PhD Theses

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Browsing PhD Theses by Author "Anthony, Donald"

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    Traditional environmental knowledge systems related to changes and variations of water resources management in semi-arid, Tanzania: a case study of Mara river basin
    (University of Dar es Salaam, 2007) Anthony, Donald
    This study has investigated the role of Traditional Environmental Knowledge Systems (TEKS) in understanding the spatial and temporal changes and variations of water resources in the Mara River Basin (MRB), which is located in semi-arid Tanzania. 'Methods employed were semi-structured interviews, focus group discussions, participatory resources mapping, analysis of land use/cover maps, trend analysis and pair-wise ranking. A total of 215 households (14.3%) were surveyed in five study villages. The findings revealed that local people possess tools and indicators, which are employed in understanding rainfall and water resources variability. Pair-wise ranking revealed that the common, effective and most used tools across ethnic groups in the MRB are lightning, wind systems, insect behaviour, wild animal characteristics and dew. Time-related participatory mapping revealed great changes of land use/cover particularly decrease of forest and wetlands. This correlate well with maps analysis, which indicated a decrease of wetlands by 13% between 1960s and 1990s. Similarly, trend analysis of rainfall and water resources availability based on TEKS correlate well with rainfall amount and water discharges obtained from rain and water gauging stations. It was concluded that local people in the MRB practice their socio-economic activities and design water use systems depending on the knowledge they have on rainfall changes and variations. Local people possess and depend on TEKS based tools and indicators, which are detailed in understanding water resources variability as majority of local people are not aware of MEKS based tools, water policies and legislation. To achieve sustainable water resources management in the MRB it is recommended that TEKS based rules and regulations be backed by policies and legislation.