Doctoral Dissertation Research: Human - Environmental Interaction and Sustainability in an East African Agricultural Landscape

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

9305503 TURNER Few issues focus on the dynamic nature of human- environmental interaction as completely as does the relationship between economic development and environmental change. In Africa, the development-environment interface has been considered as a "crisis" of Africa, especially in eastern Africa, where incorporation of farming systems into the global economy and unprecedented population growth have created intensive pressures on people, land, and resources. This doctoral dissertation research project will provide a case study of one dramatic area of contemporary human-environmental interaction by exploring processes of landscape change in the Olmotonyi watershed of Mount Meru, a densely populated agricultural region in northern Tanzania. The investigator will document the social and ecological history of the landscape from colonial to present times. She also will inventory current land-use patterns and practices and elicit the perceptions of land users about future prospects. Detailed interviews with land users will explore social and environmental changes and individuals views about past, present, and future land-use and livelihood alternatives. This project constitutes a holistic and historical examination of the complex dynamics of human-environmental interaction in a region undergoing significant change. It will expand general knowledge about the human dimensions of global environmental change, especially the through identification of the perceptions of local residents of current and future options, a factor that often has been ignored in examination of possible forms of "sustainable development." As a doctoral dissertation improvement award, this award also will provide support to enable a promising student to establish a strong independent research career. ***