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The Nile provides freshwater not only for domestic and industrial use, but also for irrigated agriculture, hydropower dams and the vast fisheries resource of the lakes of Central Africa. The Nile River Basin covers the whole Nile Basin and is based on the results of three major research projects supported by the Challenge Program on Water and Food (CPWF). It provides unique and up-to-date insights on agriculture, water resources, governance, poverty, productivity, upstream-downstream linkages, innovations, future plans and their implications. Specifically, the book elaborates the history and the major current and future challenges and opportunities of the Nile river basin. It analyzes the ba...
"The time for stepping up and protecting our planet is now. And this book is an easy, enjoyable place to start." -- Moby It's time to put your good intentions into action. It's time to give a shit -- about your health, your footprint, and your planet. Give a Sh*t guides you through the transition to a kinder, healthier, more conscious, and sustainable life like no book has done before. With a humorous and nonjudgmental tone, savvy eco-friendly lifestyle expert Ashlee Piper walks you through easy-but-impactful shifts anyone can make to live and be better every damn day: In your home - Room-by-room guidance and tactics for a chic, affordable, sustainable living space, no matter where or how yo...
Tropentag is the largest interdisciplinary conference in Europe focusing on development- oriented research in the fields of tropical and subtropical agriculture, food security, natural resource management and rural development. It is clear that a just and sustainable transformation of our food systems is urgently needed: climate change, conflicts, rising food and fuel prices, and growing social and income inequalities are exacerbating the vulnerabilities of our food systems. The theme invites diverse contributions that explore different pathways for transforming food systems and the trade-offs and synergies involved, ranging from more technical solutions, such as climate-smart agriculture and biofortified crops, to more systematic solutions for changing the underlying relationships of our food systems, such as agroecology and alternative food networks.
Once again, the Horn of Africa has been in the headlines. And once again the news has been bad: drought, famine, conflict, hunger, suffering and death. The finger of blame has been pointed in numerous directions: to the changing climate, to environmental degradation, to overpopulation, to geopolitics and conflict, to aid agency failures, and more. But it is not all disaster and catastrophe. Many successful development efforts at ‘the margins’ often remain hidden, informal, sometimes illegal; and rarely in line with standard development prescriptions. If we shift our gaze from the capital cities to the regional centres and their hinterlands, then a very different perspective emerges. Thes...
Access, distribution and processing of Geographic Information (GI) are basic preconditions to support strategic environmental decision-making. The heterogeneity of information on the environment today available is driving a wide number of initiatives, on both sides of the Atlantic, all advocating both the strategic role of proper management and processing of environme- related data as well as the importance of harmonized IT infrastructures designed to better monitor and manage the environment. The extremely wide range of often multidimensional environmental information made available at the global scale poses a great challenge to technologists and scientists to find extremely sophisticated y...
The Atlas of African Agriculture Research & Development is a multifaceted resource that highlights the ubiquitous nature of smallholder agriculture in Africa; the many factors shaping the location, nature, and performance of agricultural enterprises; and the strong interdependencies among farming, natural resource stocks and flows, rural infrastructure, and the well-being of the poor.
Rural people in Nepal and other developing nations are part of complex, social-ecological systems. Efforts to provide assistance to these people must integrate knowledge from a variety of perspectives. This report documents the use of a role-playing game, supported by an agent-based model, to demonstrate the interaction between migration, social capital and the effectiveness of water storage. The importance of these interactions was highlighted by fieldwork conducted at several sites in the Koshi River Basin. The model underlying the game was a stylized representation based on the Indrawati Subbasin northeast of Kathmandu, Nepal. The report highlights that (a) role-playing tournaments can be an effective way to engage technical and policy experts with the complex interactions between the social and physical dimensions of watershed management; and (b) migration and the economic changes which drive these interactions are forces that need to be accepted, and investments in water storage need to be selected depending on how they fit into these trends.
Participatory research is increasingly recognized as being useful for conducting multiple activities in research for development projects. The co-learning environment created in participatory research helps to identify existing social and technological gaps, and develop possible solutions to improve the livelihoods of rural communities. This report describes a participatory approach used in the establishment and implementation of hydrometeorological monitoring networks in the Blue Nile River Basin of Ethiopia. The networks were established with the involvement of rural communities and other stakeholders to gain insights into the hydrological processes of the watersheds, in order to improve rainwater management strategies. Local people were involved in the day-to-day management and maintenance of the networks. The participatory approach proved beneficial for several reasons, not least, because it instilled trust and goodwill amongst the communities.
This book provides standards and guidelines for quantifying greenhouse gas emissions and removals in smallholder agricultural systems and comparing options for climate change mitigation based on emission reductions and livelihood trade-offs. Globally, agriculture is directly responsible for about 11% of annual greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and induces an additional 17% through land use change, mostly in developing countries. Farms in the developing countries of sub-Saharan Africa and Asia are predominately managed by smallholders, with 80% of land holdings smaller than ten hectares. However, little to no information exists on greenhouse gas emissions and mitigation potentials in small...