Land Cover Dynamics As A Result Of Charcoal Production: Use Of Remote Sensing And Gis

Charcoal is the most important energy source for middle and low-income people in many African cities. Its consumption shows no sign of decrease for the reasons of cost, convenience and availability. The use of charcoal, however, has been blamed for deforestation and degradation of natural forests and woodlands. To increase the understanding of the effects of charcoal use in three countries in Southern Africa: Tanzania, Zambia, and Mozambique, a collaborative project, CHAPOSA (Charcoal Potential in Southern Africa), was conducted. One of the project objectives was to assess the extent of environmental degradation due to charcoal production and to identify indicators that can quantify and locate such degradation. To meet this objective, an integration of remote sensing, using Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) data, and Geographical Information System (GIS) tools was used to quantify and locate land cover changes, particularly degradation and regeneration of woodlands that had occurred in the study area between 1991 and 1998. The results reveal that, in the study period, much of the closed woodland has been converted to either open woodland or other cover types including agricultural farms. However, in some locations regeneration of woodlands has been observed. This precludes the presumption that cutting down trees for charcoal production must result in irreversible degradation. Given the fact that charcoal is and will remain, at least in a foreseeable future, the main domestic energy source, sustainable use of the woodland coupled with more use of other energy sources seems to be our best strategy if we want to sustain the remaining woodland. TJFNC Vol. 76 2007: pp. 67-7

Features of successful syndrome mitigation : enhancing resilience and empowering the vulnerable in East Africa

This paper examines how knowledge-based interventions improve the quality of life in communities where they are implemented. It draws on case studies of three interventions implemented as Partnership Actions to Mitigate Syndromes (PAMS) within the Swiss National Centre of Competence in Research (NCCR) North-South programme. The case studies consist of a qualitative evaluation based on experience, knowledge and expertise gained through participants’ observations, as well as relevant documents and reports. The concepts of 1) syndrome mitigation; 2) participation and empowerment; and 3) vulnerability and resilience are used as assessment indicators to demonstrate the levels of and differences in contributions by and among the respective interventions. The assessment reveals that although each of the three projects contributed to syndrome mitigation in its respective context, there are marked disparities in the level of individual achievement that are influenced by the nature of problems of unsustainability, technological requirements, and the implementation costs of the preferred intervention

Classification, Characterisation, and Use of Small Wetlands in East Africa

Small wetlands in Kenya and Tanzania cover about 12 million ha and are increasingly converted for agricultural production. There is a need to provide guidelines for their future protection or use, requiring their systematic classification and characterisation. Fifty-one wetlands were inventoried in 2008 in four contrasting sites, covering a surveyed total area of 484 km2. Each wetland was subdivided into sub-units of 0.5–458 ha based on the predominant land use. The biophysical and socio-economic attributes of the resulting 157 wetland sub-units were determined. The wetland sub-units were categorized using multivariate analyses into five major cluster groups. The main wetland categories comprised: (1) narrow permanently flooded inland valleys that are largely unused; (2) wide permanently flooded inland valleys and highlands floodplains under extensive use; (3) large inland valleys and lowland floodplains with seasonal flooding under medium use intensity; (4) completely drained wide inland valleys and highlands floodplains under intensive food crop production; and (5) narrow drained inland valleys under permanent horticultural production. The wetland types were associated with specific vegetation forms and soil attributes. Agricultural land use of wetlands was linked to their physical accessibility and the availability of adjacent upland areas, irrespective of wetland size or soil type