JournalTOCs

Environmental Management and Sustainable Development
Number of Followers: 10

This is an Open Access Journal

Open Access journal
ISSN (Print) 2164-7682
Published by Macrothink Institute

[47 journals]

Community Experiences in the use of Modified Taungya System for Restoring
Degraded Forests and Improving Livelihoods in Ghana
- Authors: Mark Appiah, Badu Yeboah, Mary Agyemang Yeboah, Jones Abrefa Danquah
  Pages: 1 - 17
  Abstract: Using the Modified Taungya System (MTS) to establish plantations has been identified as one of the important strategies required to meet the demand for wood resources in Ghana. The MTS is a forest management approach in which farmers are given lands within degraded forest reserves to inter-plant food crops with trees, and further nurture the trees into maturity under specified roles and benefit sharing agreements. This study evaluated the MTSs and management approach based on the following sustainability criteria: recognition of gender role in agroforestry development, contribution of the systems to poverty reduction, and contribution of the systems to the improvement in productive and protective functions of agriculture. The systems were established in degraded portions of the Pamu-Berekum Forest Reserve, Ghana in 2000. Data were collected in 2016 through personal interviews of 40 farmers selected from three communities living close and around the forest reserve. It is clear from the result that women participation in the project activities is significant and may have contributed to the reported successful outcome. More than a decade after the establishment of these plantations, there is evidence that the non-timber forest products, (e.g. fuelwood, medicine) generated from practising MTS have had a signiﬁcant impact on the community livelihood with significant changes in annual income. Also, the farms clearly have many trees surviving that have economic, social, and ecological signiﬁcance. The MTS, indeed, has the potential to support biodiversity recovery within degraded forest reserves in Ghana as well as to improve the livelihoods of farmers.
  PubDate: 2020-05-17
  DOI: 10.5296/emsd.v9i3.17047
  Issue No: Vol. 9, No. 3 (2020)
Theoretical Assessment of Sustainability Principles for Renewable Smart
Air-Conditioning
- Authors: Tosin T. Oye, Naren Gupta, Keng Goh, Toyosi K. Oye
  Pages: 18 - 46
  Abstract: Upon an improvement in the quality of life, air-conditioning has generally been applied. Nevertheless, environmental and health issues related with the use of air-conditioning occurs more often. Therefore, this paper aims to theoretically assess the principles of sustainability to achieve sustainability for renewable smart air-conditioning. Not only with consideration to the geometry (i.e. system mechanisms and components), fuzzy logic control and proportional-integral-derivative that such studies drawn particular attention to, but with concerns to a matter which has been previously ignored. That is with consideration to the potential which the renewable-based options, advanced smart control technique and profitability measures of air-conditioning reinforces the three pillars of sustainability, and their sustainable indicators as context-specific transformations have, to not only eradicate indoor health effects, lower the levels of energy consumption and rate of carbon emissions, but to uncover the significance of and particular contribution renewables and smart control opportunities makes to the sustainability of the system. In meeting this aim and demonstrating the sustainability of the theoretical framework, this paper reveals renewable and smart control system as the fundamental key components of the air-conditioning as it promotes to reduce levels of energy consumption and lower carbon emissions, vis-à-vis establish a comfortable and healthy indoor environment as an exercise in the sustainable theoretical framework whose status as renewable smart air-conditioning not only tackle poor indoor air quality but also combat global warming and climate change.
  PubDate: 2020-06-01
  DOI: 10.5296/emsd.v9i3.16953
  Issue No: Vol. 9, No. 3 (2020)
Policy Makers’ Perspective on Impacts of Decentralizing Forest
Management in Kenya on Forestry Conservation and Community Livelihoods
- Authors: Mbuvi Tito E. Mbuvi, James B. Kungu
  Pages: 47 - 67
  Abstract: Forests in Kenya were under traditional community management regimes up to 1891 when formal state management of forests started in Vanga Mangrove forest and later the entire country. In 1997 decentralized forest governance was successfully piloted through Participatory Forest Management in Kenya. This informed review of the Forests Act, Cap 385 to The Forests Act, 2005 subsequently revised to Forest Conservation and Management Act, 2016. The Act has explicit support to decentralized forest management with special focus on communities. The study determined the perceptions of policy makers on: why decentralization was introduced; policy makers’ understanding of decentralization and its impact on forest management and community livelihoods. Literature review was conducted, questionnaires administered and Key Informant Interview and Focus Group Discussion held. The policy makers indicated that decentralization was being implemented in the country and they could distinguish the models being practiced and noted that decentralization was facilitating stakeholder participation and improving forest conservation and community livelihoods. The key challenges were; inadequate budgetary allocation; failure by state to transfer key functions to communities but had decentralized roles that reduce costs. The country has three forest management models and each was best in its context but can be enhanced through capacity building, financial support and partnerships.
  PubDate: 2020-06-27
  DOI: 10.5296/emsd.v9i3.16136
  Issue No: Vol. 9, No. 3 (2020)