Region
East Africa.
Focus
A review of catchment studies (n = 37) conducted in East Africa evaluating the impacts of Land Use and Land Cover Changes (LULCC) on discharge, surface runoff, and low flows.
Background. This study examines an intervention strategy to reduce the risk of chromium (Cr) exposure. It follows a previous Cr exposure investigation, which revealed that large volumes of Cr-contaminated waste were burnt on site. The study site had a long history of land-based waste disposal since 1994.
Objective. The potential for phytoremediation using bamboo species to restore Cr-contaminated soil was evaluated.
An study was carried out in Kenya to assess the suitability of three promiscuous soybean varieties
(SB19, GAZELLE and TGX1990-5F) intercropped with Maize (Duma 43). A randomised complete
block design was used replicated three times with seven treatments. The arrangement of
intercropping was 1:1. Data collection included germination %, plant height, days to 50% flowering,
days to 75% maturity, yield biomass per plant, 100 grain weight, grain yield, harvest index and Land
Objectives
Food security entails having sufficient, safe, and nutritious food to meet dietary needs. The need to optimise nitrogen (N) use for nutrition security while minimising environmental risks in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) is overdue. Challenges related to managing N use in SSA can be associated with both insufficient use and excessive loss, and thus the continent must address the ‘too little’ and ‘too much’ paradox. Too little N is used in food production (80% of countries have N deficiencies), which has led to chronic food insecurity and malnutrition.
Recent developments in Environmental Flow (E-flow) frameworks advocate holistic, regional scale, probabilistic E-flow assessments that consider flow and non-flow drivers of change in socio-ecological context as best practice. Regional Scale ecological risk assessments of multiple sources, stressors and diverse ecosystems that address multiple social and ecological endpoints, have been undertaken internationally at different spatial scales using the relative-risk model since the mid 1990's.
African tropical montane forests are facing fast and dynamic changes in land use. However, the impacts of these changes on stream water quality are understudied. This paper aims at assessing the effect of land use and physical catchment characteristics on stream water concentrations of dissolved organic carbon (DOC), total dissolved nitrogen (TDN), nitrate (NO3-N) and dissolved organic nitrogen (DON) in the Mau Forest, the largest tropical montane forest in Kenya.
Four years ago, I was part of a research team looking at access to land and basic services in informal settlements.
We conducted field interviews in Mukuru slums in Eastlands. We were amazed at the levels of development in the area. People were constructing permanent structures despite the fact that they were under the impression that informal settlements are characterised by temporary structures.
Four years later, there are ongoing discussions to address the plight of informal settlements. A fundamental starting point is to address issues of tenure security.
Kenya’s land governance system is fashioned to facilitate land expropriation for the few and powerful who continue to resist reforms.
This is despite the fact that the dynamics of land reform are driven by apprehensions of mischief associated with the history that explains why the National Land Commission was established with mandate, independent of the Executive.
CAPITALISM
From the British conquest, Kenya’s land governance system was never meant to be inclusionary and equitable.
Inadequacies in the indication of cultural ecosystem services (CES) are a hindrance in assessing their
comprehensive impacts on human wellbeing. Similarly, uncertainties about the quantity and quality of
CES, in real time and space, have hampered the ability of resource managers to precisely take responsive
management actions. The aim of the study is to demonstrate, how CES indicators can be identified and
qualified in order to link CES to human wellbeing, and to integrate them into the ‘ecosystem services cascade’
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