Modelling payment systems for environmental services in the Mt Elgon ecosystem of Kenya
- Authors: Kisaka, Lily
- Date: 2014
- Subjects: Ecological disturbances -- Kenya , Freshwater ecology -- Kenya , Water quality biological assessment -- Kenya , Land degradation -- Kenya , Ecosystem health -- Kenya
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD (Agricultural Economics)
- Identifier: vital:11206 , http://hdl.handle.net/10353/d1013123 , Ecological disturbances -- Kenya , Freshwater ecology -- Kenya , Water quality biological assessment -- Kenya , Land degradation -- Kenya , Ecosystem health -- Kenya
- Description: Unsustainable patterns of consumption by humankind have increased the rate of change in the natural ecosystems and consequently the levels of stress experienced within the environment. Access to sufficient good quality water is essential and a requirement to meet a number of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). However, poor land management and untenable agricultural practices have become the main drivers of the declining watershed services. Upstream farmers often have little or no incentives to take these impacts into account in their decision-making process. Therefore, without investment in ensuring proper land management, the trend in watersheds degradation will continue. Payment for Environmental Services (PES) has emerged as an incentive–based tool that is expected to motivate farmers to improve their agricultural practices. PES is set up to facilitate the process whereby the beneficiaries of environmental services pay compensation to providers of environmental services for conserving the ecosystem. This tool has received increasing attention as a means of creating incentive measures for managing the ecosystem, addressing livelihood issues for the rural poor, and providing sustainable financing for protected areas. The Government of Kenya, as part of its efforts to improve water resource management, is considering use of economic incentive. However, there is insufficient information to guide policy making in that direction. Little is known about the farmers’ preferences for management schemes that will affect land use patterns, their willingness to accept compensation and the willingness of potential buyers to pay for the services. This study evaluates the willingness to accept and the willingness to pay for environmental services with a view to assessing the viability of a PES scheme for the Kuywa Watershed in particular, as well as the Mt. Elgon Ecosystem and other areas with similar conditions. The objectives of the study are threefold (i) to examine respondents preferences for management options for the provision of environmental services in the watershed of River Kuywa of Mt. Elgon Ecosystem; (ii) to evaluate households’ willingness to pay (WTP) and willingness to accept (WTA) payment for improved environmental services from the River Kuywa watershed; and (iii) to propose viable PES approaches for the management of the natural resource of the Kuywa watershed and the Mt. Elgon ecosystem in general. Using six land management attributes relevant to the local situation, the study applied the conjoint method to evaluate farmers’ preferences for management options for the provision of environmental service and assess farmers’ willingness to pay and willingness to accept payment for environmental services. To enable assessment of viability, an analysis was done of the institutional and legal framework within which the PES scheme would operate. Data were collected using literature review and document analysis, questionnaires, focus group discussions and key informant interviews. Results indicate that poor water quality was the most acute problem, followed by deforestation. Results from the conjoint models show that the length of commitment period and land size that is 40% or more of the total land holding influence the farmers’ rating of the management scenarios. The study found that a management contract that requires use of 20% of land holding for a period of 5 years, combined with a cash incentive, harvesting partially permitted, administered by a local NGO and requiring contribution of free labour for two days had the highest likelihood of being selected. The conjoint valuation exercise also came up with a WTA by farmers upstream of KSh. 7,080/= per year. The corresponding value downstream was KSh. 43/= per month over and above their regular water bill. In terms of the institutional and regulatory framework, Kenya has a wide range of policies, laws and regulation on water and other natural resources which provide an enabling environment for PES. With the decentralized institutional setup implemented in both the water sector and the agricultural sector, the institutional setting also provides an enabling environment for PES. With a positive WTA and WTP coupled with an enabling legal and institutional environment, the study concludes that PES is a viable environmental management tool for the Kuywa water shed and similar watersheds.
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- Date Issued: 2014
Evaluating people-environment relationships : developing appropriate research methodologies for sustainable management and rehabilitation of riverine areas by communities in the Kat River Valley, Eastern Cape Province, South Africa
- Authors: Motteux, Nicole
- Date: 2003
- Subjects: Water-supply -- South Africa -- Kat River Valley -- Management Rural development -- Environmental aspects -- South Africa -- Kat River Valley Kat River Valley (South Africa) Human ecology -- South Africa -- Kat River Valley Stream ecology -- South Africa -- Kat River Valley
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:4828 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1005503
- Description: International evidence clearly indicates that water shortages and the enhanced value attached to water and aquatic ecosystems are key concerns faced by many countries. International experience, since the mid-1980s, has emphasised the importance of addressing political, social, environmental and economic issues through active stakeholder participation in riverine and water resource management. These trends and issues are relevant to South Africa, where integrated water resource management (IWRM) is now a cornerstone of water resource policy and the National Water Act (NWA). Apartheid excluded communities in former homelands (racial reserves) from participation in IWRM. The research presented in this thesis was based on the search for philosophies and methods to involve the rural, former homeland people of the Kat River Valley in South Africa in IWRM. Post-modern, humanist and some logical positivist geographical philosophies were used during the research. This research applied Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) philosophy and methods and was influenced by the seminal work of Paolo Freire (1972). In addition, the use of innovative methods for engagement of the oppressed, using theatre methods developed by Augusto Boal (1995, 2000) was explored to add value to PRA. In addition, the application of Action Research ensured that community participants were actively involved in the research being conducted for this thesis. The applied research in the Kat River Valley in South Africa evolved through three key phases. In Phase One quantifiable data on the Kat River Valley and its residents was sought. This investigation did not empower the resident communities of Fairbairn and Hertzog – a lesson that influenced the move to more participatory methods in subsequent phases of the research. Lessons learned from using surveys encouraged exploration of participatory methods to enable participants to become “co-learners”. Phase Two of the research commenced with a series of feedback meetings, in which participants recognised that they faced an environmental crisis. Through a series of participatory workshops, residents came to acknowledge and affirm their environmental knowledge. Residents then committed themselves to gaining a deeper understanding of their environment and their lives. My role changed from that of a researcher to a facilitator. Phase Three of the research and the shift to Action Research commenced after local residents identified the need to personally take charge of their environmental challenges in the Kat River Valley and recognised the need to collaborate at a catchment scale for effective IWRM. This eventually led to the formation of a Water User Association and Catchment Forum. The key theoretical contribution of the thesis relates to the identified relationship between the development orientation and ecological paradigm, and an assessment of the impact this has on the inputs, processes, outputs and outcomes of IWRM. This theoretical contribution is equally valid in other countries, where the tradeoffs are essentially the same, but the framework for making the choices is different because of varying socio-economic and biophysical circumstances
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- Date Issued: 2003
A mission and five commissions: a study of some aspects of the educational work of the American Zulu Mission, 1835-1910
- Authors: George, Ambrose Cato
- Date: 1989
- Subjects: Missions -- South Africa Missions -- Educational Work , American Zulu Mission , Natal , South Africa , Colonial government , Adams College , Newton Adams , Missions , Missionary education , Educational purpose , Zulu people
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:1337 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1001403
- Description: This thesis examines the work of the American Zulu Mission in Natal from 1835 to 1910. Of the institutions controlled by this mission, the most famous was that known in the 20th Century as Adams College, named after one of the founders of the Natal work, Dr Newton Adams. Although other research work has been done on this institution and this mission in general, this thesis attempts to examine the work in the light of the mission's own view of its educational purpose and the expectations of the Colonial Government of what could be expected of missionary education. To meet this purpose particular stress was laid first on the actual development of the mission's educational institutions, especially when reports and letters assessed the aims of the developments and the ways in which these aims were being met. Secondly, the aims of missionary education were explained through five capital Colonial Government Commissions, which looked, in a number of different ways, at the current position and future of the Zulu peoples of Natal. These Commissions reported in 1846, 1852-1853, 1881-1882, 1892 and 1902. Two major findings emerge from the investigation. The first was lack of clarity, not only on the part of what the mission was trying to do, but also on what the Colonial Government expected it to do. To this absence of clarity must be added the continuous shortage of finance, the reluctance of the Zulu themselves to accept the combination of education (which they wanted) and conversion (of which they were often suspicious). In these circumstances, their slow progress of the 75 years from 1835 to 1910 becomes understandable. Had these years been the total extent of the mission' s contribution to Natal, there would be little justification for any extended investigation, or any reason behind the high prestige which the mission enjoyed. It is shown, however, that from 1902 onwards a new, more incisive and directional policy, especially on the question of education, came from the mission. This emerged particularly under the leadership of Le Roy, Principal from 1903 to 1925. The last part of this thesis assesses this new direction. The detailed investigation comes to an end at 1910 when with the creation of Union, an entirely new organisation and dispensation came into being. In the last years of Le Roy's principalship the promise of the period of 1902 to 1920 came to fruition and in the final chapter a brief summary of these developments are given
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- Date Issued: 1989