Duncan McGregor

The changing urban-rural interface of African cities: definitional issues and an application to Kumasi, Ghana

This paper discusses the growing interest among researchers and international agencies in better understanding the rural-urban interface in Africa. It also illustrates the key features of this interface and associated definitional issues, drawing on research in eight villages around the city of Kumasi in Ghana. All villages had processes of change linked to Kumasi, although with very different degrees of, for instance, the extent of land commercialization and its use for housing, the provision for infrastructure, and the proportion of the workforce in non-agricultural work or commuting to Kumasi. The extent of the changes in villages was influenced by many factors other than distance or accessibility, including whether the village was within Kumasi’s boundaries, the power of local inhabitants in negotiations with local government, and where land for settlement by new migrants was most readily available. This supports the concept of a non-linear and nonuniform gradient of urban influences on peri-urban areas.

Climate Change, Drought, and Jamaican Agriculture: Local Knowledge and the Climate Record

The purpose of this study is to reach a basic understanding of drought and climate change in southwestern Jamaica through an integration of local knowledge and perception of drought and its physical characteristics manifested in remotely sensed precipitation and vegetation data. Local knowledge and perception are investigated through a survey of sixty farmers in St. Elizabeth Parish and physical characteristics of drought are examined through statistical analysis of satellite precipitation and vegetation vigor time series. The survey indicates that most farmers are concerned about an increase in drought occurrence. Satellite estimates of rainfall and vegetation vigor for St. Elizabeth Parish support this perception and suggest that severe drought events are becoming more frequent. The satellite precipitation time series also suggest that the early growing season is becoming drier as compared to the primary growing season, especially since 1991. This recent divergence in growing season moisture conditions might add to farmers’ observations that drought is becoming more prevalent. Consequently, Jamaican farmers perceptions of drought are not driven by magnitude and frequency of dry months alone but rather by the difference between growing seasons. Any development of drought adaption and mitigation plans for this area must not focus solely on drought; it must also compare moisture conditions between months and seasons to be effective.

Poverty elimination, North-South research collaboration, and the politics of participatory development

This paper reflects critically on issues of North-South collaboration and participatory research arising from a project on participatory and sustainable local-level environmental management in the peri-urban area surrounding Kumasi, Ghana. Rapid immigration, uncoordinated conversion of farmland to housing, intensified resource exploitation, and declining water quality and availability are particularly pressing problems there. Collaborative research arrangements with local partners as well as sustained participatory relations with selected village communities were central to this project. More generally, the paper reflects on institutional issues relating to the dichotomy between research and development assistance projects, and their implications for project evaluations.

Natural resource management and development discourses in the Caribbean: reflections on the Guyanese and Jamaican experience.

Abstract International discourses on environment and development help to shape global shared understandings of environmental issues. This paper describes the environment and development history of Guyana and Jamaica through pre-colonial, colonial, independence and market liberalisation stages. Two opposing discourses are used to frame this history: a dominant global environmental discourse characterised by technical and ‘scientific’ expertise and hierarchical governance; and a counter-discourse emphasising local control over natural resources. This analysis serves as a first step in surfacing and understanding the highly complex and multifaceted nature of environmental issues in these locations. However, we conclude with the recognition that further work should go beyond a bipolar analysis to one taking a critical, multidimensional approach, in order to promote more sustainable management of natural resources than has previously taken place.

Land degradation and hillside farming in the Fall River Basin, Jamaica

Abstract The contemporary geomorphological and agricultural status of the Fall River catchment, Jamaica, is examined. The principal constraints which have hampered development are steeply sloping terrain, application of inappropriate soil conservation measures, and the cessation of direct funding associated with the demise of the former Yallahs Valley Land Authority. Furthermore, cropping systems utilized by small, poor and often part-time farmers reflect short-term economic goals which are not necessarily environmentally sound. However, facets of technically appropriate and agronomically sensible solutions are in place and need to be mobilized urgently.

Scottish landform example 37: ‘The Kaims’ of Bedshiel

The term ‘kame’ is used by glacial geomorphologists to refer to discontinuous or terrace-like features composed of glacifluvial sediments (Gray, 1995; Benn & Evans, 1998). It has a Scottish origin and derives from ‘kaim’, originally used to define a crooked and winding or steep-sided mound and a lay term for esker (Auton, 1992). Consequently, local people will have perpetuated kame-type names for esker ridges in their neighbourhood. An esker is an elongate sinuous ridge, of either simple or compound form, composed of glacifluvial sediments and marking the former position of subglacial, englacial or supraglacial streams. There are four major types of esker (Warren & Ashley, 1994): (1) continuous ridges (single or multiple) that document tunnel fills; (2) ice-channel fills produced by the infilling of supraglacial channels; (3) segmented ridges deposited in tunnels during pulsed glacier recession; and (4) beaded eskers consisting of successive subaqueous fans deposited in ice-contact lakes during pulsed glacier recession (Figure 1). Most eskers are aligned sub-parallel to the direction of former glacier flow, thereby reflecting meltwater flow towards the ice margin. Eskers can pass into stretches of erosional (Nye) channels over long distances, documenting spatial changes in subglacial erosional and depositional processes. Eskers may also lie within Nye channels, demonstrating that subglacial processes changed from erosional to depositional modes due to changing meltwater discharges. Eskers are composed of a wide variety of sediments ranging from sorted silts, sands, gravels and boulders to matrix-supported gravels that have undergone relatively short travel distances, usually less than 15 km. Bedding in subglacial eskers may display a range of sedimentary structures from ripples to massive and cross-bedded gravels. In