Kenya's Changing Landscape

Kenya's Changing Landscape PDF Author: Raymond M. Turner
Publisher: University of Arizona Press
ISBN: 0816547084
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 188

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Book Description
Botanist Homer L. Shantz took photographs of the Kenyan landscape in the early 1920s as part of his effort to document the natural plant cover of Africa. He returned there with B. L. Turner in the late 1950s to repeat the photographs. In 1990, Raymond Turner traveled to Kenya under the auspices of the National Geographic Society in order to match the photographs made by Shantz and B.L. Turner and to show the changes that have occurred over the decades since Shantz's initial journey. Turner's comparative photos and research into the botanical record dramatically reflect the encroachment of woody plants in arid areas and the increasing human impact in more humid locales. Turner's discussions of the photographs and the conclusions he draws provide an important reference for ecologists, geographers, botanists, and other researchers attempting similar studies. By documenting vegetation change in a region broadly similar climatically to North America's subtropical deserts and grasslands but different in its wildlife and its human culture, the book shows that the endpoints of landscape status are similar despite the vastly different histories of these two regions of the world.

Kenya's Changing Landscape

Kenya's Changing Landscape PDF Author: Raymond M. Turner
Publisher: University of Arizona Press
ISBN: 0816547084
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 188

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Book Description
Botanist Homer L. Shantz took photographs of the Kenyan landscape in the early 1920s as part of his effort to document the natural plant cover of Africa. He returned there with B. L. Turner in the late 1950s to repeat the photographs. In 1990, Raymond Turner traveled to Kenya under the auspices of the National Geographic Society in order to match the photographs made by Shantz and B.L. Turner and to show the changes that have occurred over the decades since Shantz's initial journey. Turner's comparative photos and research into the botanical record dramatically reflect the encroachment of woody plants in arid areas and the increasing human impact in more humid locales. Turner's discussions of the photographs and the conclusions he draws provide an important reference for ecologists, geographers, botanists, and other researchers attempting similar studies. By documenting vegetation change in a region broadly similar climatically to North America's subtropical deserts and grasslands but different in its wildlife and its human culture, the book shows that the endpoints of landscape status are similar despite the vastly different histories of these two regions of the world.

Kenya's Changing Landscape

Kenya's Changing Landscape PDF Author: Raymond M. Turner
Publisher: University of Arizona Press
ISBN: 0816518718
Category : Gardening
Languages : en
Pages : 188

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Book Description
Botanist Homer L. Shantz took photographs of the Kenyan landscape in the early 1920s as part of his effort to document the natural plant cover of Africa. He returned there with B. L. Turner in the late 1950s to repeat the photographs. In 1990, Raymond Turner traveled to Kenya under the auspices of the National Geographic Society in order to match the photographs made by Shantz and B.L. Turner and to show the changes that have occurred over the decades since Shantz's initial journey. Turner's comparative photos and research into the botanical record dramatically reflect the encroachment of woody plants in arid areas and the increasing human impact in more humid locales. Turner's discussions of the photographs and the conclusions he draws provide an important reference for ecologists, geographers, botanists, and other researchers attempting similar studies. By documenting vegetation change in a region broadly similar climatically to North America's subtropical deserts and grasslands but different in its wildlife and its human culture, the book shows that the endpoints of landscape status are similar despite the vastly different histories of these two regions of the world.

The Contested Lands of Laikipia

The Contested Lands of Laikipia PDF Author: Marie Ladekjær Gravesen
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004435204
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 273

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Book Description
Pastoralists, ranchers of European descent, conservationists, smallholders, and land investors with political influence converge on the Laikipia plateau in Kenya. Land is claimed by all - the tactics differ. Private property rights are presented, histories of presence are told, charges of immorality are applied, fences are electrified and some resort to violence. The region, marked by enclosures, is left as a tense fragmented frontier. Marie Gravesen embedded herself in the region prior to a wave of land invasions that swept the plateau leading up to Kenya’s 2017 general election. Through a rich telling of the history of Laikipia’s social, political and environmental dynamics, she invites a deeper understanding of the pre-election violence and general tensions as never done before. The manuscript is a revised version of the author's dissertation accepted by the Faculty of Arts and Humanities at the University of Cologne in 2018.

Kenya

Kenya PDF Author: United Nations Environment Programme
Publisher: United Nations Envir Programme
ISBN: 9789280729955
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 160

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Book Description
This newest in a suite of the United Nations Environment Programme's (UNEP) Atlases have inspired decision-makers to action through the power of photographs. This Atlas does two unique things: it assesses Kenya's progress towards its own goals of improving the environment to achieve development goals, and delivers a stunning bird's-eye view of environmental change through the use of paired satellite images taken years apart. The Atlas will serve as an important educational tool to improve local, national and international knowledge about environmental change in Kenya and to stimulate action at all levels to protect the rich resources that are the base of its culture, economy, and human well-being.

Germans on the Kenyan Coast

Germans on the Kenyan Coast PDF Author: Nina Berman
Publisher: Indiana University Press
ISBN: 0253024374
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 289

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Book Description
“Shed[s] light on the romantic, psychosexual and psychosocial, and economic entanglements that tie German tourists to their Kenyan hosts.” —Daily Nation Diani, a coastal town on the Indian Ocean, is significantly defined by a large European presence that has spurred economic development and is also supported by close relationships between Kenyans and European immigrants and tourists. Nina Berman looks carefully at the repercussions that these economic and social interactions have brought to life on the Kenyan coast. She explores what happens when poorer and less powerful members of a community are forced to give way to profit-based real estate development, what it means when most of Diani’s schools and water resources are supplied by funds from immigrants, and what the impact of mixed marriages is on notions of kinship and belonging as well as the economy. This unique story about a small Kenyan town also recounts a wider tale of opportunity, oppression, resilience, exploitation, domination, and accommodation in a world of economic, political, and social change. “In this richly detailed book, Nina Berman tracks the influx of thousands of German-speaking tourists and residents, especially in the 1990s, and the making of a distinctive Kenyan-European cultural enclave in the coastal community of Diani as many of these visitors choose to extend their stay as long-term residents.” —Ann Biersteker, author of Masomo ya Kisasa: Contemporary Readings in Swahili “An informative and thought-provoking work that deserves to be read by scholars of Kenya and those interested in globalized structures of gentrification, north-south humanitarian assistance, and love and romance in Africa.” —African Studies Quarterly

A review of Uganda’s national policies relevant to climate change adaptation and mitigation

A review of Uganda’s national policies relevant to climate change adaptation and mitigation PDF Author: Abwoli Y Banana
Publisher: CIFOR
ISBN: 602150447X
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 42

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Book Description
Climate change is expected to bring new challenges and opportunities for the livelihoods of rural communities in Uganda, where more than 80% of the population depends on rain-fed agriculture. The purpose of this review was to analyze national policies on climate change adaptation, agriculture, forests, management of forested and agroforested landscape ecosystems and their goods and services, and the roles of stakeholders in the national arena. Recognizing the role of forest cover in climate change mitigation and adaptation, this review is based on stakeholder engagement and analysis of published literature on the policy, institutional and socioeconomic drivers of forest cover change around Mount Elgon. The bulk of Uganda’s forests are on land under private ownership and deforestation has occurred mainly in such forests. Several national laws and international conventions ratified by Uganda offer a framework under which forests are managed. Management of protected forests is shared between central and local authorities. Several natural resource policies are likely to have significant unintended impacts that may enable or limit the adaptation of stakeholders and ecosystems to climate change. The current climate change policy, which is an overarching document that addresses climate change in Uganda, suggests that policy responses, either sector specific or crosscutting in nature, be harmonized in order to better address the challenges associated with climate change adaptation and mitigation.

Conservation of Natural and Cultural Heritage in Kenya

Conservation of Natural and Cultural Heritage in Kenya PDF Author: Anne-Marie Deisser
Publisher: UCL Press
ISBN: 1910634824
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 274

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Book Description
In Kenya, cultural and natural heritage has a particular value. Its pre-historic heritage not only tells the story of man's origin and evolution but has also contributed to the understanding of the earth's history: fossils and artefacts spanning over 27 million years have been discovered and conserved by the National Museums of Kenya (NMK). Alongside this, the steady rise in the market value of African art has also affected Kenya. Demand for African tribal art has surpassed that for antiquities of Roman, Byzantine, and Egyptian origin, and in African countries currently experiencing conflicts, this activity invariably attracts looters, traffickers and criminal networks. This book brings together essays by heritage experts from different backgrounds, including conservation, heritage management, museum studies, archaeology, environment and social sciences, architecture and landscape, geography, philosophy and economics to explore three key themes: the underlying ethics, practices and legal issues of heritage conservation; the exploration of architectural and urban heritage of Nairobi; and the natural heritage, landscapes and sacred sites in relation to local Kenyan communities and tourism. It thus provides an overview of conservation practices in Kenya from 2000 to 2015 and highlights the role of natural and cultural heritage as a key factor of social-economic development, and as a potential instrument for conflict resolution

The Green Belt Movement

The Green Belt Movement PDF Author: Wangari Maathai
Publisher: Lantern Books
ISBN: 9781590560402
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 166

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Book Description
Wangari Maathai, founder of The Green Belt Movement, tells its story including the philosophy behind it, its challenges, and objectives.

Livelihood and Landscape Change in Africa: Future Trajectories for Improved Well-Being under a Changing Climate

Livelihood and Landscape Change in Africa: Future Trajectories for Improved Well-Being under a Changing Climate PDF Author: Sheona Shackleton
Publisher: MDPI
ISBN: 3039214691
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 246

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Book Description
This book is based on a Special Issue of the journal LAND that draws together a collection of 11 diverse articles at the nexus of climate change, landscapes, and livelihoods in rural Africa; all explore the links between livelihood and landscape change, including shifts in farming practices and natural resource use and management. The articles, which are all place-based case studies across nine African countries, cover three not necessarily mutually exclusive thematic areas, namely: smallholder farming livelihoods under new climate risk (five articles); long-term dynamics of livelihoods and landscape change and future trajectories (two articles); and natural resource management and governance under a changing climate, spanning forests, woodlands, and rangelands (four articles). The commonalities, key messages, and research gaps across the 11 articles are presented in a synthesis article. All the case studies pointed to the need for an integrated and in-depth understanding of the multiple drivers of landscape and livelihood change and how these interact with local histories, knowledge systems, cultures, complexities, and lived realities. Moreover, where there are interventions (such as new governance systems, REDD+ or climate smart agriculture), it is critical to interrogate what is required to ensure a fair and equitable distribution of emerging benefits.

Contesting the Commons

Contesting the Commons PDF Author: Carolyn K. Lesorogol
Publisher: University of Michigan Press
ISBN: 0472050249
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 266

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Book Description
Over centuries, African pastoralist societies have crafted institutions that enable them to survive in their harsh, semi-arid environment. Effectively managing communally held land has been one key to their success and a cornerstone of their social organization. Over the last two decades, however, a number of pastoralist communities have sought to transform their land tenure systems from communal to private ownership. In Contesting the Commons, Carolyn K. Lesorogol draws on eighteen months of fieldwork and ten previous years of work and residence among the Samburu to ask: What accounts for this challenge to an important, well-adapted, and seemingly highly functional institution? What are the effects of privatization of land on household well-being, individual behavior, and social relations? How can understanding the trajectory of institutional change in this case help us comprehend the dynamic processes of social transformation in general? "Contesting the Commons is one of the best books that I have read on the politics of land and social order in Africa. Lesorogol offers a creative and nuanced approach to questions of property rights and social norms. This is a very impressive addition to the general literature on institutional change." ---Jack Knight, Sidney W. Soeurs Professor of Government, Department of Political Science, Washington University in St. Louis Carolyn K. Lesorogol is Assistant Professor of Sociocultural Anthropology at George Warren Brown School of Social Work, Washington University in St. Louis. She was a consultant for the National Science Foundation project, "The Roots of Human Sociality: An Ethno-Experimental Exploration of Economic Norms in 16 Small-Scale Societies," from 2001-2004, and she has also received a National Science Foundation grant and a Fulbright-Hays grant.