Local Knowledge on Ecosystem Management Practices and Human Plague Problems in West Usambaras, Tanzania

Shemdoe, R.S. (2004). Local Knowledge on Ecosystem Management Practices and Human Plague Problems in West Usambaras, Tanzania. IIASA Interim Report. IIASA, Laxenburg, Austria: IR-04-007

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Abstract

The human impact on natural landscapes has been steadily increasing during the last few decades and the current decline of biodiversity is largely the result of human activity. Many of these activities have resulted in a wide range of environmental changes that accelerate and interact with other environmental changes at local, regional and global scales. Ecosystem degradation in many areas of the world has been associated with the increase in the distribution of human plague cases, both land use and climate changes have been suggested as causes of the persistence of human plague in Africa, America and Asia. In West Usambaras, Tanzania, human plague is a public health problem, which has been associated with land use and land cover changes and the level of the spreading of the disease has increased from one village in 1980 to about 48 villages by the end of the year 2002, in the whole district. This case study shows how local people link the anthropogenic modifications of the ecosystems with the frequent outbreak of human plague in the area. Using a case study protocol developed by Initiative on Science and Technology for Sustainability (ISTS), the case study has been expanded to look at the issues such as stakeholder involvement in the development of this case study, the science policy- interface and the challenges of interdisciplinary research for sustainable development.

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