Patterns and Perceptions of Climate Change in a Biodiversity Conservation Hotspot

Quantifying local people's perceptions to climate change, and their assessments of which changes matter, is fundamental to addressing the dual challenge of land conservation and poverty alleviation in densely populated tropical regions To develop appropriate policies and responses, it will be important not only to anticipate the nature of expected changes, but also how they are perceived, interpreted and adapted to by local residents. The Albertine Rift region in East Africa is one of the world's most threatened biodiversity hotspots due to dense smallholder agriculture, high levels of land and resource pressures, and habitat loss and conversion. Results of three separate household surveys conducted in the vicinity of Kibale National Park during the late 2000s indicate that farmers are concerned with variable precipitation. Many survey respondents reported that conditions are drier and rainfall timing is becoming less predictable. Analysis of daily rainfall data for the climate normal period 1981 to 2010 indicates that total rainfall both within and across seasons has not changed significantly, although the timing and transitions of seasons has been highly variable. Results of rainfall data analysis also indicate significant changes in the intra-seasonal rainfall distribution, including longer dry periods within rainy seasons, which may contribute to the perceived decrease in rainfall and can compromise food security. Our results highlight the need for fine-scale climate information to assist agro-ecological communities in developing effective adaptive management

An interdisciplinary method to harmonise ecology, economy and co-management: fisheries exploitation in Lake Nabugabo, Uganda

Collective action theory predicts that natural resource management at a local level has a higher probability of success if territoriality and jurisdiction of the managerial institution are in synchrony with mobility and territoriality of the resource and exploitation patterns of local users. In several East African lakes local managerial institutions (beach management units) have been created to devolve key responsibilities from government level to community level; however, a major challenge has been quantifying the territorial jurisdiction (spatial pattern of use within the lake) of the resource (fish) and resource users (fishers). This study introduces an interdisciplinary method combining anthropology and ecology in Lake Nabugabo, Uganda to: (1) create a map outlining social landmarks and ecological characteristics of the lake, (2) assess the distribution of important fished species, (3) quantify the spatial distribution of fishing effort of local fishers, and (4) quantify the composition of the fish catch. Results demonstrate spatial structure at all levels (social and ecological) of the fishery in Lake Nabugabo. We argue that the interdisciplinary method applied to Lake Nabugabo is practical and achievable in its application, and may be used more broadly to evaluate territorial jurisdiction of fishers and their resource.This research was supported by seed grants from the McGill School of Environment to CAC, IV, LJC and B Leung, from the Canada Research Chair fund to LJC, from NSERC Discovery grant to LJC, and an NSERC graduate fellow-ship to EN. We express our thanks to colleagues at the National Fisheries Resources Research Institute, Uganda, and the field assistants at Lake Nabugabo for their contributions to this project.Peer reviewe

Advancing sexual and reproductive health and rights of adolescents in Africa: The role of the courts

Across the world, adolescents encounter various challenges that may implicate the enjoyment of their sexual and reproductive health and rights. The situation of adolescents in Africa is aggravated by high poverty levels and a high disease burden in the region. Some of the challenges facing adolescents in Africa include high incidence of child marriage, unwanted pregnancy, unsafe abortion, and sexually transmitted infections, including HIV and maternal mortality. It is estimated that 1 in 3 girls is married before attaining 18 (UNFPA, Marrying too young: end child marriage. UN Population Fund, 2012), while an estimated 16 million adolescent girls aged 15–19 (most of them in poor regions, including Africa) give birth yearly. Also, about 31% of young women aged 20–24 in least developed countries gave birth before age 18 between 2000 and 2009 (UNICEF et al., Violence against Children in Tanzania: Findings from a National Survey 2009. UN Children’s Fund, US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences, 2011). An in-depth study of four sub-Saharan African countries found that 60% or more of adolescent men and women did not know how to prevent pregnancy and one-third or more did not know of a source for contraceptives (Guttmacher Institute and IPPF, Facts on the sexual and reproductive health of adolescent women in the developing world. Allan Guttmacher Institute and International Planned Parenthood Federation, 2010). The majority of about 300,000 women and girls that die annually (800 deaths per day) due to complications arising from childbirth are from Africa (UNFPA 2011)