I am finally attaching the description of my thesis. I was still waiting for feedback from my Prof, which didn't come. Maybe it's good enough or maybe it's worthless. I advise you read it only if you are bored...
Sorry for the font. I copied it straight from Word.
Challenges of using Sustainable Practises in energy consumption and land management in northern Tanzania
Objective of the thesis
The main objective of this thesis is to understand the reasons why sustainable practices in agriculture and household energy needs are not more widespread in the Kilimanjaro region. Especially, the challenges of a wide spread implementation of biogas systems and land management practices shall be examined.
The term “sustainable” shall be defined in the regional context of Kilimanjaro. Several examples of sustainable practices will be given (contour dams, solar cookers, biogas) and hindrances of widespread implementation will be examined by conducting interviews with local farmers.
The main focus of the work will be detailing the current biogas project of COMPACT (description at the end) in the Moshi area and the farms around the project sites. The biogas project was started in June of 2007. Of special interest is the question what the main obstacles for a wide-spread implementation are and how they can be overcome.
A comparison will be made between the current household systems offered by COMPACT and bigger projects for schools or a community.
What is sustainability in the Kilimanjaro area?
The term sustainability shall be defined in the local context of Kilimanjaro. Sustainable practices in agriculture and household energy usage will be examined.
Agricultural practices contain land assignments and management, choice of crops and fertilization/pesticide usage methods.
A farm is sustainable when it can roughly receive the same amount of income from the harvest each year, without the nutrients being depleted from its soil each year. For this to be possible soil erosion has to be kept at a minimum and nutrients absorbed by the crops have to be replaced.
In terms of households energy usage, sustainability means the continued availability of energy sources for the typical household needs, such as lighting and cooking. Currently, firewood is by far the most prevalent energy source for cooking in the Kilimanjaro area. The firewood is harvested from the local forests. This is sometimes done illegally. The practice adds to the problems of deforestation and poor soil, vulnerable to erosion. The tropical rain forest has the ability to capture some of the moisture, which then evaporates, building new clouds. By reducing forests, more water penetrates into the soil. This means a reduction in cloud building and less rain falls. Less rain fall has a heavy impact on the local irrigation systems. 96 percent of the water coming from the Kilimanjaro mountain originates in the forest belt between 1800 and
It is also important to mention that due to the influx of people (currently around four percent/year) the area is getting very crowded. Currently around 1,000,000 live at the foot of Kilimanjaro.
Discussion of Sustainable Practices
Household Energy Usage
Household energy needs centre around cooking and lighting. Traditionally cooking is done using fire wood collected in nearby forests. The stoves are inside the houses. They expose the person nearby to exhaust. These will be mostly the women cooking and children nearby. Bronchial diseases have been documented. There are several alternatives available to limit the problem. A discussion of the distinct methods and why they aren’t more widely used will follow.
Solar cookers
Solar cookers have been provided through organizations like Solar Cookers International (www.solarcookers.org) to many parts in
One of the obstacles is that Africans tend to cook at night, when solar cookers cannot be used. Another problem is that people do not like to cook outside and show their neighbours what they have for food.
In addition, the advantage of not needing to collect firewood, which by some estimates adds five hours a day to the work chores is sometimes negated by the social effects. Some people like to hang out and gather wood in the forests, making it a social event. For other people it is a simple form of income, as they collect the wood and sell it in the cities.
Also, solar cookers are expensive and poorer people cannot afford them.
There are still some local organizations trying to increase the usage. With a so-called slow-cooker, food can be cooked in the afternoon and kept warm until dinner time.
Biogas
The main focus of the work will be detailing the current biogas project of COMPACT in the Moshi area. Of special interest is the question what the main obstacles for a wide-spread implementation are and how they can be overcome.
A comparison will be made between the current household systems offered by COMPACT and bigger projects for schools or a community.
COMPACT has currently funding for 50 bio digesters. Two are in the process of being built. Six are constructed, but are not used by the farmers yet. Training is yet to be provided. A main problem is its difficulty to use it, which overwhelms some farmers. The system should be made easier to use for the average household.
Also, the feasibility of bigger systems should be examined. This has the advantage that one person could be running the system, without the need of a specialist per household. This would work well for tightly laid out communities or institutions like schools. The problems would be on the side of supplying the manure and the space requirements needed for a bigger system. Also, the slurry needs to be disposed.
Agricultural
Sustainable practices
Sustainable practices include contour dams, terraces, mulching and intercropping. These practices can be found in upper Kilimanjaro, .here the traditional Chiagga farms use exactly the above mentioned methods for a very sustainable way of living. Agroforestry, intercropping and sometimes terracing minimize the danger of erosion. This gives them the ability to use the same land for many years. This is necessary, as land is scarce.
In the low and midlands there is still more land available and farmers do have the ability to move on, should the need arise. a main problem is soil erosion (findings from work of Jonas Lutz). Farmers in the upper regions are forced to practice sustainable agriculture, as they cannot simply find new fields or go higher, as is the practice for the valley farmers.
Soil erosion
The area on the foot of Kilimanjaro is marked by the lowland, midland and highland farmers. The higher the altitude, the smaller the parcels that the farmers have to take care of. However, the household size is greater than in the lowlands and midlands (source: thesis from Patrik Marx).
Currently, a common practice for low- and midland farmer is to keep fields as long as possible. But if erosion settles in and the harvest rates go down, farmers tend to look for new fields elsewhere. This may include the cutting of rain forest in order to find new agricultural land. Farmers may spread sideways, but also upward, where eventually the borders of the National Park may be reached. The farmers rarely use soil conservation measures.
The two main factors of soil erosion are loss of top soil on the mainly flat fields as well as the many cattle grazing on the little vegetation there is.
There is a tendency to keep the traditional methods of agriculture that can be a cause for the increasing erosion. The problems are in the low- and midland areas. Fields are often relatively large and flat. There are many monocultures. Beans and corn can especially cause erosion problems.
Conclusion
At the end the work shall conclude with a summary of why sustainable practices are not more widespread in the area. Especially the biogas project and land management practices and its challenges shall be evaluated. Also, a comparison between the single household systems and a potential bigger biogas system shall be made.
COMPACT
The work will be done together with the group COMPACT (Community Management of Protected Areas for Conservation). Compact was founded in 1999 as a merge between the Global Environment Facility Small Grants Programme (SGP) and the United Nations Foundation (UNF).
COMPACT's objective was to demonstrate how community-based initiative, paired with local groups and indigenous people, can be very effective. A pilot program ran unil 2004. Since it proved to be successful, the program now officially continues.
The local COMPACT coordinator in the Kilimanjaro area is Victoria Nderumaki. She is based in Moshi, at the foot of Kilimanjaro.
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