Doctoral Dissertation Research: Cultivation and Conservation: Exploring Pattern and the Potential for Coexistence in Northern Tanzania

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

In many parts of the developing world, societies that traditionally engaged in pastoralism, small-field farming, and other livelihoods that had relatively minor impacts on the natural environment have been adopting more modern forms of economic activity, often with more profound impacts on natural systems. With these changes, the need has grown to better understand how biodiversity and other qualities of the natural environment can be maintained in landscapes being impacted more significantly by humans. This Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement project will investigate the interplay between cultivation and conservation along one of the most important remaining wildlife corridors in Northern Tanzania's Tarangire Region. These corridors are used by several large species to reach fertile rainy season pastures east of Tarangire National Park. The region is also undergoing social and land-use change as pastoral Maasai adopt cultivation and engage in mixed farming methods. It is hypothesized that constraints to production vary across both the social and physical landscapes. The research will determine which constraints most strongly impact cultivation decisions, the relationships between landscape structure and agricultural change in the corridor area, and the way that changing land use alters vegetation composition and habitat structure. Responses to constraints may impact long term sustainability and resilience by reducing effort to counteract other constraints to higher yields. Changes will be reflected spatially in the pattern of species composition and in the temporal pattern of field establishment, fallowing, and abandonment. Methodologies from the natural and social sciences will be used within a landscape ecology framework. Participant observation and social surveys will be used to understand food production strategies of Maasai. A cluster sampling design using the boma (a group of households that live as a unit, sharing herding and sometimes cultivation decisions) will be used to interview households. Constraints to cultivation will be measured through survey of crop losses to predation, disease, and drought as well as soil analysis. Vegetation sampling will examine the physical impact of cultivation across the landscape, verifying verbal responses. The vegetation of a nearby village with a less developed cultivation system will also be surveyed and both will be compared to available surveys from the 1970s. This village will provide a baseline for water table and climate driven changes in vegetation composition.This project will provide valuable insights into the processes through which natural systems are impacted by human activity as well as the processes through which people experiencing change monitor and respond to environmental change. These insights will have significant utility both for academic discourse and for land and resource managers in this region and elsewhere. The broader impacts of the research include contributing to knowledge of how pastoralists diversify their economies, while adding ecological data to the impact of changes on natural resources. This research will also enhance the integration of social and natural science data within the context of landscape ecology. As a Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement award, this award also will provide support to enable a promising student to establish a strong independent research career.