Browsing by Author "Komakech, H. C."

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    Levels of community participation and satisfaction with decentralized wildlife management in Idodi-Pawaga wildlife management area, Tanzania
    (Taylor & Francis, 2018) Kiwango, W. A.; Komakech, H. C.; Tarimo, T. M.; Martz, L.
    Participatory approaches to conservation are viewed as a plausible alternative to the old ‘fortress conservation’ approach. The design and implementation of these approaches in developing countries have tended to embrace community participation through decentralized governance mechanisms in the past three decades. However, sustainable conservation approaches that maintain community livelihoods while conserving biodiversity are challenged with meeting both objectives. In addressing this challenge, little attention has been given to empirical analysis of community’s satisfaction levels on how they participated in the design and implementation of this approach. In this paper, we use a mixed method approach-using both quantitative and qualitative data to examine levels of satisfaction and participation of local communities in the Idodi-Pawaga Wildlife Management Area (WMA), south-western Tanzania. We find that social economic factors (e.g. age, household size, gender, number of years living in the same location and participation/non-participation) influence, in different ways, the satisfaction levels of community’s participation towards the WMA creation. Due to inadequate participation, we find that the WMA design and implementation process failed from the beginning to actively involve the local communities and this has resulted in the near absence of the promised economic benefits from wildlife conservation. We suggest that it is important to actively engage communities from the beginning of any WMA program, and take into consideration their levels of satisfaction with the process of decision making, if meaningful decentralized governance is to be achieved.
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    Origin and mechanisms of high salinity in Hombolo Dam and groundwater in Dodoma municipality Tanzania, revealed
    (Springer, 2017) Shemsanga, C.; Muzuka, A. N. N.; Martz, L.; Komakech, H. C.; Elisante, E.; Kisaka, M.; Ntuza, C.
    The Hombolo dam (HD), in central Tanzania, is a shallow reservoir characterized by high salinity that limits itsuse for human activities. The origin of the salinity, mechanisms of reaching and concentrating in the dam remain unclear. These were assessed using hydrogeo chemical facies, water type evolutions and mapping. The source of HD salinity was identified to be shallow groundwater (SG) and runoff from a seasonal floodplain with NaCl-rich lithological mat-erails,alongLittleKinyasungweRiverthatfeedsthedam.TheNaCl-rich lithological units, about 5–7 km upstream of the dam, were highly concentrated with NaCl to the extent that the local community was commercially separating table salt from them. The physicochemical parameters from these NaCl-richlithological materials were well represented in HD and nearby groundwater sources, which suggests active water interactions. Water type evolution and surface hydrology assessments clearly showed that SG in the salty-floodplain was influenced by evaporation (ET) and was periodically carried to the HD. Clearly; HD water had high chemical similarity with the nearby SG. This agrees with previous studies that HD is partly fed by the local aquifer. However, this is the first attempt at mapping its physical origin. The origin of HD salinity was further supported by the spatial distribution of electrical conductivity (EC), where very high EC (up to21,230lScm-1) was recorded in SG within the NaCl-richlithological unit while water sources far away from the NaCl-rich materials had much lower EC values. Thus, the study disagrees with previous conclusions that HD salinity was sorely due to high dam surface ET but is primarily due to geological reasons. Comparisons of HD with a nearby Matumbulu dam (MD), another earthen dam in climatologically similar settings, reveals that MD water was less saline/mineralised. This further shows that HD high salinity is most likely a geologic phenomenon, but local climatic factors, namely high ET, decreasing rainfall and warming trends are likely to have concentrated the salts further. Although HD is widely/ideally used for grape vine irrigation, it was clearly revealed that its prolonged usage would potentially affect the soil and grape productivity due to high salinity.