Download or read book Decoupled Social Ecological Systems written by Margaret Mwangi, PH D and published by . This book was released on 2020-04-30 with total page 166 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In "Decoupled Social-Ecological Systems: Eroded Sustainability in Africa, Drought Vulnerability of Kenya's Maasai," Dr. Margaret Mwangi explores drought impacts and responses in strongly coupled social-ecological systems across Africa. The book highlights the three extant schools of thought vis-à-vis understanding and managing the phenomenon called drought. Drought vulnerability of the Maasai is revealed as primarily occasioned by persistent decoupling of their strongly coupled social-ecological livelihood production systems. The explication presented in this book reveals drought vulnerability and erosion of sustainability of Maasai-pastoralism, and indeed similar strongly social-ecological systems across Africa, is contextual, variable, and linkable to that decoupling: current drought event serves to unveil existing, even constructed, vulnerabilities. Apropos this last point, Maasais have had to constantly negotiate the ever-evolving cross-scale social, political, and economic terrains: which negotiation influences the way these pastoralists experience drought. Thus it should be clear: unless there is a change in policies and practices, with focus on adaptive interventions, there is a risk in Maasai's livelihoods in the future of shifts in climate and/or socioeconomic landscapes. The adoption of integrated management of drought, simultaneously as multidimensional phenomenon and as a hazard-risk-as understood from the detailed third school of thought vis-à-vis understanding and managing drought-, as recommended in this book, avails plausible informed cross-scale participatory and adaptive interventions. Suffice that, integrated efforts toward multidimensional drought-hazard/risk interventions are more apt to enhance drought-resilience, and plausibly disrupt the generation of drought-disasters.

Download or read book Decoupled Social Ecological Systems Eroded Sustainability in Africa written by Margaret Mwangi, and published by . This book was released on 2020-04-07 with total page 165 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In "Decoupled Social-Ecological Systems: Eroded Sustainability in Africa, Drought Vulnerability of Kenya's Maasai," Dr. Margaret Mwangi explores drought impacts and responses in coupled social-ecological systems across Africa. The book highlights the three extant schools of thought vis-à-vis understanding and managing the phenomenon called drought. Drought vulnerability of the Maasai is revealed as primarily occasioned by persistent decoupling of their strongly coupled social-ecological livelihood production systems. Drought vulnerability and erosion of sustainability of Maasai-pastoralism, and indeed similar livelihoods, is contextual, variable, and linkable to that decoupling: current drought event serves to unveil existing, even constructed, vulnerabilities. Maasais have had to constantly negotiate the ever-evolving cross-scale social, political, and economic terrains: which negotiation influences the way these pastoralists experience drought. Unless there is a change in policies and practices, with focus on adaptive interventions, there is a risk in Maasai's livelihoods in the future of shifts in climate and/or socioeconomic landscapes. Thus it should be clear: the adoption of integrated management of drought, simultaneously as multidimensional phenomenon and as a hazard-risk--as understood from the detailed third school of thought vis-à-vis understanding and managing drought--, avails plausible informed cross-scale participatory and adaptive interventions. Integrated efforts toward multidimensional drought-hazard/risk interventions are more apt to enhance drought-resilience, and plausibly disrupt the generation of drought-disasters.

Download or read book De coupled Social Ecological Systems written by Margaret Mwangi, PH D and published by . This book was released on 2020-09-12 with total page 250 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In "(De)coupled Social-Ecological Systems: Eroded Sustainability in Africa, Created Vulnerability of Kenya's Maasai," Dr. Margaret Mwangi explores drought impacts and responses in coupled social-ecological systems across Africa, with a strong focus on Kenya's Maasailand. The book highlights the three extant schools of thought vis-à-vis understanding and managing drought. The book presents a detailed explication on contextual, variable, and persistent (de)coupling of Maasai's strongly coupled social-ecological livelihood production systems-and similar systems across Africa-vis-à-vis occasioning vulnerability and erosion of sustainability of the same. Apropos this last point, the role of drought is elucidated. Plausible interventions toward disrupting generation of drought-disasters in the predominantly strongly coupled social-ecological systems in Kenya's Maasailand, and indeed across Africa, are presented. The study makes an important contribution to interdisciplinary and development studies, and will be of particular interest to scholars and practitioners across disciplines. The book is organized in seven chapters.

Download or read book Exploring Sustainability Science written by Michael Burns and published by AFRICAN SUN MeDIA. This book was released on 2008-08-01 with total page 629 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Southern Africa is well-blessed with a diverse and vibrant human population and a wealth of natural capital. The key challenge for sustainable development is to grow society?s capacity to use this natural capital to meet the needs of the region?s human population, especially the poor, in ways that sustain environmental life-support systems. Collaborating across disciplines, the authors explore the underpinning principles and the potential of sustainability science in a number of case studies.

Download or read book Sustainable Development in Africa written by Walter Leal Filho and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2021-07-09 with total page 729 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book serves the purpose of documenting and promoting African experiences on sustainable development, which encompasses both, formal and non-formal education. Sustainable development is very important to Africa, but there is a paucity of publication which documents and promotes experiences from African countries. Due to their complexity, the interrelations between social, economic and political factors related to sustainable development, especially at universities, need to be better understood. There is also a real need to showcase successful examples of how African institutions are handling their sustainability challenges. It is against this background that this book has been produced. It is a truly interdisciplinary publication, useful to scholars, social movements, practitioners and members of governmental agencies and private companies, undertaking research and/or executing projects focusing on sustainability from across Africa. As African nations strive to pursue the UN Sustainable Development Goals, it is imperative to cater for the information needs seen across the continent and foster the dissemination of experiences and case studies, which may support both, on-going and future efforts. The scope of the book is deliberately kept wide, and we are looking for contributions across the spectrum of sustainable development from business and economics, to arts and fashion, administration, environment, languages and media studies.

Download or read book Sustainability of Southern African Ecosystems under Global Change written by Graham P. von Maltitz and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on with total page 990 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Where We Used to Plough written by Christiane Naumann and published by LIT Verlag Münster. This book was released on 2017 with total page 379 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book offers a historically and ethnographically informed case study of environmental governance, institutional and land-use change, and livelihood strategies in a former homeland in the South African Free State province. Based on rich archival material, the author reconstructs how the state invented a degradation narrative and used it as legitimation for the regulation of human-environment relations during the twentieth century. In addition, the study investigates how people today make a living in a post-agrarian society characterized by low agricultural production, diversification of non-farm incomes, and declining population numbers, declining population numbers. Author Christiane Naumann is a lecturer at the Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology at the University of Cologne.

Download or read book Sustainable Development in Africa written by Okechukwu Ukaga and published by Africa World Press. This book was released on 2005 with total page 264 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Using a variety of tools from various disciplines, Sustainable Development in Africa examines factors limiting sustainable development in Africa. Among the recommendations made to remedy the situation is the call for a more holistic approach to the problem, resolving the urban crisis that is central to African economic recovery and to develop a new security system that transcends the narrow military focus security.

Download or read book Human Impact on Environment and Sustainable Development in Africa written by Michael B.K. Darkoh and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2018-12-20 with total page 456 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This title was first published in 2003. Based on a blend of knowledge and perspectives from a variety of disciplines this volume examines the human-environment interaction in Africa, with a focus on the economic, social and political processes that generate environmental change and problems in this region. Currently there are controversies over and challenges to such concepts and issues as environment-human relationships, ecological resilience, decertification, sustainable development, globalization and North-South dialogue. This book draws upon past and present research findings to discuss these issues. It features: an examination of the characteristics, processes and patterns of environmental crises; an analysis of the principal issues and challenges facing policy makers and implementers; and the promotion of awareness of theoretical, empirical and comparative research. The volume not only seeks to answer some of the old questions, but also open up new ones for further discussion.

Download or read book Sustainability in Sub Saharan Africa written by Jennifer L. De Maio and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2018-11-30 with total page 197 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book considers the issue of sustainability in sub-Saharan Africa. It assesses the progress that has been made in sustainable development and the challenges that must still be addressed. Most importantly, it focuses on African experiences with sustainable development. Using the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as the framework for the analysis, the manuscript traces how the discourse on sustainability has evolved from a cultural, political, economic, and social perspective. It focuses on the goals for climate action, sustainable cities and communities, institutions, and partnerships to examine the vulnerability of Africans to climate change, attitudes towards sustainability, ethical challenges to implementing sustainable development programs, the relationship between governance, poverty, and sustainability, environmental terrorism, sustainable health care, sustainable transportation, and the use of open green space to promote a sustainable urban community. The book integrates the theory, practice, ethics, and policy of sustainability to better understand the implications for problems and responses to sustainable development in Africa. No book has applied the SDGs to an evaluation of sustainable development in Africa. This book fills that gap. Chapters from leading scholars utilize various research methods combined with case study analysis to provide context and a deeper understanding of the critical issues in sustainability in the sub-Saharan African world. The first section of the book examines the theory of sustainability and provides an overview of some of the most important institutional questions in the discourse on environmental policies in the African world. The next section of the book focuses on the issues and challenges that inform our understanding of sustainability and the implementation of best practices. Sustainability is examined in a global context as the difficulties in enforcing international standards and protections in the state-centered international order are considered. The final part of the book engages in a more in-depth examination of several specific examples of sustainability in urban Africa.

Download or read book Governance for Justice and Environmental Sustainability written by Merle Sowman and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2014-02-24 with total page 437 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.

Download or read book Environment and Sustainable Development in Eastern and Southern Africa written by Abdel Ghaffar M. Ahmed and published by Springer. This book was released on 2016-07-27 with total page 244 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book sheds light on the sources of environmental concerns in Africa. It shows that not all environmental issues command the same priority interest and, thus, emphasis must be laid on those that are of pressing concern to the continent as a whole and to the Eastern and Southern African regions in particular. The case studies address this topic in detail.

Download or read book Natural Resources Socio Ecological Sensitivity and Climate Change in the Volta Oti Basin West Africa written by Jürgen Runge and published by CRC Press. This book was released on 2020-09-10 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book presents the outcome of an interdisciplinary and international workshop supported by the Volkswagen Stiftung (funding line ‘Knowledge for Tomorrow’) on the topic of ‘Natural Resources, Socio-Ecological Sensitivity and Climate Change in the Volta-Oti Basin, West Africa’. The conference was jointly organised by Goethe-University Frankfurt (Germany) and the University of Kara (Togo) held from March 6 to 8, 2019 in northern Togo. It aimed to strengthen capacities of junior scientists from the sub-region, exchange and mobilise theoretical and methodological background from various scientific fields (Botany, Construction, Geology, Geography, Infrastructure, Politics, Remote Sensing, Sociology and Urban Planning). One goal was to deliver reliable elements for ongoing and profound environmental analyses that lie outside the common questions of the academic and civil society stakeholders. Ecosystem fragmentation and deforestation in West Africa are mainly triggered by humans such as agriculture and small-scale forest disturbances for charcoal and firewood production. Increasing population pressure, declining of carrying capacity and demand for agricultural land caused the reduction of land conservation capacities, even in protected areas. The complexity of interactions between environmental and socio-ecological systems and subsequent effects (sensitivity) has raised ongoing international awareness in light of ongoing climate change. By the example of natural resources, land use and stakeholders’ perceptions within the Volta-Oti Basin the book’s proceedings present, discuss and distribute new findings that will sustainably stimulate the international debate. The workshop also intended to overcome national borders and language barriers between the Anglophone (Ghana) and the Francophone (Benin, Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Togo) research communities, and supported better West African cooperation and networking. The young as well as the established partners formed new collaborations, and the event at the University of Kara (Togo) was a truly unique opportunity for all involved, not only to discuss science, but also to assess applied and best future management practices for the Oti-Volta Basin in West Africa.

Download or read book Sustaining the Future written by George Benneh and published by . This book was released on 1996 with total page 388 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sub-Saharan Africa is facing increasing pressures on its natural environments, economics, and societies. Financial burdens, difficulties with economic reform, problems of social transformation and of rapidly growing cities, combined with loss of productive topsoil, deforestation, and scarce or poor-quality fresh water, are among the major contributors. While global climatic change and other physical phenomena may play a part, the present environment is largely a result of the interactions between people, natural resources, and cultural development. This book focuses on sustainable environmental and resource management development in the Sub-Saharan Africa region in the medium-term future. The first part analyses the driving force of environmental change in the region, including persistent poverty, population growth, urbanization, industrialization, and energy production and consumption. The second part takes up issues central to sustainability, including agriculture, on which the majority of people still depend for their livelihood. Among the conclusions, the authors stress the need for policies aimed at poverty eradication and equitable economic development to counter unsustainable use of natural resources and to reduce vulnerability to environmental deterioration, economic decline, and hazards. Much greater cooperation between the North and South--and a more open system or trade in particular--are recommended for better resource management. And finally, a strengthening of environmental institutions and environmental education at all levels is advised.

Download or read book Insaka written by and published by . This book was released on 2011 with total page 41 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Sustainable Development in Africa written by Walter Leal Filho and published by . This book was released on 2021 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book serves the purpose of documenting and promoting African experiences on sustainable development, which encompasses both, formal and non-formal education. Sustainable development is very important to Africa, but there is a paucity of publication which documents and promotes experiences from African countries. Due to their complexity, the interrelations between social, economic and political factors related to sustainable development, especially at universities, need to be better understood. There is also a real need to showcase successful examples of how African institutions are handling their sustainability challenges. It is against this background that this book has been produced. It is a truly interdisciplinary publication, useful to scholars, social movements, practitioners and members of governmental agencies and private companies, undertaking research and/or executing projects focusing on sustainability from across Africa. As African nations strive to pursue the UN Sustainable Development Goals, it is imperative to cater for the information needs seen across the continent and foster the dissemination of experiences and case studies, which may support both, on-going and future efforts. The scope of the book is deliberately kept wide, and we are looking for contributions across the spectrum of sustainable development from business and economics, to arts and fashion, administration, environment, languages and media studies. .

Download or read book Risk Resilience and Social ecological Systems in Natural Resource based Development in South Africa written by Rebecca Bowd and published by . This book was released on 2015 with total page 526 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: