Resilience Seminar
The 35th Resilience Seminar
Co-organizer: Jumpei Kubota’s Incubation Studies, RIHN
Date & Time: Thursday, July 28th, 2011, 16:00-17:00
Place: Lecture Hall, RIHN
Title:
Think about Our Scenery
Speaker:
Yoshiyuki Kawazoe
Affiliation:
Institute of Industrial Science, the University of Tokyo
Abstract
The great earthquake was a major turning point for our scenery. Neighbors’ occupation, regional structure, treatment of nature, these are essential to grow up our scenery, but now the earthquake jolt them all. Our generation has to continue to struggle the meaning why we face with this turning point in the next half century. Old villages with traditional structure teach us that they are result of continuous grope for most suitable and balanced solution to the environment. In this viewpoint, we need a good grasp of our own solution toward future.
The 34th Resilience Seminar
Date & Time: Monday, July 25th, 2011, 16:00-17:00
Place: Seminar room 1/2, RIHN
Title:
The Trend of Crop Diversification and the Results of the Crop Diversification Support Project in Zambia
Speaker:
Atsushi Suzuki
Affiliation:
A & M Consultant
Abstract
Maize has been produced and consumed as a major staple food in Zambia since the crop was introduced by European migrants during the colonial time. While the advantages of maize as a food crop can be recognized, over-dependency on a single crop has been a major cause for food shortages that Zambian people have experienced on regular basis. Since Zambia went independent in 1964, the dependency on maize had been further fostered among Zambian farmers with heavy subsidy policies that the first independent government undertook. However, after the government had changed and the economy system was liberalized in the early 1990s, it is observed that the crop diversification has gradually been progressed as the government subsidy level declined. In this presentation, the trend of the crop production in Zambia since 1980s, and outline and results of the Crop Diversification Support Project in which the presenter has engaged since October 2006 will be discussed.
The 33rd Resilience Seminar
Date & Time: Tuesday, June 21st, 2011, 14:00-16:00
Place: Meeting Room no. 332 on the 3rd floor of Inamori Memorial Hall, Kyoto University
Title:
The Revolving Door of Parks and People?: Access and Alienation in a Zambian Park Buffer Zone
Speaker:
Lisa Cliggett
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of Kentucky
Abstract
Since the late 1970s, farmers from across Zambia, but especially the Gwembe Valley in Zambia’s southern province, have poured into a Game Management Area bordering the Kafue National Park in Central Zambia. While claiming farmland, these settlers clear the woodland savannah rapidly, and harvest impressive quantities of maize and cotton. This paper explores the history of development induced migration -starting with the forced relocation in 1958 of 60,000 Gwembe Tonga people, living aside the Zambezi river which triggers a series of subsequent displacements, ultimately resulting in frontier settlement and land cover change in the park buffer zone. Key factors explored in this paper include dynamics between development, economic processes, and interethnic relations. Most recently in the frontier region, host – migrant power dynamics and the links to economic and ecological processes have resulted in heavily contested land grabbing, new rounds of forced relocations, secret monetary dealings, increased socio-economic differentiation within communities and most disturbing, armed attacks and murder. Drawing from a theoretical backdrop of "political ecology", I argue that a constellation of power dynamics tying people, environments and livelihoods together - that is, a constellation of political-ecologies through time and across place has resulted in acute social differentiation with visible impacts in the form of land cover change and alarming outbursts of conflict and violence. The paper presents ethnographic and survey data from six field seasons of research since 2004, and is set within the longitudinal Gwembe Tonga Research Project, started in 1956 by Elizabeth Colson and Thayer Scudder.
The 32nd Resilience Seminar
Date & Time: Friday, October 22nd , 2010, 16:00-17:30
Place: RIHN Lecture Hall
Title:
Vulnerability and Resilience of Canal-Irrigated Agriculture against Floods: The Case of Pakistan
Speaker:
Takashi Kurosaki
Affiliation:
Institute of Economic Research, Hitotsubashi University
Abstract:
How rural households in canal-irrigated areas in Pakistan cope with flood risk? To address this question, using panel data of household economies surveyed in 2001 and 2004, we first associate household-level welfare fluctuations with covariate shocks like floods, droughts, and pest-attacks. We then extrapolate its implications to the current floods, which are indeed disastrous and unprecedented. Research proposal concludes the presentation.
The 44th RIHN Seminar and the 31st Resilience Seminar
Date & Time: Thursday, June 17th , 2010, 13:30-15:00
Place: RIHN Lecture Hall
Title:
Food Security, Climate Variability and Land Use in Zambia: Methods for Spatial Analysis and Modeling Vulnerability and Resilience of Smallholder Systems
Speaker:
Tom P. Evans
Affiliation:
RHIN Visiting Research Fellow, Department of Geography, Indiana University
Abstract:
Smallholders in rural Zambia are exposed to a number of shocks that threaten their livelihoods. With the majority of smallholders directly or indirectly dependent on local-level crop production, climate variability presents a particular threat to human-well being and food security. There are scale-dependent relationships that must be considered in assessing the vulnerability of smallholders to climate variability. This presentation will present methods for analyzing food security and smallholder resilience at multiple spatial scales of analysis. In particular, conceptual approaches are discussed to articulate the resilience of smallholders at household, community and regional levels of analysis. Results from a rich household survey data conducted in 2007 are integrated with land use data derived from satellite imagery to assess the vulnerability of smallholders at these diverse spatial scales. An agent-based modeling approach is presented as a mechanism to investigate the future potential vulnerability of smallholders to climate variability. These tools are discussed as components of an integrated multi-method approach for characterizing the spatial dimensions of resilience in smallholder systems.
The 30th Resilience Seminar
Date & Time: April 10th, 2010, 16:00-17:30
Place: RIHN Lecture Hall
Title:
Resilience of Ecological Resource and Livelihood: A case of the Sereer in Senegal
Speaker:
Masaaki Hirai
Affiliation:
Graduate School of Asian and African Area Studies, Kyoto University
Abstract:
In Sudanian Savanna of West Africa, we can find numerous densely populated areas and these areas have common features in their livelihood systems: “intensive agriculture” and “refined resource use and management”. In this presentation, I will discuss about technical and institutional factors which had formed these features, and also its recent reform under changing socio-economic and environmental conditions, based on the case of the Sereer people living in Senegal.
The 29th Resilience Seminar
Date & Time: October 30th, 2009, 17:00-18:00
Place: RIHN Lecture Hall
Title:
Agriculture and Rural Community of Africa as Object of Technical Cooperation
Speaker:
Yoshitake Shinbo
Affiliation:
Managing Director, Technical Support Office for Rural Development in
Kinki District, Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, Japan
Abstract:
In sub-Saharan Africa, farming system is largely a small-scale rain-fed agriculture. This is in sharp contrast to the well irrigated systems in which large-scale commercial plantations, especially those in southern Africa, are using. The productions of subsistence crops of small scale farmers are diverse. Maize, wheat, millet, sorghum and other grains are main staple food in the sub-Saharan. In Uganda and the surrounding countries, non-sweet banana is their staple food. Rice including the upland rice is increasing in its importance in many African countries.
It is argued that a well managed irrigation system is a key to improve livelihood and food security of the small scale farmers. Existing community irrigation systems such as well and pond in many African countries tend to be small in capacity and not as efficiently managed as of those water users’ associations in the monsoon Asia. The Japanese technical cooperation has targeted irrigation system that will allow the farmers to cultivate horticulture in the dry season to supply to the market for additional income. Although it is important to have stable yield of cereal and staple crops, their prices under government-operated market are generally too low to be profitable to increase production of cereal crops. In order for technical assistance to be effective, it is important to consider technology, tools or means that are appropriate within the context of ecological and market environment semi-arid of sub-Saharan Africa, which may probably be different from successful technical development experiences of monsoon Asia.
The 28th Resilience Seminar
Date & Time: August 3rd, 2009, 15:00-16:00
Place: RIHN Seminar Room 3, 4
Title:
A Spatial Structure for the Institutional Analysis of Common Pool Resource Systems
Speaker:
Tom Evans
Affiliation:
Associate Professor, Department of Geography, Indiana University, Indiana, USA
Abstract:
Dynamics within common pool resource (CPR) systems are the product of a diverse array of socio-economic and biophysical processes. The spatial structure of these systems often influences the management of resources (e.g. forests, water, fish) including the institutional rules that are developed governing how these systems can be used. Prior work has developed frameworks to describe social-ecological systems (SES) to investigate the institutional contexts that make SESs resilient or sustainable, but without articulating the spatial relationships inherent in these systems. The objective of this paper is to develop an ontology designed to describe the actors, resources and relationships within an SES, with an emphasis on the spatial relationships inherent in human-environment interactions. The field of computer science uses the term "ontology" to refer to an implementation of a conceptual framework. From an analytical perspective, ontologies can be used to translate data compiled for case studies into a formal database that enables cross-site analysis. Many elements of SESs have explicitly spatial characteristics that in part affect the dynamics within those systems such as the proximity of actors to a resource, or the size of land holdings. The ontology presented here emphasizes the actors and resources in a system as well as the spatial characteristics and relationships that relate to the institutional factors affecting system dynamics. A series of three distinct case studies (a community forest in Midwest United States, an irrigation network in southwest United States and a fishery system in Mexico) are used to demonstrate how this ontological framework can be applied to specific CPRs and social-ecological systems more generally.
The 27th Resilience Seminar
Date & Time: July 8th, 2009, 15:00-16:00
Place: RIHN Seminar Room 3, 4
Title:
Quantifying the impact of climatic change on yields and yield variability of major crops and optimal land allocation for maximizing food production in different agro-climatic zones of Tamil Nadu, India: An Econometric Approach
Speaker:
C.R. Ranganathan
Affiliation:
Professor, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India
Abstract:
This paper provides a framework for optimal land use planning in the context of climate change. All agricultural activities are very sensitive to climate change resulting in variability in crop yields. Hence it becomes necessary to study the effect of climate change not only on mean yield but also on variability in yield. The quantitative information so obtained should be used for optimal land allocation in order to utilize natural resources in a judicious way. Previous studies using regression techniques concentrated on the estimation of average productivity only but little attention was given for optimal land allocation to competing crops with climate change induced productivities. The problem becomes more important in the context of gradual decline in available land area for agriculture due to urbanization.
The present study focuses on these issues for major crops grown in Tamil Nadu State. It employs econometric modelling for estimating the mean yield and yield variability and also covariance between yields of different crops. The mean yields so obtained which reflect the impact of climate change are then used in multi-objective linear programming models for meeting objectives like maximum food grain production, maximum paddy production and minimization of agricultural land area for maintaining at least the current level of production of crops etc. Finally the study attempts to link the optimal food grain production with the projected population of Tamil Nadu for 2020 to determine the quantum of food grain availability per individual.
The study shows that precipitation and temperature have varying effect on productivity and variability of crops. Trend has positive impact on most of the crops. Also, climate change, as dictated by HADCM3A2a scenario, will have modest impact on crop productivities across the five zones of Tamil Nadu. Zones where paddy is grown traditionally may witness modest increase in productivity followed by increase in variability while many other crops may have decrease in productivity and there is no uniformity in changes in their variability. The study indicates that when land is the only constraint, with climate change induced productivities, optimal allocation of crop area will result in increased production of food grain. These results will be useful for policy makers in finding the gap between supply and demand of food grain for projected population.
The 26th Resilience Seminar
Date & Time: February 10th, 2009, 15:00-16:30
Place: RIHN letcture hall
Title:
Human Security in Africa: Between Normalcy and Emergency
Speaker:
Yoichi Mine
Affiliation:
Associate Professor, Global Collaboration Center (GLOCOL), Osaka University
Abstract:
The concept of human security was first propounded in UNDP’s Human Development Report 1994 and further expanded in the Final Report of the Commission on Human Security published in 2003. Placing national security in a relative perspective, human security tries to empower people and communities from below, and assigns the special role of protecting vulnerable people to multi-lateral organizations. Human insecurities are caused by the manifestation of risks, sudden serious downturns, including the outbreak of violent conflicts, economic crises and natural disasters, as well as the spread of infectious diseases. Many African societies have historically been prepared for such calamities as famine disasters, but the situations are becoming increasingly complex. A noticeable trend is that the structural, long-term poverty and the conjuctural, acute poverty are converging in the continent. The main part of the talk will not be about empirical case study but rather directed to a policy framework for international cooperation, African history, and a reevaluation of Amartya Sen’s entitlement theory in the light of human security approach in the African context.
The 25th Resilience Seminar
Date & Time: December 5th, 2008, 16:00-17:15
Place: RIHN letcture hall
Title:
Combating drought in South Africa, and southern Africa
Speaker:
Mitsuru Tsubo
Affiliation:
Associate Professor, Arid Land Research Center, Tottori University
Abstract:
In Africa drought is the most devastating natural event, and severe drought causes people to be starved to death. The Sahel drought disaster in 1974-1975 resulted in a total of 325,000 casualties. In 1984 the worst drought event occurred in Ethiopia and Sudan; approximately 450,000 people were died. In 1992 southern African countries dealt with the most severe drought disaster of the century in the region. Zimbabwean faced food shortage due to insufficient rainfall during the crop season. This crisis was escalated by the misconduct of the government; their policy failed and they were blamed for the damage. The lesson learned from the crisis is that pre- and post-disaster management for drought is critical for prevention and mitigation of the disaster. South Africa is one of the countries which are at the cutting edge of drought management, as the National Disaster Management Centre has been formed to promote an integrated, coordinated system of disaster management by national, provincial and municipal governments. Their drought management has been strengthened in connection with the Weather Service which releases seasonal rainfall outlooks, but an operational system to alleviate drought disasters is not yet formulated. A drought early warning system thus needs to be developed for the country and then the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region.
The 24th Resilience Seminar
Date & Time: July 17th, 2008, 15:00-17:00
Place: RIHN letcture hall
Title:
Modeling Household-Level Deforestation and Reforestation with Agent-Based Approaches: Case Studies from Laos PDR, United States and
Zambia
Speaker:
Tom Evans
Affiliation:
Department of Geography, Indiana University (RIHN invited researcher)
Abstract:
Social-ecological systems are inherently complex and composed of
dynamics at multiple spatial scales that govern their behavior. An
important part of these systems is how humans interact with each
other, how these interactions change their behaviors and how their
actions affect the biophysical environment. Agent-based models are
one tool that can be used to examine these types of system dynamics.
This seminar will discuss past research employing agent-based models
(ABMs) to study household level behavior in social-ecological systems
with an emphasis on land cover change, especially deforestation and
reforestation. These ABMs are used to examine how households make
land-use decisions and how these decisions lead to macro-level
outcomes at a regional scale of analysis. Agent-based approaches are
useful for this type of research because they are designed to identify
the interactions between actors and the heterogeneity of actors.
To demonstrate this research, examples will be discussed from the following set of studies: 1) the process of reforestation in the Midwest United States, 2) the transition from slash and burn agriculture to rubber plantations in Laos PDR, 2) and a prototype of a model to study adaptation to climate change in Zambia. The seminar will also discuss different methods of linking actors to the physical environment using geographic information systems (GIS), and the scale- dependence of social-ecological systems. The overall objective of this presentation is to discuss the advantages and disadvantages of these types of local-level approaches, and new emerging directions of household-based research on the human-dimensions of global change.
The 23rd Resilience Seminar
Date & Time: June 18th, 2008, 15:00-16:15
Place: RIHN hall
Language: English
Title:
Resilience of Rural Households and Communities to HIV/AIDS and Recurrent
Droughts: Case of People around Mwami Adventist Hospital, Chipata,
Zambia
Lecture:
Chileshe L. Mulenga
Affiliation:
Institute of Economic and Social Research, University of Zambia
Key Words: Rural, Households, Communities, HIV/AIDS, Recurrent Drought, Poverty, Elderly, Young People and Socialization
Summary
Rural communities respond to socio-economic and ecological shocks primarily at the household and community levels. The household and community level responses aim at ensuring integrity of households and preservation of communities as social and cultural entities. High prevalence of HIV/AIDS in Zambia, however, poses serious challenges to the survival of households and communities. The situation has been worsened by recurrent droughts, which have caused crop failure, food shortages and losses of assets. Households and communities confronted by HIV/AIDS and recurrent droughts have therefore become poorer and more vulnerable.
Deep socio-cultural changes are required for households and communities around Mwami Adventist Hospital to endure the HIV/AIDS scourge and recurrent droughts. Appropriate socialization of young people and a shift to agricultural livelihood systems capable of withstanding recurrent droughts are essential to resilience of rural households and communities.
Socialization of orphans is, however, problematic, as most orphans are looked after by elderly female guardians, who equally need support. The female guardians moreover cannot provide adequate socialization to young men, due to the division of labour between women and men. Elderly guardians cannot also effectively provide knowledge of “essential” edible wild leaves, fruits, tubers, insects and small animals that are part of the rural livelihoods, as they may not walk long distances. Changing agricultural livelihood systems is equally difficult, due to lack of knowledge and experience of alternative agricultural livelihood systems. Entrenched poverty also precludes unsubsidized technological solutions on account of cost.
Socialization of young people that prevents HIV infections and livelihood systems capable of withstanding recurrent droughts are critical to resilience of rural households and communities.
The 22nd Resilience Seminar
Date & Time: April 11th, 2008, 15:00-16:15
Place: RIHN Lecture Hall
Language: English
Speaker:Dr. Lawrence Flint (RIHN Visiting Fellow and ENDA)
Title: Socio-ecological Resilience in an Arena of Rapid Environmental Change: Climate Variability and Adaptation in the Upper Zambezi Valley Floodplain
Abstract：
People have made unprecedented demands on ecosystems in recent decades to meet growing demands for food, water, fibre and energy. These demands have placed pressure on ecosystem balances, depleted the ability of the natural environment to replace biocapacity consumed and weakened the capacity to deliver ecosystem services such as purification of air and water, waste disposal and aesthetically pleasing environments. There is an apparent tension between the aspirations of social and economic development and environmental sustainability.
Direct drivers of change that engender a reduction in ecosystem goods and services include habitat change, invasive species, over exploitation, pollution and, climate variability and change. These processes threaten to diminish socio-ecological resilience and heighten sensitivity to both environmental and socio-economic change.
This paper seeks to discuss the scientific ways in which socio-ecological vulnerability and resilience can be examined, in particular the inter disciplinarity of approach necessary to address these wide ranging issues.
It will also analyse the nature of socio-ecological resilience and adaptation to vulnerability. This is contextualised in a discussion covering the historical and contemporary production of politico-economic and socio-cultural networks and dynamics affecting resilience.
The study considers floodplain ecosystems, the sites of human settlement, economic activities and the appearance of 'hydraulic civilisations'. An example discussed here is the Bulozi 'natural' floodplain of the Upper Zambezi Valley in western Zambia, currently exhibiting biophysical and socio-economic change.
This floodplain was populated by the ancestors of the present Lozi peoples who, using the ecological goods and services offered by the plain, produced a strong and vibrant politico-economy that became dominant in the region, using surplus food with which to specialise, raise an army and take advantage of economic opportunities.
Today Bulozi is an arena of relative underdevelopment and this condition may become exacerbated by increasing climate dynamics, but these act only as additional stressors to socially created vulnerabilities that became entrenched over time. The paper discusses the production of vulnerability in Bulozi and the adaptive capacity required to increase resilience.
The paper concludes that people’s capacity to adapt to exogenous and endogenous pressures and maintain the cohesion of the socio-ecological system (SES) depends much on their ability to deal with stressors from a position of autochthonous (indigenous) ‘ownership’. It depends also on their ability to adapt current practices and diversify productive activities so that society can regain a sense of momentum, control and motivation to enhance living standards whilst conserving the integrity of the SES.
The 21st Resilience Seminar
Date & Time: February 15th, 2008, 15:00-16:30
Place: RIHN Seminar Room 1 & 2
Language: Japanese
Speakers:
Chihiro Ito
Tetsuya Nakamura
(Graduate School of Asian and African Area Studies, Kyoto University)
Title and Abstract
**
"Labour Migration as Livelihood Strategy: A Case Study in Southern
Province, Zambia"
Chihiro Ito, Graduate School of Asian and African Area Studies, Kyoto
University
Abstract
In African rural area, subsistent agriculture has long been the main mode
of living. However, as the rural economy is highly integrated into monetary
system, farmers find it harder to make their livings only out of
agriculture, especially during the year of climatic and market variation.
In response, they diversify their livelihoods in an attempt to mitigate and
cope with those risks. Also in Zambia, non-agricultural activities have
been the important income source for rural households; especially "labour
migration" has played greater roles to sustain the rural economy.
Both international and domestic labour migrations were often seen in
colonial period, to supply labour for mining in copper belt and plantations
in Southern Africa. However, this kind of migration is different from the
current migration patterns in rural area. Therefore, I consider labour
migration as livelihood strategy for peasants and my study aims at what
kind of impact does it have on rural society and economy.
In this presentation, I will introduce about the characteristic of labor
migration in my research area and discuss about the role of labour
migration in my study area.
**
"The Livelihood of Tonga Peasant Farmers in Mountainous Area, Southern Zambia"
Tetsuya Nakamura, Graduate School of Asian and African Area Studies,
Kyoto University
Abstract:
In 1950s, the huge artificial lake was developed by the construction of
'Kariba dam' at Zambezi river in Southern Zambia. As a result, over 50,000
'Tonga' people were forced to migrate to the plane along the lake, where
they had the pervasive problems of drought and land shortage. With this
background, the study region, which is located on the Zambezi Escarpment
covered by Miombo woodland between plateau and valley, is one of candidate
sites of remigration. I try to discuss about the livelihood at mountainous
area, through the view of their social structure.
The 20th Resilience Seminar
Date & Time: November 22th, 2007, 15:00-16:30
Place: RIHN Seminar Room 3 & 4
Language: English
Speaker: Prof. Gear Kajoba, University of Zambia
Title: Vulnerability and Resilience of Rural Society in Zambia: From the View Point of Land Tenure and Food Security
Abstract:
The paper shows that pre-colonial ecologies of agricultural systems in some
parts of rural Zambia were sustainable and resilient to prevailing
environmental conditions, and were therefore able to ensure relative food
security, under communal land tenure.
However, colonial policies of land alienation and labour migration
impacted negatively on food production systems of some ethnic groups like
the citemene system of the Bemba and the flood plain cultivation system of
the Lozi, making them extremely vulnerable due to the absence of large
numbers of males. Paradoxically, the Tonga people in Southern Zambia
responded positively to the introduction of modern methods of cultivation,
exhibiting resilience by adapting and adopting the cultivation of hybrid
maize and the ox-drawn plough. They also began to transform their land
tenure system from being communal to become increasingly individualized.
At independence in 1964, the UNIP government intervened strongly in
promoting rural development (1964-1990), by subsidising maize production
and by implementing protectionist policies to maintain communal tenure.
However, food security could not be guaranteed, and the policies led to
over dependence of small-scale farmers on government and on maize at the
expense of other food crops.
The introduction of neo-liberal policies (from 1991 to 2001) by the MMD
government coupled with adverse weather conditions, made food production
systems rather vulnerable to both policy and environmental shocks. However,
efforts are being made(from 2001- to date) to continue with land tenure
empowerment policies to ensure secure land tenure for both men and women,
and make targeted interventions with partial subsidies to rebuild the
resilience of rural society, so as to promote national and household food
security.
The 19th Resilience Seminar
Monday, 30 July 2007, 15:30-16:45 (RIHN Lecture Hall) in Japanese
Title: Living with the Bible:The Growth of Independent Churches in Southern Afric
Speaker: Kenji Yoshida （National Museum of Ethnology）
Abstract:
Since around 1990, there has been a rapid growth in the numbers of followers of so called independent churches in the southern Africa. Various activities of one of the independent churches in Zambia, namely Zion Spirit Church, will be discussed, and the origin of the church is to be scrutinized.
The 18th Resilience Seminar
20 June 2007, 15:30-16:45 (RIHN Seminar Room3&4) in English
Title: Synthesis of soil management options for better targeting of technologies and ecological resilience under variable environmental conditions
Speaker: Moses MWALE (Zambia Agricultural Research Institute)
Abstract:
Lack of access to food and its availability is of central concern in Africa and a fundamental challenge for human welfare and economic growth. Low agricultural production results in low incomes, poor nutrition, vulnerability to risks and lack of empowerment. The New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) targets an average annual increase of ６% in agricultural productivity to ensure food security and sustained national economies. Land degradation and soil fertility or nutrient depletion are considered as the major threats to food security and natural resource conservation in the semi arid tropics (SAT). What is needed is to break the cycle between poverty and land degradation in Africa by employing strategies that empower farmers economically and promoting sustainable agricultural intensification using efficient, effective and affordable agricultural technologies. Such affordable management systems should be accessible to the poor, small-scale producers and the approach should be holistic and dynamic in order to foster both technical and institutional change. This paper aims to increase the dissemination of our knowledge base on soils and its management in Zambia. This includes issues of soil conservation and conservation farming. The main activities being to: inventories available technologies for alleviating land degradation and how to demonstrate and adapt the best-bets in farmers’ circumstances using farmer participatory approaches; scale up best bet technologies for sustainable land management and marketing options through the use of appropriate tools, methods and strategies; and to study the resulting ecological resilience under variable environmental conditions.
The 17th Resilience Seminar
23 April 2007, 15:30-16:45 (RIHN Seminar Room 1&2) in English
Title: Carrying capacity of land and environment of Africa
Speaker: Shigeru Araki, Professor, Graduate School of Asian and African Area Studies, Kyoto University
Abstract:
Distribution of people in the continent of Africa is extremely uneven, according to the local environment and indigenous agriculture and livelihood systems whose understandings play a key role in analyzing physical and social resilience against drought in southern Zambia. With this in mind, the expansion of arable land and population dynamics will be considered based on field observation in Tanzania, Zambia and Namibia.
The 16th Resilience Seminar
22 February 2007, 15:30-17:00 (RIHN Lecture Hall) in Japanese
Title: Creating social space for economic activities among rural women in Southern Zambia
Speaker: Tokuko Narisawa, Graduate School of Asian and African Area Studies, Kyoto University
Abstract
In rural Tonga of Southern Zambia, women's source of cash income had been almost entirely limited to the sales of beer. Since the 1990s, economic hardships stemming from complex repercussions of the penetration of market economy, drought and cattle disease have deprived Tonga of cash income from agricultural and pastoral activities. For Tonga women, this has meant a loss of access to money which has been controlled by men. To counter this trend, development programs have been promoted for the empowerment of rural women. No studies, however, reveal the real feature of
Tonga women's individual economic activities. This presentation aims to discuss the rural Tonga women's way of accomplishing their own economic activities in the society, under recent socio-economic changes, based on field research conducted in a village located east of Monze, Southern Province of Zambia. I shall argue that it was the creative practice of women that played a central role in transforming local social space into their own "market"; a creativity which allowed women to pursue individual economic activities without contradicting social norms in a male-dominated economy.
Title: Sorghum cultivation in Gwembe valley, southern Zambia
Speaker: Kazue Awaji, Graduate School of Asian and African Area Studies, Kyoto University
Abstract:
Gwembe valley, located in the southern part of Zambia, has poor rainfall and is often hit by drought. The people who live in the Gwembe valley cultivate sorghum that has drought resistance. I try to discuss about their sorghum cultivation under hard climate condition, from views of the cropping system and varietal Characteristics.
The 15th Resilience Seminar
9 November 2006, 15:30-17:00 (RIHN Seminar Room 1&2) in Japanese
Title: International approach to drought early warning system for human security ~ Current trends in international organisations and Ethiopia ~
Speaker: Yukiko IITSUKA, Secretariat of the international peace cooperation headquarters, Cabinet office
Abstract:
Among the countries in which a natural disaster and armed conflicts are occurring frequently, the "early warning system" for drought preparedness has been established by international organisations and other development assistance organizations as what contributes to people's "human security". However, in addition to the early analysis of the system based on the conventional data collection, the alternative analysis which takes political and social factor into consideration more attracts global attention in recent years. For example, in order to increase the efficacy of the system, a new approach called "Twin Track Approach (TTA)" has been recently discussed by the U.N. food and agriculture organisation (FAO). It incorporates the political and social factor as an element which constitutes a resilience framework in vulnerable society. In Ethiopia, on the other hand, the early warning system has been advanced over the basis of cooperation of international organisations, including USAID, in many years since it was introduced most early.
In the presentation, first of all, the new argument, such as the TTA which international society including FAO advances, will be introduced. Secondly, the history and information gathering system of early waning system operating in Ethiopia will be mainly reported. Furthermore, it would be discussed that what kind of problem could be identified in the early warning system currently carried out in Ethiopia, considering the lively argument of the TTA . Finally, the challenge of ensuring human security in drought correspondence of Africa, as well as the possibility of that, would be considered.
The 14th Resilience Seminar
2 October 2006, 15:30-17:15 (RIHN Seminar Room 1&2) in Japanese
Title: Influence of gregarious flowering of Melocanna baccifera in Mizoram, North-East India
Speaker: Shozo SHIABTA, Graduate School of Global Environmental Studies, Kyoto University
Abstract:
Melocanna baccifera distributes in North-East India, Bangladesh and Myanmar largely in slash-and-burn agriculture area. Although flowering period of the most bamboo species is not clear, this species has been recorded its flowering every 48 years and the next flowering will come on the end of this year. To understand the ecological characteristics of bamboo flowering this chance is very great for bamboo researchers. It is said that previous flowerings brought the catastrophic damage to Mizoram people. In these several decades, after the last flowering of Melocanna in 1959, the social system of Mizoram changes by the promotion of domicile, deterioration of slash-and-burn rotation and so on. The influence of current bamboo flowering upon this changing social system is also interesting.
Title: Zambia Field Trip Report
Speaker: Mitsunori Yoshimura, RIHN
The 13th Resilience Seminar
27 July 2006, 16:00-17:30 (RIHN Seminar Room 1&2) in English
Title: Application of climate information for enhancing resilience to climate risk: Indian case study
Speaker: Prof. V. Geethalakshmi, Visiting Researcher at RIHN and Department of Meteorology, Tamilnadu Agricultural University, India
Abstract:
Planning for risk management should take into account of climate variability and expand the capacity to identify trends and adapt to hazards such as floods and droughts. Extreme weather and climatic events keep on cause much damage and loss to properties and lives in spite of considerable advance made in the forecasting and monitoring of climatic phenomena on varied time scale and space dimensions in the past. During 1990’s, natural disasters hit the world to the tune of 500-800 times a year and resulted in loss of more than $600 billion and affected 2 billion people (Anthes, 2005). There are lots of uncertainties exists in natural variability of climate, extent and impact of global warming and climate change, population increase and related problems and societal and human response to these anticipated changes. However, let these uncertainties not be an excuse for taking any action against facing and managing the climatic risks. Regional understanding of the past trends and likely changes in the future will help in planning for the climate related risk management strategies. Early warning systems should become an integral part of risk management and planning. Anticipation and prevention are more effective and less expensive than having to react to emergencies. Few case studies of Indian subcontinent will be discussed as an example.
The 12th Resilience Seminar
3 July 2006 (RIHN Lecture Hall) in English
Co-organized by the Society of Commons Studies and Biwa-Yodo Watershed Project
Title: Developing Methods for Institutional Analysis: Institutional Diversity in Resource Management
Speaker: Elinor Ostrom, Co-Director, Workshop in Political Theory and Policy Analysis, Indiana University
Abstract:
Many policy texts stress the importance of institutions for political and economic development and for achieving sustainable resources. Yet, diverse scholars mean so many different things when they refer to institutions. And, there are many ways of conducting institutional analysis I will present a brief overview of the Institutional Analysis and Development (IAD) framework that is laid out in my new book, Understanding Institutional Diversity (Princeton University Press, 2005). I will then dig into the framework to illustrate the diversity of rules we have discovered in doing field work related to common-pool resources (e.g. irrigation systems, forests, pastures, fisheries). In light of the diversity of rules in use, I will address the problem of recommending simple solutions to complex social and ecology problems and recommend considerable humility when we turn to policy recommendations. Building settings in which individual can adapt better rules in light of their experience in coping with problems over time is a better approach than presuming we know the right “blueprint” to build better institutions to cope with diverse problems we face. Resilience is enhanced by building institutions that can be adapted to local circumstances and change over time.
The 11th Resilience Seminar
25 November 2005, 15:00-17:30 (RIHN Meeting Room) in Japanese
Title: Local meteorological observation from 2001 to 2004 in Mali, West Africa
Speaker: Hiromitsu Kanno, Laboratory of Agricultural Meteorology, National Agricultural Research Center for Tohoku Region
Abstract:
As the results of local meteorological observation, we got the following results. 1. Local precipitation data show the wave-like distribution pattern in each village. 2. There are two peaks of precipitation amount--in the morning and evening. 3. There are some stages in a rainy season. 4. Meteorological elements indicate characteristic seasonal variations. Additionally, we found the seasonal movement of precipitation area from north to south in the southern part of Mali by using the historical rain data, and seasonal variations of air-mass structures by using upper meteorological data.
On the other hands, we had some troubles during our investigation, e.g. about the duties on our meteorological equipments brought from Japan, the damages of rain gauge’s cable bit by termites and cattle, and the data-logger stops of unknown origin. We think that the information about troubles are also useful for other project researches in Africa. At last, we would like to introduce about climate and agriculture in northern part of Japan and to compare with those of West Africa.
Title: How Do Farmers Cope with Plot-Specific Rainfall Variation?: Empirical Evidence form Mali, West Africa
Speaker: Takeshi Sakurai, Policy Research Institute, Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries
Abstract:
In the JIRCAS’s research project “Development of Food Crop Production Systems with Reduced Risk through Advanced Weather Modeling for West Africa,” we conducted household survey and local weather monitoring in two villages located in southwestern Mail from 2001 to 2003. Based on the plot-level rainfall measured by rain gauges installed in fifteen different locations in each village, it is confirmed that farmers pay self-insurance premium based on the expected plot specific rainfall variation of one’s own plot and that farmers who have experienced a lower level of rainfall than expected compensate ex post the income shortfall from other sources. Those findings imply that spatial rainfall variation even in a small area like a village is very large and that farmers’ behavior to cope with the rainfall variation is also diverse accordingly. That is, “drought” defined at a regional level may not reflect correctly the situation of economic welfare of each household.
The 10th Resilience Seminar
21 October 2005, 15:00-17:30 (RIHN Meeting Room) in Japanese
Title: Reorientation of the concept of sustainable development: an ecological resilience approach
Speaker: Satoshi Kojima, Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES)
Abstract:
Since the publication of the Brundtland Report in 1987, the concept of sustainable development (SD) has been acclaimed as a common orientation of the global community in the policy arena at the global level as well as at other levels. Correspondingly vast amount of debates/studies about this concept has been accumulated, but they could not have established unanimous consensus on what it really means and what actions are required to achieve it. In this presentation it is proposed to define the objective of SD as “to eradicate poverty of the present generation without violating sustainability constraint”, in which sustainability constraint is defined as to maintain resilience of ecosystems underpinning life-support systems. As an attempt to apply the proposed SD concept to policy analysis, a case study of Moroccan water issues is presented. The latest trends of ecological economics, as a discipline of sustainable development, are also briefly introduced.
The 9th Resilience Seminar
21 July 2005, 15:00-17:15 (RIHN Meeting Room) in Japanese
Title: The change of land use in the social dynamics of eastern Zambia-The creation of new fields by Chewa farmer -
Speaker: Ryuta Yoshikawa, Graduate School of Asian and African Area Studies, Kyoto University
Abstract:
Chewa farmer living in eastern Zambia have experienced big changes of agricultural policy since 1980s. The purpose of this presentation is to clarify how the people have coped with social economic changes. I focus on the changes of crops and land use, in particular. Moreover, I examine the relevancy of correspondence to the situation and the change of habitation.
Title: Rural Response to the fluctuations of international coffee price: Market liberalization and 'Coffee Crisis' of Ethiopia in the 1990s.
Speaker: Keiichiro Matsumura, Graduate School of Human and Environmental Studies, Kyoto University
Abstract:
In the early 1990s, Ethiopian government introduced the market economy to agricultural products including coffee, which was formerly under the public price control. After the liberalization of market, coffee-growing areas suffered from widely fluctuated coffee price. This presentation examined the drastic transition of rural area in the 1990s, especially focusing on the resilience of land use practice and subsistence strategy of local farmers.
The 8th Resilience Seminar
Date and Time: 10 June 2005, 11:00-12:15 (RIHN Meeting Room) in Japanese
Title: Recent progress in lake ecosystem resilience -an overview
Speaker: Shigeo Yachi, RIHN
Abstract:
A review of recent progress in lake ecosystem resilience researches was presented. After summarizing changes in ecosystem view in ecology, the meaning of "resilience" in ecology was classified. Then, an integrative regime shift research in lake ecosystems using experiment, comparison and simulation by Carpenter et al. was focused on in the talk. (Kathryn L. Cottingham and Stephen R. Carpenter "Predictive Indices of Ecosystem Resilience in Models of North Temperate Lakes" Ecology, 75(7), 1994, pp.2127-2138.)
The 7th Resilience Seminar
28 April 2005, 15:30-17:00 (RIHN Meeting Room) in Japanese
Title: Experiences of the participatory community-support activities toward co-existence between ecosystems conservation and human welfare – a case of mountain village in Tanzania-
Speaker: Ueru TANAKA, Laboratory of Terrestrial Ecosystems Management, Graduate School of Global Environmental Studies, Kyoto University
Abstract:
Ecosystems and land resources of the mountains and highlands, one of the typical landscapes in Esat Africa, have been rapidly degraded under ever increasing land use pressure. As a serious reality, the daily activities by rural communities for foods and household income are major cause of degradation. It is, therefore, urgently necessary to develop some activity options that enable to meet the needs and to solve the problems at the same time, as well as to empower the rural communities. The presentation introduces some experiences and findings in the rural development project in the Uluguru Mountains, eastern Tanzania, particularly focusing on the potentialities of people’s participation, ways to utilize knowledge and techniques of local husbandry systems, and roles of outsider’s commitment. Some examples of the activity options include “reforestation without planting trees through bee-keeping”, “reappraisal of indigenous shifting cultivation as an inherent food security system” and “indirect reduction of labor-burden fro! m slush-and-burn cultivation and creation of income sources through incorporation of vanilla as a component of indigenous home-garden agroforestry system.
The 6th Resilience Seminar
14 February 2005, 10:00-17:00 (RIHN Meeting Room)
Resilience Incubation Seminar
The 5th Resilience Seminar
25 October 2004, 13:00-17:00 (RIHN Meeting Room)
The 4th Resilience Seminar
27 September 2004, 13:00-17:00 (RIHN Meeting Room)
The 3rd Resilience Seminar
26 July 2004, 13:00-17:00 (RIHN Meeting Room)
The 2nd Resilience Seminar
28 June 2004, 13:00-17:00 (RIHN Meeting Room)
The 1st Resilience Seminar
31 May 2004, 13:00-17:00 (RIHN Meeting Room)
Other seminar
RIHN seminar
Date and Time: 16:00-17:30 Wednesday 23rdMay 2007
Venue: Research Institute for Humanity and Nature (RIHN) Lecture Hall
Title: Social and Biophysical Dynamics of Reforesting Systems: Tensions between Macro-scale Theories and Local-scale Findings
Speaker: Tom P. Evans1 and Jacqui Bauer2
1 Associate Professor, Department of Geography and Co-Director of Center for the Study of Institutions, Population and Environmental Change (CIPEC), Indiana University
2 Assistant Director, Workshop in Political Theory and Policy Analysis, Indiana University
Historical trajectories of land cover change in developed countries have provided the basis for a theory of forest transition. To briefly summarize, Forest Transition Theory (FTT) suggests that nations experience dramatic deforestation during a frontier period of heavy resource use and this deforestation phase is eventually followed by a period of reforestation after some period of economic development. A considerable amount of research has focused on the drivers of deforestation but we have a less complete understanding of the diverse factors contributing to reforestation and the prospects for a transition from deforestation to reforestation in different economies. This presentation summarizes research findings to date from a project examining this deforestation-to-reforestation process in the Midwest United States and compares the context there to the potential for reforestation in other regions (in the US and internationally). In this analysis we address how local level findings can elaborate on generalizations within the context of FTT. We also present the framework for a community-level study of livelihoods and natural resource management in Uganda, Kenya, Mexico, and Bolivia. Decentralization and property rights reform policies formulated at the national level for large geographic domains often fail to account for the complexities involved in land use at the local level, and can thus fall short of their goals of sustainable natural resource management and improving local livelihoods. The project is a combined effort of Indiana University’s International Forest Resources and Institutions (IFRI) program, the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR), and the Program on Collective Action and Property Rights (CAPRi/International Food Policy Research Institute) to identify the institutional conditions and interactions that will deliver benefits equitably to local people while sustaining natural resources.
Tom P. Evans is an associate professor in the Department of Geography, Co-Director of the Center for the Study of Institutions, Population and Environmental Change, and faculty affiliate with the Workshop in Political Theory and Policy Analysis at Indiana University. His research interests lie in the study of human dimensions of global change, modeling social-ecological systems, geographic information systems, remote sensing, and land use/land cover change. His current research focuses on the study of land cover change and more specifically the drivers and constraints to forest regrowth at a set of international field sites (United States, Brazil, Guatemala, Bolivia, Laos and China). Dr. Evans completed his Ph.D. in geography from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (USA) where his research focused on deforestation in Northeast Thailand. He is currently serving as a Visiting Fellow at the East-West Center in Honolulu, Hawaii (USA).
Jacqui Bauer is the Assistant Director of the Workshop in Political Theory and Policy Analysis at Indiana University in Bloomington. She has a Bachelors Degree from University of Michigan in Japanese Language, and a Masters in Public Affairs and a Masters in Environmental Science from Indiana University. Prior to coming to the Workshop in 2005, she worked for over five years with the Indiana Rural Community Assistance Program, three of them as State Director. This organization works with low-income rural communities throughout the state to address drinking water and sanitation concerns. In her current position, she oversees a project, funded with money from the US Agency for International Development, to evaluate the effects of decentralization on forests and livelihoods in Uganda, Mexico, Kenya, and Bolivia. Her interests include developing a better understanding of community forestry in Japan and Southeast Asia (especially Vietnam) and rural water and sanitation issues in Vietnam.
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