Household Livelihoods in Semi-arid Regions: Options and Constraints PDF Download

Author: B.M. Campbell
Publisher: CIFOR
ISBN: 9798764781
Category : Arid regions
Languages : en
Pages : 169

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Book Description
The study sites. Methods. The wealth index and its variation. Human, financial, physical and natural capital - the essets available to households. Households productive activities - the generation of cash and subsistence gross income. Exploring household strategies. Net income and poverty. Temporal changes in livelihood strategies. Modelling livelihood change. Making a difference.

Author: Arild Angelsen
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1136537325
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 284

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Book Description
Thousands of surveys on rural livelihoods in developing countries are being done every year. Unfortunately, many suffer from weaknesses in methods and problems in implementation. Quantifying households' dependence on multiple environmental resources (forests, bush, grasslands and rivers) is particularly difficult and often simply ignored in the surveys. The results therefore do not reflect rural realities. In particular, 'the hidden harvest' from natural resources is generally too important to livelihoods for development research, policies and practice to ignore. Fieldwork using state-of-the-art methods, and in particular well-designed household questionnaires, thus becomes an imperative to adequately capture key dimensions of rural welfare. This book describes how to do a better job when designing and implementing household and village surveys for quantitative assessment of rural livelihoods in developing countries. It covers the entire research process from planning to sharing research results. It draws on the experiences from a large global-comparative project, the Poverty Environment Network (PEN), to develop more robust and validated methods, enriched by numerous practical examples from the field. The book will provide an invaluable guide to methods and a practical handbook for students and professionals.

Author: Reinette Biggs
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1000401537
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 700

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Book Description
The Routledge Handbook of Research Methods for Social-Ecological Systems provides a synthetic guide to the range of methods that can be employed in social-ecological systems (SES) research. The book is primarily targeted at graduate students, lecturers and researchers working on SES, and has been written in a style that is accessible to readers entering the field from a variety of different disciplinary backgrounds. Each chapter discusses the types of SES questions to which the particular methods are suited and the potential resources and skills required for their implementation, and provides practical examples of the application of the methods. In addition, the book contains a conceptual and practical introduction to SES research, a discussion of key gaps and frontiers in SES research methods, and a glossary of key terms in SES research. Contributions from 97 different authors, situated at SES research hubs in 16 countries around the world, including South Africa, Sweden, Germany and Australia, bring a wealth of expertise and experience to this book. The first book to provide a guide and introduction specifically focused on methods for studying SES, this book will be of great interest to students and scholars of sustainability science, environmental management, global environmental change studies and environmental governance. The book will also be of interest to upper-level undergraduates and professionals working at the science–policy interface in the environmental arena.

Author: Ruerd Ruben
Publisher: CABI
ISBN: 1845932773
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 484

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Book Description
Less-favored areas with limited agricultural potential or difficult access conditions, support 40 percent of the world's rural population suffering from chronic poverty. While agricultural innovations and rural development programs have begun to be implemented within developing countries, they do not address the specific obstacles faced by this large population. Instead, a targeted approach is needed to identify different resource management strategies for particular types of households and communities as well as creating balanced investments aimed at sustainable intensification of rural livelihoods. Such efforts have been the focus of the research program on Regional Food Security Policies for Natural Resource Management and Sustainable Economies (RESPONSE). Through the study of less-favored areas in Africa, Latin America, and South and East Asia, development pathways allowing for the careful adjustment of resource use strategies at the field, farm-household and village level are explored.

Author: A.K. Kandya
Publisher: I K International Pvt Ltd
ISBN: 9384588997
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 388

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Book Description
Forests are critical for sustainable development, environment and also for livelihood. They provide a wealth of goods and services that are essential for people's lives, cash income and green economy. Maintaining and enhancing our planet's forest resources is essential if we are to succeed in the global efforts to alleviate poverty, address water scarcity and biodiversity loss, and mitigate climate change. Culturally and historically, the intrinsic value of forests, and the spiritual and sacred use of forests have great importance to local communities and our cultural identity. This book on Sustainable Forestry: Emerging Challenges, written by experienced academicians, scientists and other researchers shows the present ongoing initiatives in the country to address sustainable forestry and its management. An estimated 230 million people in India rely on forests for their livelihoods to some degree, including some 60 million indigenous people and other forest-dwelling communities. While more than two billion people - the developing world's population use fodder, biomass fuels, mainly firewood, to cook food and large number of non-timber forest products for their day-to-day needs.

Author: Merle Sowman
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1136324135
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 384

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Book Description
Understanding the governance of complex social-ecological systems is vital in a world faced with rapid environmental change, conflicts over dwindling natural resources, stark disparities between rich and poor and the crises of sustainability. Improved understanding is also essential to promote governance approaches that are underpinned by justice and equity principles and that aim to reduce inequality and benefit the most marginalised sectors of society. This book is concerned with enhancing the understanding of governance in relation to social justice and environmental sustainability across a range of natural resource sectors in Sub-Saharan Africa. By examining governance across various sectors, it reveals the main drivers that influence the nature of governance, the principles and norms that shape it, as well as the factors that constrain or enable achievement of justice and sustainability outcomes. The book also illuminates the complex relationships that exist between various governance actors at different scales, and the reality and challenge of plural legal systems in much of Sub-Saharan Africa. The book comprises 16 chapters, 12 of them case studies recounting experiences in the forest, wildlife, fisheries, conservation, mining and water sectors of diverse countries: Madagascar, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Namibia, South Africa, Zambia, Mozambique, Sierra Leone and Cameroon.Through insights from these studies, the book seeks to draw lessons from the praxis of natural resource governance in Sub-Saharan Africa and to contribute to debates on how governance can be strengthened and best configured to meet the needs of the poor, in a way that is both socially just and ecologically sustainable.

Author: Mariame Maiga
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9086867154
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 191

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Book Description
This book is about the effects of AIDS on women and food security in Côte d'Ivoire, West Africa. AIDS is more than a health problem. Rural households and women in particular have to cope with the lack of labour in agriculture which threatens their food security. For the matrilineal Agni women land ownership appears to be an unexpected burden, rather than a safeguard from poverty. Culture matters, but not in similar ways everywhere. Matrilineal or patrilineal kinship organisation, gender inequality, and norms about sexual relationships very much influence the differences in Agni and migrant women's vulnerability to AIDS. African women are often seen as victims of AIDS. This study shows that women may also use their creativity and social networks to battle and to be resilient against the effects of the illness in their everyday household activities. Using a combination of quantitative statistical data and qualitative methods, this research questions the effectiveness of mainstream AIDS policy and interventions in Côte d'Ivoire. Victimising the poor does not help. Instead, multi-sector policy intervention can mitigate the social effects of AIDS by improving household food security and by changing cultural practices through local leaders who have historical legitimacy and power.

Author: Charlie M. Shackleton
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317916131
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 280

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Book Description
There is growing knowledge about and appreciation of the importance of Non-timber Forest Products (NTFPs) to rural livelihoods in developing countries, and to a lesser extent, developed countries. However, there is also an assumption on the part of policy-makers that any harvesting of wild animal or plant products from the forests and other natural and modified ecosystems must be detrimental to the long-term viability of target populations and species. This book challenges this idea and shows that while examples of such negative impacts certainly exist, there are also many examples of sustainable harvesting systems for NTFPs. The chapters review and present coherent and scientifically sound information and case studies on the ecologically sustainable use of NTFPs. They also outline a general interdisciplinary approach for assessing the sustainability of NTFP harvesting systems at different scales. A wide range of case studies is included from Africa, Asia and South America, using plant and animal products for food, crafts, textiles, medicines and cosmetics.

Author: Olej, Vladim¡r
Publisher: IGI Global
ISBN: 1609601580
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 492

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Book Description
Understanding the advancement of sustainable development is critical to managing human activities to avoid the overexploitation of resources and pollution of the environment beyond tolerable levels. Sustainable development involves not only preservation and care of the environment, but also recognition of the complex relations between economic, social and living systems. Environmental Modeling for Sustainable Regional Development: System Approaches and Advanced Methods presents processing methods and their applications, which are practical for decision making and task management at the regional level as well as for scientific studies in sustainable development assessment. This book serves as a reference guide for post-graduate students in the field of management as well as a critical guide for managers, government officials, and information professionals.

Author: Steven A. Osofsky
Publisher: IUCN
ISBN: 9782831708645
Category : Livestock
Languages : en
Pages : 260

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Book Description
During a forum held at the Vth IUCN World Parks Congress in South Africa in 2003, the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and the IUCN SSC Veterinary and Southern Africa Sustainable Use Specialist Groups (VSG and SASUSG) brought together nearly 80 experts from Africa and beyond to develop ways to tackle the immense health-related conservation and development challenges at the wildlife/domestic animal/human interface facing East and Southern Africa today, and tomorrow. This volume focuses on several themes of critical importance to the future of animal agriculture, wildlife, and, of course, people: competition over grazing and water resources, disease mitigation, local and global food security and other potential sources of conflict related to the overall challenges of land-use planning and the pervasive reality of resource constraints. This publication seeks to draw attention to the need to move towards a "one health" perspective - an approach that was the foundation of the discussions in Durban, and a theme pervading these thought-provoking, insightful, and practical Proceedings.