Linking livelihood improvement and environmental conservation: Case of east Uluguru mountains in Tanzania

Research articleLivelihoods improvement and environmental management need to be linked. In order to attain sustainable livelihoods and environmental management, it is important to empower natural resource users with skills on the interdependencies between livelihoods and natural environment. Among the strategies to achieve this is through an action research wherein various resource use options are tested and the interplay among the tested options is determined. In this paper, we present and analyse results obtained from an action research that focused on participatory improvement of farming practices and rehabilitation of watershed through tree nursery management and tree planting in Nyachilo village situated in the East Uluguru Mountains. In the farming trial, we tested conventional ridges, ngolo, contour, and traditional slash and burn flat cultivation (the control) technologies on the basis of their potential to improve yields and control soil erosion. The findings indicated that ngolo ranked the first whereas conventional slash and burn technology ranked the last; farmers showed a desire to learn about useful technologies to improve their traditional farming system. As for tree planting, there existed internal heterogeneities as reflected in the heterogeneous participation of local people in tree nursery management implying that in order to thoroughly understand the community, it is necessary to unpack it and analyze its constituent parts. We concluded that a though analysis of the dispersion of a given community is imperative as such scrutiny may lead to an accurate determination of the practical mix of the community strata for effecting the desired ends

Resource managers' and users’ perspectives on factors contributing to unauthorised hunting in western Tanzania

Unauthorized use of natural resources is one of the challenges facing protected areas in Africa. Understanding factors influencing this behavior can help improve the efficiency of conservation efforts. We conducted focus group discussions with authorized resource users and managers in the Ugalla ecosystem of western Tanzania to determine factors facilitating and motivating unauthorized hunting. The two groups of study participants had different perspectives on the subject. Resource managers dwelt on factors facilitating hunting, for example, inadequate patrol resources and impassable patrol roads. On the other hand, resource users discussed both motivating factors, for example, limited income-generating opportunities; and facilitating factors, some of which were also mentioned by resource managers (eg, poorly managed hunting cases). There was also variability in how study participants perceived the importance of different factors. Some factors were perceived as highly important but mentioned less frequently and others were mentioned often but ranked low. Some were mentioned by both resource managers and users with the same frequency but ranked differently (eg, the management of unauthorized hunting cases). Overall, we suggest considering the views of people with different interests in natural resources to comprehensively understand the factors that influence unauthorized hunting for improved conservation outcomes. Some were mentioned by both resource managers and users with the same frequency but ranked differently (eg, the management of unauthorized hunting cases). Overall, we suggest considering the views of people with different interests in natural resources to comprehensively understand the factors that influence unauthorized hunting for improved conservation outcomes. Some were mentioned by both resource managers and users with the same frequency but ranked differently (eg, the management of unauthorized hunting cases). Overall, we suggest considering the views of people with different interests in natural resources to comprehensively understand the factors that influence unauthorized hunting for improved conservation outcomes

Impact of decentralised forest management on forest cover changes in the north eastern Tanzania

This study aimed to assess the impact of decentralised forest management on forest cover changes in the north eastern Tanzania. Six contrasting forests namely: Shagayu (JFM), Shume-Magamba (fexclusive state management) and Sagara (CBFM) in the montane, and Handeni Hill(JFM), Kiva Hill (exclusive state management) and Kwakirunga (CBFM) insemi-arid forests were studied. Forest cover changes were assessed for periods before and after decentralised forest management. Cover maps were derived from Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) and Enhanced Thematic Mapper (ETM) images. Forest inventory techniques were used to estimate tree harvests as major drivers of forest cover changes. The area under closed forest cover decreased substantially ranging from 0.4%.y-1 to 1.3%.y-1 in the montane forests with higher forest loss recorded under exclusive state management. In the semi-arid, the forest under JFM experienced substantial increase in forest cover (+3.5%.y-1) as compared to exclusive state management and CBFM. More tree basal area were harvested under exclusive state management in the montane study forests as compared to JFM and CBFM and the differences were significant (p<0.05). In the semi-arid study forests, higher tree harvests were recorded under CBFM followed by JFM and exclusively state and thedifferences were significant (p<0.05). It was observed in this study that, regardless of management regime, participating villagers were unable to exclude people with no formal rights to the forests under PFM. It is therefore concluded that, decentralised management can impact forest resources both positively and negatively depending on institutional arrangements. However, some empirical evidence indicates that JFM and CBFM performed better than those under exclusive state management,although uncontrolled exploitation of the forest has continued also under these regimes. Although the two regimes are promising forest decentralisation models for Tanzania, more research is needed to understand the functions of different governance structures for decentralized forest management to achieve the goal of improving forest condition.Keywords: decentralised forest management, forest cover, montane, semiarid, north eastern Tanzani

Efficacy and safety of pafuramidine versus pentamidine maleate for treatment of first stage sleeping sickness in a randomized, comparator-controlled, international phase 3 clinical trial

Sleeping sickness (human African trypanosomiasis [HAT]) is a neglected tropical disease with limited treatment options that currently require parenteral administration. In previous studies, orally administered pafuramidine was well tolerated in healthy patients (for up to 21 days) and stage 1 HAT patients (for up to 10 days), and demonstrated efficacy comparable to pentamidine.; This was a Phase 3, multi-center, randomized, open-label, parallel-group, active control study where 273 male and female patients with first stage Trypanosoma brucei gambiense HAT were treated at six sites: one trypanosomiasis reference center in Angola, one hospital in South Sudan, and four hospitals in the Democratic Republic of the Congo between August 2005 and September 2009 to support the registration of pafuramidine for treatment of first stage HAT in collaboration with the United States Food and Drug Administration. Patients were treated with either 100 mg of pafuramidine orally twice a day for 10 days or 4 mg/kg pentamidine intramuscularly once daily for 7 days to assess the efficacy and safety of pafuramidine versus pentamidine. Pregnant and lactating women as well as adolescents were included. The primary efficacy endpoint was the combined rate of clinical and parasitological cure at 12 months. The primary safety outcome was the frequency and severity of adverse events. The study was registered on the International Clinical Trials Registry Platform at www.clinicaltrials.gov with the number ISRCTN85534673.; The overall cure rate at 12 months was 89% in the pafuramidine group and 95% in the pentamidine group; pafuramidine was non-inferior to pentamidine as the upper bound of the 95% confidence interval did not exceed 15%. The safety profile of pafuramidine was superior to pentamidine; however, 3 patients in the pafuramidine group had glomerulonephritis or nephropathy approximately 8 weeks post-treatment. Two of these events were judged as possibly related to pafuramidine. Despite good tolerability observed in preceding studies, the development program for pafuramidine was discontinued due to delayed post-treatment toxicity