creation of more employment opportunities. However, there should be enforcement of mining policies to reduce social and environmental problems.

MRDV / Institute for Rural Development / See the attached abstract below

The majority of people in the mining areas in Limpopo, South Africa, depend on agriculture to sustain their livelihoods; however, the mines have also become important because they create better employment opportunities. The purpose of the study was to analyse the impact of mining on agriculture and socio-economic aspects in the rural communities of the Greater Tubatse Local Municipality. The objectives were to profile the socio-demographic characteristics of the community members surrounding a chrome mine; to determine the impact of mining activities on agricultural production (crop and livestock production); to determine factors influencing farmers’ perceived impact of mining activities on agricultural production; and to ascertain the socio-economic (natural capital, financial capital, social capital, human capital, physical capital) impact of mining activities on the local communities. A quantitative research approach was used to conduct the study using a survey design. Six villages surrounding a chrome mine in the Greater Tubatse Local Municipality in Limpopo participated in the study. Stratified and random sampling approaches were used to select participants from each village to constitute a sample of 347. A total of 347 survey questionnaires were administered through face-to-face interviews but only 309 were correctly and fully completed. SPSS version 24 was used to analyse the data. The data were analysed using descriptive statistics, the ordered logistic regression model, Wilcoxon signed ranks test and binomial test. The majority (50.8%) of the respondents were male. Sepedi was the most spoken language (97.7%). Most (63.3%) of the respondents were in the age range of 18-30, and 76.4% were single in terms of marital status. A large proportion of the respondents (70.6%) could read and write because they had secondary education. Land ownership findings show that more than half (58.1%) of the respondents had farm plot sizes between 4.6 and 10.5 ha. Average farm plot size was 4.1 ha, and only a few (1.3%) of the plots were above 9 ha. The average family size was about 7 people (actual 6.7). A large proportion (77.7%) of the respondents were dependent on government social grants (pensioners, disability and orphans) as the main source of income. Regarding the impact of mines on agriculture, the study found that in general, the mines did not have a negative impact on the production of livestock and crops, except for donkeys and groundnuts, which were negatively affected. In addition, the findings also show that a large proportion (92.6%) of the respondents lost their agricultural land (mainly grazing land) because of increased mining activities, although the loss of land did not affect production. With regard to the socioeconomic impact of mining activities on the surrounding communities, the study found that the mines had a negative impact on natural capital, physical capital, financial capital and social capital. However, the impact on human capital was positive. It is recommended that mining companies in the study area provide the necessary support to improve the socioeconomic status of the rural communities surrounding the mines in Greater Tubatse Local Municipality. / Agriculture, Animal Health and Human Ecology / M. Sc. (Agriculture)