Engaged Research Can Advance Knowledge AND Promote Positive Change among the Rural Poor

There is increasing interest in investigative processes known as “Engaged Research.” Such approaches include aspects of Farming Systems Research & Extension, Participatory Rural Appraisal, Participatory Action Research, and Innovation Systems. Engaged Research—a term recently popular in the USA—is founded on long-term relationships among stakeholders and emphasizes problem-solving based on co-production of knowledge. We are now at a time when science-based knowledge should be implemented to improve the lives of the rural poor under the triple threat of poverty, natural resource degradation, and climate change. Traditional ways of conducting applied, academic study can be reconfigured to this end, improving research effectiveness beyond publications. The objective of this paper is to review the author’s experiences concerning four Engaged-Research projects and summarize lessons learned. Projects include improving risk management among pastoralists in Ethiopia as well as enhancing climate-change adaptation among pastoralists and small-holder farmers in Ethiopia, Nepal, and Uganda. Project outcomes have included economic diversification of households, empowerment of women, and water-resource development in addition to research outputs. Key elements of this approach include: (1) Joint identification of major problems and solutions; (2) trust building among stakeholders; (3) peer-to-peer learning; (4) investments to build human and social capital; and (5) facilitating growth of stakeholder self-help networks. Given there are typically positive effects of Engaged Research on stakeholders, why aren’t such approaches more common? The answer lies in the narrow incentives governing academia and development organizations; such incentives reward traditional ways of working rather than reflecting development impacts in the field. Other obstacles include the transaction costs and need for sustained funding in support of engaged activity from beginning to the end of a project. Researchers in developing nations can become involved in Engaged Research. How such scientists can navigate traditional incentive structures and enhance fund-raising for Engaged Research are reviewed

Conceptualizing Pastoral Development Based on Carbon Sequestration: The Case of Yabelo District in the Southern Ethiopian Rangelands

Major challenges for rangeland stewardship in the developing world include how to mitigate the spread of pastoral poverty and environmental degradation. Arresting such trends requires a scale of investment, policy incentives, and institutional commitments not previously observed in pastoral development. Indeed, such a rangeland revolution requires several global events to set the stage, namely: (1) Creation of markets for diverse ecosystem services; (2) recognition that improved rangeland stewardship is vital to mitigate climate change; and (3) distribution of green climate funds in support of local projects. New approaches for pastoral development projects are also needed. Previous projects have largely focused on attempts to stimulate commercial livestock offtake, but such efforts often fail. What are the alternatives? Payments to local stakeholders in support of conservation and enhanced ecosystem services such as carbon sequestration may provide one answer, shifting the development debate from livestock (provisioning services) to resource conservation (regulatory and supporting services). Yabelo District on the Borana Plateau of southern Ethiopia provides a basis for a conceptual analysis of such a shift because it has been well-described by diverse data sets. Initial results from a synthesis of ecological and economic information suggests that efforts to promote landscape change via bush control and deferred livestock grazing could increase carbon sequestration by 18% over 10 years, and thus generate annual stipends up to US $731 per capita for a population around 103,000. This poverty-mitigating action would require a global carbon price of USD$106 per ton; similar income goals could be achieved at a carbon price of USD $53 per ton if the population eligible for payment was cut in half. Annual fluctuation in carbon prices, unreliability of local markets for food purchases, up-front costs for preparatory land management at USD$1.2 M/year, and need for resource monitoring/compliance are major project challenges

Of Grasslands and Guns: Natural-Resource Based Conflict Among the Waso Borana Pastoralists of Northern Kenya

The once productive, arid rangelands of northern Kenya, traditionally dominated by a mix of woody species (Acacia, Commiphora, Cordia spp.) and graminoids (Tetrapogon, Aristida, Chrysopogon and Sporobolus spp.) have gradually deteriorated in ecological condition over recent decades (Herlocker, 1999). A major factor considered to be responsible for this trend is the disintegration of traditional systems of land stewardship. Traditional authority has waned in northern Kenya and has often been replaced by open-access tenure, overseen by ineffectual government administrators. Couple this with frequent droughts that typify this zone, as well as expanding populations of people and livestock, and the net result is increased competition for diminishing quantity and quality of grazing and water resources. Local people throughout northern Kenya have reportedly entered a survival mode of existence where the incidence of armed conflict has increased because resource-based disputes have intensified (Smith et al., 2000). The objective of this research was to investigate and quantify the views of the Waso Boran people, one of many ethnic groups in the northern Kenyan rangelands, concerning the causes, and possible solutions, for their conflicts that revolve around natural resources

Key Issues Generated from the XI International Rangeland Congress 2021: Summary and Way Forward

The important issues, knowledge gaps, and evolving research approaches for the global rangelands are summarised in this review of submissions to the Joint XXIV International Grasslands and XI International Rangelands Congress (IGC/IRC). In the big picture, it is concluded that stand-alone studies of livestock production are becoming rare compared to that of the past International Rangelands Congresses (IRC). Rather, added effort is now being directed at understanding the fuller context of social-ecological systems (SESs) on rangelands in a quest to improve the prospects for sustainable resource management as well as the enhancement of human welfare. Although climate change is upon us, there was still a dearth of papers that dealt with broad- scaled climate-adaptation per se; opportunities to improve local drought response were the default topics here with a focus on implementing better drought early warning systems and integrating perspectives among producers and scientists. Invasive species challenges remain as prominent global concerns, and woody encroachment is viewed as a major contributor to rangeland degradation. Treatments to combat rangeland degradation can involve innovative layering methods incorporating grazing management and use of prescribed fire. While there is an important backdrop concerning ecosystem services from rangelands, research in this area is still in its infancy. Analysing trade-offs between production and conservation for services such as carbon sequestration loom large going forward. There were relatively few papers concerning wildlife, tourism, and associated issues; successes and challenges for natural resource conservancies were noted, in particular. These are topics that merit more creative research and development attention in the future. Some contributions highlighted the important issue of landscape conversion from rangelands to cultivation; in conjunction with human population growth, loss of such key resources can be very negative for wildlife and associated values. In terms of pastoralism and related sub-themes, while it was noted that the majority of studies now embrace SESs and integrated, participatory, action- oriented approaches, there is little effort to standardize methodologies. A focus on repeatable methods can help grow sustainability science on rangelands, and this is a challenge for research and outreach education. The volume of studies submitted overall indicated a decided numerical advantage for the Global South over the Global North. Why this is the case remains unclear, however. Disciplinary research traditions in wealthier nations may not yet provide the incentives needed to spur innovative SES work. Finally, policy makers are seen by many investigators as being ignorant of rangeland development issues. It is argued, however, that this view has not changed for 40 years. How to better engage policy makers in comprehensive SES projects is an important future goal. Policy makers themselves can then also become human research subjects in the overall process. Based on our review the future for IRC stakeholders is clear: Continue the expansion of interdisciplinary SES and action-based approaches and increase attention to climate-change adaptation/mitigation, ecosystem services, community-based development, human empowerment, market development, poverty mitigation, and creation of effective policy frameworks

Community Perceptions of Vulnerable Key Ecological Resources in Baringo, Kenya

Key resources in arid lands are often relatively small patches of seasonal grazing or water access that critically support entire livestock production systems (Scoones, 1993). When these are lost, production systems may be destroyed. An early-warning system is needed whereby key resources at risk can be identified and protected. The Baringo District of north-central Kenya has endured decades of resource abuse and high rates of population growth-breakdowns of traditional systems have occurred and food relief is common (Little, 1992). Despite this situation, most production system research in the past has been conducted at local scales of resolution. The advent of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) technology, however, allows investigations to scale-up. Precise mapping of resource problems is now possible, and such maps can provide useful communication tools to better address issues. We have undertaken a hierarchical approach that focuses on the district, divisions, localities and communities. At the largest spatial scales we rely on social science methods to assess perceived key resources at risk according to community leaders, while at smaller scales we use ecological methods to verify and quantify resource vulnerability. Here we report on the first phase of research involving surveys of community leaders

Avenues for Enhancing Traditional Livelihoods from Grasslands: Income Diversification Among Pastoral Women’s Groups in Southern Ethiopia

The rangelands of Africa remain home to millions of people who try to make a living by raising livestock on natural forage. Recent increase in human and livestock populations, however, along with a lack of economic development, has relegated many people to poverty and vulnerability. The semi-arid Borana Plateau of southern Ethiopia is a case in point. About 250,000 people herd one million head of livestock there. Thousands of animals die in periodic droughts and people are food insecure. It has been proposed that one way to better manage risk in this system is through economic diversification to reduce vulnerability (Desta & Coppock, 2002). The need to better address problems requires that local human capacity be built and solutions carefully targeted. To this end some members of the USAID-funded Pastoral Risk Management (PARIMA) project have adopted participatory research methods where scientists, communities, and development agents share power in a process of problem solving

Community-based rangeland management in Namibia improves resource governance but not environmental and economic outcomes

This is the final version. Available on open access from Nature Research via the DOI in this recordData availability: Hypotheses and analytical methods for this research were pre-registered prior to analysis through the American Economic Association’s RCT registry and are available online (https://www.socialscienceregistry.org/trials/2723). Data used for this research are accessible at the Millennium Challenge Corporation website (https://data.mcc.gov/evaluations/index.php/catalog/138/study-description) and will also be linked to on the Innovations for Poverty Action dataverse. In the publicly available data, some numerical outliers have been censored in order to preserve the anonymity of the survey respondents. This censoring does not affect the direction and statistical significance of our results. Access to uncensored data is available upon request from the Millennium Challenge Corporation or the corresponding author, subject to approval by the Millennium Challenge Corporation.Code availability: Data analysis was conducted in R and Stata. All code needed to replicate the figures and tables in this paper and the Supplementary Information is available, with accompanying datasets, through the Millennium Challenge Corporation at (https://data.mcc.gov/evaluations/index.php/catalog/138/study-description) and will also be linked to on the Innovations for Poverty Action dataverse.Classic theories suggest that common pool resources are subject to overexploitation. Community-based resource management approaches may ameliorate tragedy of the commons effects. Here we use a randomized evaluation in Namibia’s communal rangelands to study a comprehensive four-year program to support community-based rangeland and cattle management. We find that the program led to persistent and large improvements for eight of thirteen indices of social and behavioral outcomes. Effects on rangeland health, cattle productivity and household economics, however, were either negative or nil. Positive impacts on community resource management may have been offset by communities’ inability to control grazing by non-participating herds and inhibited by an unresponsive rangeland sub-system. This juxtaposition, in which measurable improvements in community resource management did not translate into better outcomes for households or rangeland health, demonstrates the fragility of the causal pathway from program implementation to intended socioeconomic and environmental outcomes. It also points to challenges for improving climate change–adaptation strategies.Millennium Challenge Corporatio

Understanding signaling cascades in melanoma

Understanding regulatory pathways involved in melanoma development and progression has advanced significantly in recent years. It is now appreciated that melanoma is the result of complex changes in multiple signaling pathways that affect growth control, metabolism, motility and the ability to escape cell death programs. Here we review the major signaling pathways currently known to be deregulated in melanoma with an implication to its development and progression. Among these pathways are Ras, B-Raf, MEK, PTEN, phosphatidylinositol-3 kinase (PI3Ks) and Akt which are constitutively activated in a significant number of melanoma tumors, in most cases due to genomic change. Other pathways discussed in this review include the [Janus kinase/signal transducer and activator of transcription (JAK/STAT), transforming growth factor-beta pathways which are also activated in melanoma, although the underlying mechanism is not yet clear. As a paradigm for remodeled signaling pathways, melanoma also offers a unique opportunity for targeted drug development.Fil: Lopez Bergami, Pablo Roberto. Sanford-burnham Medical Research Institute; Estados Unidos. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Instituto de Biología y Medicina Experimental. Fundación de Instituto de Biología y Medicina Experimental. Instituto de Biología y Medicina Experimental; ArgentinaFil: Fitchmann, B. Sanford-burnham Medical Research Institute; Estados UnidosFil: Ronai, Ze´ev. Sanford-burnham Medical Research Institute; Estados Unido

Color adjectives, standards, and thresholds: an experimental investigation

Are color adjectives (“red”, “green”, etc.) relative adjectives or absolute adjectives? Existing theories of the meaning of color adjectives attempt to answer that question using informal (“armchair”) judgments. The informal judgments of theorists conflict: it has been proposed that color adjectives are absolute with standards anchored at the minimum degree on the scale, that they are absolute but have near- midpoint standards, and that they are relative. In this paper we report two experiments, one based on entailment patterns and one based on presupposition accommodation, that investigate the meaning of scalar adjectives. We find evidence confirming the existence of subgroups of the population who operate with different standards for color adjectives. The evidence of interpersonal variation in where standards are located on the relevant scale and how those standards can be adjusted indicates that the existing theories of the meaning of color adjectives are at best only partially correct. We also find evidence that paradigmatic relative adjectives (“tall”, “wide”) behave in ways that are not predicted by the standard theory of scalar adjectives. We discuss several different possible explanations for this unexpected behavior. We conclude by discussing the relevance of our findings for philosophical debates about the nature and extent of semantically encoded context sensitivity in which color adjectives have played a key role