Investment Opportunities for Livestock in the North Eastern Province of Kenya: A Synthesis of Existing Knowledge

Pastoralism is the dominant livelihood activity in the North Eastern Province (NEP) of Kenya. It is supplemented only by a limited amount of agriculture along the rivers. The province faces various developmental challenges including chronic poverty and food insecurity, low human capital and poor health standards, high vulnerability to climate change, poor infrastructure, insecurity and low crop and livestock productivity. This study synthesises existing knowledge and provides recommendations on livestock investments to increase incomes, create employment and reduce food insecurity in the province. It examines investment opportunities in livestock and presents scenarios that meet the objectives of Kenya’s 2030 vision. Four scenarios are analysed. The first scenario consists of the business-as-usual case: a vision of the state of the livestock sector, and its contribution to NEP and national economy, if the current trajectory is maintained. The second scenario outlines a strategy that focuses on catering to domestic demand for livestock products. The third scenario focuses on feeding foreign demand for live animals, while the fourth scenario investigates the possibilities of a livestock sector driven by exports of processed livestock products. Also in these investment scenarios, the broad-based growth contribution to the economy is discussed. The analysis indicates that all three alternative scenarios have far better impacts on pastoralists’ income and employment than the ‘business-as-usual’ scenario. The second scenario is found to have the largest favourable impact. Besides creating jobs and income opportunities, it provides alternatives to meet the growing livestock product consumption spurred by population increase, rising incomes and urbanization in Kenya. However, there are several requirements for this scenario to work and yield the desired impact. The need for creating a favourable investment climate is discussed and specific roles of the public and private sectors are explained

Resolving land tenure security is essential to deliver forest restoration

Tropical countries are making ambitious commitments to Forest Landscape Restoration with the aim of locking up carbon, conserving biodiversity and benefiting local livelihoods. However, global and national analyses of restoration potential frequently ignore socio-legal complexities which impact both the effectiveness and equitability of restoration. We show that areas with the highest restoration potential are disproportionately found in countries with weak rule of law and frequently in those with substantial areas of unrecognized land tenure. Focusing on Madagascar, at least 67% of the areas with highest restoration potential must be on untitled land, where tenure is often unclear or contested, and we show how unresolved tenure issues are one of the most important limitations on forest restoration. This is likely to be a bigger problem than currently recognized and without important efforts to resolve local tenure issues, opportunities to equitably scale up forest restoration globally are likely to be significantly over-estimated.UK Government’s Foreign, Commonwealth & Development OfficeEuropean Unio

Madagascar’s extraordinary biodiversity: Threats and opportunities

Madagascar's unique biota is heavily affected by human activity and is under intense threat. Here, we review the current state of knowledge on the conservation status of Madagascar's terrestrial and freshwater biodiversity by presenting data and analyses on documented and predicted species-level conservation statuses, the most prevalent and relevant threats, ex situ collections and programs, and the coverage and comprehensiveness of protected areas. The existing terrestrial protected area network in Madagascar covers 10.4% of its land area and includes at least part of the range of the majority of described native species of vertebrates with known distributions (97.1% of freshwater fishes, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals combined) and plants (67.7%). The overall figures are higher for threatened species (97.7% of threatened vertebrates and 79.6% of threatened plants occurring within at least one protected area). International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List assessments and Bayesian neural network analyses for plants identify overexploitation of biological resources and unsustainable agriculture as themost prominent threats to biodiversity. We highlight five opportunities for action at multiple levels to ensure that conservation and ecological restoration objectives, programs, and activities take account of complex underlying and interacting factors and produce tangible benefits for the biodiversity and people of Madagascar

Madagascar’s extraordinary biodiversity: Evolution, distribution, and use

Madagascar's biota is hyperdiverse and includes exceptional levels of endemicity. We review the current state of knowledge on Madagascar's past and current terrestrial and freshwater biodiversity by compiling and presenting comprehensive data on species diversity, endemism, and rates of species description and human uses, in addition to presenting an updated and simplified map of vegetation types. We report a substantial increase of records and species new to science in recent years; however, the diversity and evolution of many groups remain practically unknown (e.g., fungi and most invertebrates). Digitization efforts are increasing the resolution of species richness patterns and we highlight the crucial role of field- and collections-based research for advancing biodiversity knowledge and identifying gaps in our understanding, particularly as species richness corresponds closely to collection effort. Phylogenetic diversity patterns mirror that of species richness and endemism in most of the analyzed groups. We highlight humid forests as centers of diversity and endemism because of their role as refugia and centers of recent and rapid radiations. However, the distinct endemism of other areas, such as the grassland-woodland mosaic of the Central Highlands and the spiny forest of the southwest, is also biologically important despite lower species richness. The documented uses of Malagasy biodiversity are manifold, with much potential for the uncovering of new useful traits for food, medicine, and climate mitigation. The data presented here showcase Madagascar as a unique living laboratory for our understanding of evolution and the complex interactions between people and nature. The gathering and analysis of biodiversity data must continue and accelerate if we are to fully understand and safeguard this unique subset of Earth's biodiversity

The culture history of Madagascar

Madagascar's culture is a unique fusion of elements drawn from the western, northern, and eastern shores of the Indian Ocean, and its past has fascinated many scholars, yet systematic archaeological research is relatively recent on the island. The oldest traces of visitors are from the first century AD. Coastal settlements, with clear evidence of ties to the western Indian Ocean trading network, were established in several places over the next millennium. Important environmental changes of both plant and animal communities are documented over this period, including the extinctions of almost all large animal species. Urban life in Madagascar began with the establishment of the entrepôt of Mahilaka on the northwest coast of the island in the twelfth century. At about the same time, communities with ties to the trade network were established around the island's coasts. From the fourteenth to the sixteenth century, social hierarchies developed in several regions of the island. During the succeeding two centuries, Madagascar saw the development of state polities.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/45256/1/10963_2004_Article_BF00997802.pd

Note sur la confection des tissus de type ikat à Madagascar

3. G. Heurtebize dan J.A. Rakotoarisoa (Université de Madagascar) dengan teliti membeberkan berbagai proses dalam pembuatan anyaman "rabanes" di suatu daerah barat-laut Tanah Malagasi dimana masih dipertahankan proses kuna yang mengingatkan kita pada "ikat" di daerah Indonesia.3. G. Heurtebize and J.A. Rakotoarisoa (University of Madagascar) describe in detail the various stages of the making of "Rabanes" in a region N.W. of Madagascar, where an ancient process which is not unlike the "ikat" found in Indonesia has been preserved.3. G. Heurtebize et J.A. Rakotoarisoa (Université de Tananarive) décrivent en détail les diverses étapes de la fabrication des rabanes dans une région du Nord-ouest de Madagascar, où s'est maintenu un antique procédé qui rappelle Vikat du monde indonésien.Heurtebize G., Rakotoarisoa J. A. Note sur la confection des tissus de type ikat à Madagascar. In: Archipel, volume 8, 1974. pp. 67-81

Can reciprocal tariff elimination reduce the welfare losses due to lagging labour productivity?: An analysis of reciprocal preferential trade access between Sub-Saharan Africa and industrialized countries

This paper employs General Equilibrium framework modeling and estimates the effects of reciprocal preferential trade liberalization between Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) and the European Union (EU-25) and all industrialized countries by taking differences in labor productivity into account. We use standard GTAP 7.1 version, with eight aggregated sectors and ten aggregated regions. Simulation results show that prior to reciprocal tariff elimination, when econometric estimates of labor productivity growth are included, SSA loses by USD 12.6 billion annually because of lagging productivity growth, especially in its manufacturing sector. Elimination of tariffs between SSA and all industrialized countries in agriculture and manufacturing sectors improves SSA’s welfare by USD 2 billion, as a result of an increase in endowment and allocative efficiency effects. The gains, however, are not substantial. Results also show that a minimal annual average growth rate of 3 per cent in labor productivity in manufacturing sector will lead to positive allocative and endowment efficiency effects and counter SSA welfare losses

The Rasikajy civilization in northeast Madagascar: a pre-European Chinese Community?

Archaeological excavations in northern Madagascar during the first half of the 20th century have revealed the presence of a former prosperous civilisation known as the Rasikajy civilisation. Little is known about the origin of this civilisation and how and when they first arrived in Madagascar. The most striking evidence for the Rasikajy civilisation comes from excavations at a necropolis in Vohemar located along the northeast coast, where more than 600 tombs containing spectacular objects were unearthed in the 1940s (Vernier & Millot 1971). The findings in the tombs included, amongst others, Chinese ceramics, silver and gold jewellery, iron weapons, glassware, bronze mirrors and chlorite-schist objects (ibid.). The latter objects were produced from chlorite schist mined at quarries in northern and eastern Madagascar and there is evidence that jewellery and iron objects were also produced by the Rasikajy from locally available raw material. Chlorite-schist objects have not only been found in coastal sites in Madagascar, but also in the Comores and eastern Africa suggesting an active engagement of the Rasikajy in western Indian Ocean trade. Our re-evaluation of published literature on archaeological sites in northern Madagascar indicates that the majority of Chinese ceramics found in the tombs at Vohemar dates from the 15th and first half of the 16th century with some dating back to the 14th century or earlier. Our comparative analysis of burial objects at Vohemar shows that locally produced chlorite-schist tripod vessels exhibit remarkable resemblances to ancient Chinese bronze ritual tripod vessels. The objects encountered in the tombs and their positions with respect to the body indicate that the Rasikajy practiced burial rites similar to those practised in the past in China. Our re-evaluation of the literature suggests that communities with Chinese roots were present in northeastern Madagascar prior to the arrival of the first Europeans in 1500 and participated in the Indian Ocean trade network. The demise of the Rasikajy civilisation seems to have occurred in the second half of the 16th century when production of chlorite-schist objects ceased. It is still unclear why this occurred