Strengthening the Resiliency of Dryland Forest-Based Livelihoods in Ethiopia and South Sudan: A Review of Literature on the Interaction Between Dryland Forests, Livelihoods and Forest Governance

Dry forests account for nearly half of the world’s tropical and subtropical forests and provide a multitude of ecological services. They contribute to hydrological cycles and livestock and wildlife provisioning; and host pollinators and wild plants. They are also important ecological zones for dryland agriculture and pastoral livelihood strategies that support hundreds of millions of people around the world. Dry forests cover large areas and their biomass stores carbon and helps mitigate climate change. Dry forests are particularly important to people in Africa. They provide wood for construction and energy, contribute to local diets with wild fruits, vegetables, nuts, edible insects and bushmeat. Wild, edible plants provide essential nutrients, particularly during times of food scarcity. Yet dry forests are subject to high rates of deforestation and degradation driven mainly by agricultural expansion and growing energy demands. Other challenges include limited information on dry forests (their inventories, changes over time, major drivers of deforestation and recovery, etc.), their biophysical aspects and ecosystem services and the potential roles they could play in increasing the sustainability of crop and livestock farming. Governments, development partners and communities are looking for options to better manage these resources at the landscape level. Dry forests are complex ecosystems that are not fully understood. Scientific knowledge to better manage dry forests and sustain the livelihoods of people that depend on these ecosystems remains scanty as research to inform policy and practice is still very limited. The knowledge gap is even more pronounced in northeastern Africa, notably Ethiopia and South Sudan where these forest types are important in terms of areas coverage and in supporting rural livelihoods. Ethiopia and South Sudan share histories of political unrest and conflict that have contributed to famines; large-scale land acquisition for investment and agricultural expansion by smallholders are resulting in major and rapid land-use changes in their dry forested areas. Ethiopia’s two decades of peace and stability and its experience in managing its natural resources could inform post-conflict intervention measures in South Sudan. This study was conducted as an effort to help fill the knowledge gap in dry forest-based livelihoods through a critical review of the available literature. It used publications from CIFOR’s work on dry forests and product marketing in Ethiopia and from other sources, including gray literature. The study assessed the socio-ecological context, including relevant laws and strategies, with an emphasis on the biophysical characteristics of the dryland forests of Ethiopia and South Sudan and the major causes of deforestation and forest degradation. Using livelihood systems as an analytical framework, it examined (i) major livelihood strategies; (ii) the contribution of dry forests to livelihoods; (iii) forest product markets and value chains; and (iv) forest and land governance with an emphasis on the relationship between political, economic and resource management policies and the level of degradation of dry forests and their contributions to the livelihoods of forest-dependent communities in Ethiopia and South Sudan. It also identified major threats to dry, forest-based livelihoods and key issues for policy, research and practice that need to be addressed to maintain the multifunctionality of dryland forests while also ensuring the well-being of communities dependent on these landscapes

A comparison of the neuroprotective efficacy of newly developed oximes (K117, K127) and currently available oxime (obidoxime) in tabun-poisoned rats

The potency of newly developed bispyridinium compounds (K117, K127) to reduce tabun-induced acute neurotoxic signs and symptoms was compared with currently available oxime (obidoxime) using functional observational battery. The neuroprotective effects of atropine alone and atropine combined with one of three bispyridinium oximes (K117, K127, obidoxime) on rats poisoned with tabun at a sublethal dose (180 μg/kg i.m.; 80% of LD50 value) were studied. Tabun-induced neurotoxicity was monitored using a functional observational battery and automatic measurement of motor activity at 24 h following tabun challenge. The results indicated that all tested oximes combined with atropine enabled tabun-poisoned rats to survive 24 h following tabun challenge while one tabun-poisoned rats died within 24 h after tabun poisoning when the rats were treated with atropine alone. Newly developed oxime K127 combined with atropine was the most effective in decreasing tabun-induced neurotoxicity in the case of sublethal poisonings among all oximes tested. Nevertheless, the differences of neuroprotective efficacy between K127 and obidoxime are not sufficient to replace obidoxime by K127 for the treatment of acute tabun poisonings

Effects of cavity birefringence in polarisation-encoded quantum networks

The generation of entanglement between distant atoms via single photons is the basis for networked quantum computing, a promising route to large-scale trapped-ion and trapped-atom processors. Locating the emitter within an optical cavity provides an efficient matter-light interface, but mirror-induced birefringence within the cavity introduces time-dependence to the polarisation of the photons produced. We show that such `polarisation oscillation' effects can lead to severe loss of fidelity in the context of two-photon, polarisation encoded measurement-based remote entanglement schemes. It is always preferable to suppress these errors at source by minimising mirror ellipticity, but we propose two remedies for systems where this cannot be achieved. We conclude that even modest cavity birefringence can be detrimental to remote entanglement performance, to an extent that may limit the suitability of polarisation-encoded schemes for large-scale quantum networks.Comment: 18 pages, 8 figure

IMPACT OF CLIMATE CHANGE ON SMALL-HOLDER FARMING: A CASE OF EASTERN TIGRAY, NORTHERN ETHIOPIA

Although there are well-established concerns about climate change effects in northern Ethiopia, there is little quantitative information concerning how serious these effects are to small holder farming. Moreover, studies on farm level adaptations that farmers make to minimise the potential impacts of climate change are lacking. Both quantitative and qualitative information were, therefore, collected in a household survey in three representative agro-ecological zones to investigate these problems. There was a general perception among rural households that crop and livestock production, and land productivity declined in the last 20 years. The reduction was related to changes in rainfall. The rainfall was extremely unpredictable and erratic with a coefficient of variation ranging from 18 percent in the midlands to 42 percent in the lowlands. Livestock holding size and crop yield showed a positive correlation with rainfall amount. However, the number of pack animals significantly increased regardless of the decreased rainfall amount. This increased was due to farmers\u2019 shift to off-farm activities.M\ueame si les probl\ue8mes li\ue9s aux effets du changement climatique sont bien connus au Nord de l\u2019Ethiopie, les informations en rapport avec l\u2019ampleur de ces effets sur les petits exploitants restent insuffisantes. En plus, il n\u2019ya aucune \ue9tude disponible sur les m\ue9canismes d\u2019adaptation que les fermiers utilisent pour minimiser les impacts potentiels du changement climatiques. Les donn\ue9es quantitatives et qualitatives \ue9taient collect\ue9es au cours d\u2019une enquete de m\ue9nages dans trois zones agro \ue9cologiques repr\ue9sentatives, afin d\u2019\ue9tudier ces probl\ue8mes. Les r\ue9sultats ont montr\ue9 que les fermiers per\ue7oivent g\ue9n\ue9ralement que la production des cultures et d\u2019\ue9levage ainsi que la productivit\ue9 des terres ont diminu\ue9 depuis les 20 derni\ue8res ann\ue9es. Cette diminution \ue9tait li\ue9e au changement dans la pluviom\ue9trie. La pluviom\ue9trie \ue9tait extr\ueamement impr\ue9dictible et erratique avec un coefficient de variation allant de 18% dans les midlands \ue0 42% dans les bas fonds. La taille de la possession d\u2019\ue9levage et le rendement des cultures ont montr\ue9 une corr\ue9lation positive avec la quantit\ue9 des pluies. Cependant, le nombre du b\ue9tail en stabulation a significativement augment\ue9 malgr\ue9 la diminution des pluies. Cette augmentation \ue9tait due \ue0 la cr \ue9 ation d\u2019autres activit \ue9 s non agricoles

The major Ethiopian milksheds : an assessment of development potential

The development potential of 8 milksheds in Ethiopia was assessed and ranked for potential for value chain development, as part of the MIDD project. Major criteria for ranking were market potential, production potential, presence of services, and commercialization level of the value chain. Highest ranking milk sheds were Addis Abeba, Adama-Asella, and Bahir Dar–Gondar milksheds

Dryland restoration successes in the Sahel and Greater Horn of Africa show how to increase scale and impact

Drylands occupy more than 40% of the world’s land area and are home to some two billion people. This includes a disproportionate number of the world’s poorest people, who live in degraded and severely degraded landscapes. The United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification states on its website that 12 million hectares are lost annually to desertification and drought, and that more than 1.5 billion people are directly dependent on land that is being degraded, leading to US$42 billion in lost earnings each year. In Africa, three million hectares of forest are lost annually, along with an estimated 3% of GDP, through depleted soils. The result is that two-thirds of Africa’s forests, farmlands and pastures are now degraded. This means that millions of Africans have to live with malnutrition and poverty, and in the absence of options this further forces the poor to overexploit their natural resources to survive. This in turn intensifies the effects of climate change and hinders economic development, threatening ecological functions that are vital to national economies

Type of anaesthesia for caesarean section and failure rate in Princess Marina Hospital, Botswana\u2019s largest referral hospital

Background: Caesarean Section (CS) is a mode of delivery to decrease maternal and perinatal morbidity and mortality. We aimed to determine the type of anaesthesia used for CS among live-birth deliveries; and the failure rate of spinal anaesthesia (SA) in Princess Marina Referral Hospital, Botswana. Methods: Women who underwent CS from May-December 2017 were enrolled in the study. Data were recorded from anaesthesia charts and abstracted using Excel spreadsheet. We established the type of anaesthesia used, comparing the rate of elective versus emergency indications, and failure rate of SA using STATA. Fisher\u2019s exact test used to compare results. Results: Among 2775 live-birth deliveries, 30.2% (837/2775) was by CS. Of those, 95.2% (797/837) had had SA and 4.8% (40/837) were GA. Under SA, 27.4% (218/797) were elective, and 72.6% (579/797) were emergency. Under GA 10% (4/40) were elective and 90.0% (36/40) were emergency. The overall failure rate of SA was 2% (16/813), that is 0.9% (2/220) for elective and 2.4% (14/593) among emergency indications; Fisher\u2019s exact test p = 0.2959. Conclusion: Our study demonstrated that single shot SA is the most commonly preferred type of anaesthesia for both elective and emergency CS. The overall failure rate of SA was less common in our settings than previously reported

Renormalization of four-quark operators, effective theory, and the role of evanescent operators

We present, in the context of dimensional regularization, a prescription to renormalize Feynman diagrams with an arbitrary number of external fermions. This prescription, which is based on the original t'Hooft-Veltman proposal to keep external particles in four dimensions, is particularly useful to define the 'renormalization' (in the context of effective Lagrangian) of physical four-quark operators without introducing any evanescent operator. The results obtained for $b\rightarrow s$ processes agree with those from the so-called naive prescription, but disagree with the ones with the introduction of evanescent operators in a renormalization group analysis. We also present an explicit two loop calculation of the mixing of the evanescent operators with the physical dimension five operators for the same processes. Particular attention is paid to the unboundedness nature of such mixing and how a formal finite transformation is effected to decouple. The inevitable mass dependence of one of these schemes in the literature is pointed out as the cause for the difference mentioned.Comment: 39 pages plain TeX and 10 Postscript figures available upon request, McGill/ 94-14 and UM-TH-94-2