Browsing by Author "Sirima, Agnes"
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Item Background of Forestry and Climate Change(Mkuki na Nyota, 2017) Abdallah, Jumanne; Juma, S.R; Sirima, AgnesThis chapter provides an overview on forestry education and the emergence of participatory forest management (PFM), Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation (REDD+) and their link to climate change in Tanzania. Other emerging issues discussed in this chapter are community perception, the need for paradigm shift, value chain development, governance, and entrepreneurship development.Item Coastal Gastronomy: Envisioning a South Carolina Seafood Trail(Journal of Gastronomy and Tourism, 2018-03) Jodice, Laura W; Ramshaw, Gregory; Sirima, Agnes; Goris, LynnPromotion of local seafood and related culture has become an important strategy for enhancing economic sustainability of struggling commercial fishing businesses in coastal tourism destinations. Theme-based tourism trails can be catalysts for identifying, recognizing, and sustaining important aspects of culture, heritage, and industry in rural regions. Food-based trails have become a popular strategy for enhancing the economic viability of local food producers while highlighting the authentic qualities of a tourist destination. This study explored potential for development of a seafood-themed trail on the coast of South Carolina (USA) where communities represent varying levels of economic dependence on commercial fishing and tourism. Methods included 31 personal interviews with stakeholders from the seafood and tourism sectors across the region and a follow-up survey (n = 13) and workshop (n = 15) to facilitate input and consensus. Stakeholders supported formation of a coast-wide seafood trail as an education and decision-making tool targeting tourists. They highlighted collaborative capacity for marketing and partnership, diversity of local seafood products and experience, and economic benefits and improved competitive advantage for local businesses as strengths and opportunities. Challenging issues for development and long-term viability included limits to local seafood supply, regional differences in both heritage and seafood products, financial constraints, maintaining interest among stakeholders and visitors, establishing leadership, and defining membership criteria.Item Communities displacement from national park ad tourism development in the Usangu Plains, Tanzania(Current issues in tourism, 2013-08) Sirima, Agnes; Backman, Kenneth FLand-use-change conflicts have shaped the conservation and tourism activities and human livelihood debate in the Usangu Plains over the last 10 years. This has led Ruaha National Park to become the largest national park in Tanzania and the second largest in Africa. The need to understand the rationale behind the expansion of Ruaha National Park and the local communities' views on tourism activities has become increasingly important. The purpose of this study was to examine land-use change in the Usangu Plains and its implication to local communities. Community members in five villages, Ikoga Mpya, Igomelo, Nyeregete, Mahango and Luhango, were surveyed using semi-structured interviews, focus groups and field notes. This resulted in a total of 79 semi-structured interviews, 4 focus group discussions and field observation data to analyse the situation in Usangu Plains. Data were analysed using NVIVO computer software for coding and themes’ generation. Major themes that emerged from the analysis were land-use change, tourism as a form of land use, tourism benefits and coping mechanisms. The findings from this study suggest that local communities do not perceive that they are benefitting from the change from agricultural to tourism practices. Changing the way local communities perceived themselves and are involved in conservation activities is the key to achieving the best conservation results and community residents’ involvement in future tourism activities in their areasItem Conserving Nostalgia: Exploring Private Land Protection Patterns(Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences, 2018-06) Seaman, Alana N; Farmer, James R; Chancellor, Charles H; Sirima, AgnesThe dramatic loss of open space in the USA over the last 50 years has led to increased conservation efforts by public, private, and non-profit entities. Amongst private landowners, conservation easements, or conditions written into a property’s title that permanently limit how it may be used, are a popular form of land protection. Private land protection is vital for both the conservation of America’s characteristic open spaces, and to ensure the future of many threatened and endangered plant and animal species. Yet little is known about the people who are placing conservation easements on their properties, the landscape features and land use practices currently being protected under conservation easements, or the ways in which these conservation patterns will continue into the future. Regardless, private land conservation efforts are shaping the American landscape; therefore, a thorough understanding of their characteristics is needed. Given that nostalgia, or an idealized and simplified notion of the past, underlies many of the motivations private landowners have for protecting their properties, this study suggests that there is a link between the type of nostalgia motivating private land protection and the types of land and land use practices being conserved. Further, the authors contend that this phenomenon is worthy of further investigation given its potential for environmental, social, and economic impact.Item The economic of water in paddy and non-paddy crop production around the Kilombero valley ramsar site, Tanzania: Productivity, costs, returns and implications to poverty reduction(Journal of Agriculture Science, 2011) Musamba, Emmanuel; Ngaga, Yonika M; Giliba, Richard A; Boon, E. K; Sirima, Agnes; Chirenje, L IWater scarcity is globally getting worse in the light of increase in demand for water use. Human and ecosystem health and economic development are affected by problems of water scarcity and water pollution. This paper assessed the net benefit of water resource in crop production around the Kilombero Valley Ramsar Site in Tanzania. Specifically, the study determines and estimates costs and benefits in crop production and quantify its monetary value using both market and non-market techniques. Household questionnaires, checklist for key informants, participant observation and participatory rural appraisal techniques were employed for data collection. Questionnaire survey was administered to 120 households to establish the major agricultural activities, crops, costs of production and income accrued from these activities. Data relating to household characteristics and water related economic activities were analysed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences whereby the cost for production, inputs and returns were analysed and compared using Microsoft Excel. The residual imputation approach was used to estimate the value of water in crop production. Findings revealed that, 88.3 percent of the respondents own land and 11.7 percent of them rent the land for crop production. The net values of water for irrigated paddy and non-paddy crops were estimated to Tsh. 273.6 (US$ 0.23) and Tsh. 87.7 (US$ 0.073) per m3 of consumed water respectively. The average productivity of water for paddy and non-paddy crop production is estimated at 0.85 kgm-3 and 0.69 kgm-3 of consumed water respectively. Furthermore, the returns from agriculture are less compared to returns from other water uses. Nevertheless, since majority of households are depending on agriculture this study recommends that emphasis should be put on effective and efficient use of water to improve its productivity.Item Land Fragmentation, agricultural productivity and implications for agricultural investments in the Southern Agricultural Growth Corridor of Tanzania (SAGCOT) region, Tanzania(Journal of Development and Agricultural Economics, 2017-01) Kadigi, Reuben MJ; Kashaigili, Japhet J; Sirima, Agnes; Kamau, Felix; Sikira, Anna; Mbungu, WinfredThere are polarized evidences of the impact of agricultural land fragmentation on land productivity. On the one hand there viewpoints which consider land fragmentation to harm agricultural productivity. On the other hand there are counter thoughts which view land fragmentation as a positive situation which allows farmers to cultivate many environmental zones, minimise production risk and optimise the schedule for cropping activities. We use the case of Ihemi cluster in the Southern Agricultural Growth Corridor of Tanzania (SAGCOT) to investigate the impact of land fragmentation on crop productivity. We furthermore discuss the nature and causes of land fragmentation in the SAGCOT region and its implication on the future structure of agricultural landholdings and welfare of smallholder farmers in the region. The results showed that the nature and level of fragmentation in the study area were the outcome of combined, rather than isolated influences of supply and demand driven factors. Overall, the results did not support the claim that fragmentation reduces land productivity. This then implies that land fragmentation should not always be considered as defective. There were evidences of increasing chunks of land owned by rich farmers and investors which increased the possibility for increased consolidation of agricultural land under large scale farming. However, the landholdings for smallholder farmers might become increasingly more fragmented as poor smallholder farmers continue selling their land holdings to rich farmers and investors. Releasing the SAGCOT region’s potential for agricultural development will require that smallholder farmers are helped to secure adequate and suitable land for farming, raise agricultural productivity, diversify their sources of income, and adopt good production practices. This requires setting up a strong base of investor - farmer synergies for inclusive agricultural growth.Item Marine farming and tourism(Acquaculture New Zealand, 2010) Jodice, Laura W; Hull, John; Sirima, AgnesThe Marine Farming Association of New Zealand developed and published a tourist trail brochure in 2005 with the purpose of upholding the positive image of aquaculture among residents and tourists on the Top of the South Island. Another objective was to strengthen the collaboration between tourism and fisheries stakeholders in promoting the region as a seafood destination. In 2009, the NZTRI research team interviewed a total of 24 local businesses in the region. This article presents the results from the interviews and a short written survey. The research team independently analyzed and transcribed audio-recordings to identify major emergent themes that explore the relationships between tourism and marine farming linked to the Top of the South Aquaculture and Seafood Trail. Results show that businesses recognized that promoting locally caught seafood increased the competitiveness of New Zealand seafood and tourism products. They also recognized that cooperation was important to building shared knowledge and community level acceptance of marine farms and tourism in the coastal zone.Item Nature Reserves(SAGE Publishing, 2017) Sirima, AgnesItem A review of "Tourism and sustainability: development, globalization and new tourism in the Third World (3rd ed)(Journal of Sustainable Tourism, 2012) Sirima, AgnesItem A review of ecotourism in Tanzania: Magnitude, challenges and prospects for sustainability(Journal of Ecotourism, 2015-12) Mgonja, John T; Sirima, Agnes; Mkumbo, Peter JIn the recent past, the concept of ecotourism has been promoted in Tanzania as an alternative, low-impact form of tourism that supports conservation of natural resources, preserves local culture, and provides economic benefits to the communities. Existing evidence shows that Tanzania has not utilised most of its ecotourism potential. The actual amount of ecotourism activity in the country is highly localised and relatively minimal due to the following factors: accessibility problems in some protected areas, inadequate infrastructure, and insufficient marketing and promotion. There is a need for regulatory authorities to articulate clear policies, regulations, and guidelines that delineate strategies on how to implement ecotourism activities in most parts of Tanzania. Such strategies should describe how to increase accessibility of ecotourism benefits to local communities, increase local community participation, and elucidate better mechanisms of sharing revenues generated from ecotourism. Given the abundance and diversity of natural and cultural resources in Tanzania, there is still room for growth, particularly in the southern, eastern, and western tourism circuits.Item The Role of Local Communities in Tourism Development(Journal of Human Ecology, 2013) Muganda, Michael; Sirima, Agnes; Marwa, EzraOne of the core elements of tourism development is to encourage local communities’ participation as it is central to the sustainability of tourism industry. While the literature suggests a number of roles local communities could take in tourism development, little emphasis has so far been given as to how local communities themselves feel about this. As a result, there has been little evidence, especially from the grassroots, on what communities really think of their role(s) in tourism development. Using a case study of Barabarani village in Tanzania, this paper contributes to the understanding of community participation in tourism development by examining local communities’ views on their role in tourism development. The paper triangulates both quantitative and qualitative data to bring together perspectives from the grassroots based on household questionnaire survey with some members of the local community and a two-month period of field observations in the study area, coupled with the researcher’s experience with the wider community. The findings revealed that local communities want to be involved when tourism policies are being made to enable policymakers to prepare a policy that meets stakeholders’ needs and addresses their concerns. They also want to be part of tourism development decisions to ensure their needs are incorporated. Furthermore, local communities want to have a voice in development issues (not necessarily tourism development) to enable them to protect community interests, and increase transparency and accountability, and wipe out embezzlements and abuse of offices, which are rampant acts amongst decision-makers. Similar to previous studies, they rejected the statement ‘local people should not participate by any means’ in tourism development. It is clear from the findings that people are against the prevailing top-down approach in decision making when it comes to tourism development in their areas. It also depicts the nature of the central government which controls all the forms of decision making when it comes to development and policy formulation. The study emphasizes on small scale methods in analysing and assessing the role of local communities views of participation from the communities themselves rather than what has been normally imposed on them.Item Sharing Tourism Benefits with the local community: A business perspective from the grassroots in Tanzania(Journal of Environmental Studies and Management, 2012) Muganda, Michael; Sirima, Agnes; Mkumbo, Peter; Moshy, BatildaLocal communities’ participation in tourism benefit-sharing is central to tourism development. While there is a well-established literature on benefit-sharing from the perspective of wildlife protected areas and adjacent local communities, there is little emphasis on how other tourism businesses do this. Using a case study of Barabarani village, Tanzania, this paper examines how other tourism businesses share benefits with the neighbouring communities. It explores this using: in-depth semi-structured interviews with tourism businesses, NGOs, and key decisionmakers within the community; a two-month period of field observations coupled with the researcher’s experience with the wider community; informal discussions with some members of the local community; and document analysis. The findings show that tourism businesses in Barabarani village have schemes that favourably benefit local people, but the extent to which a particular business has developed its schemes differed from one business to another depending on the nature of business, ownership, and objectives. In some businesses such schemes were automatically created as a ‘by-product’ of particular decisions they make. Overall, public businesses had more systematic benefit sharing schemes than private businesses. Thus, there was no guarantee local communities would receive benefits from private businesses, and if any, they were executed on an ad hoc basis.Item The Social and Economic Impacts of Ruaha National Park Expansion(Open Journal of Social Sciences, 2016-06) Sirima, AgnesDisplacement of people to allow expansion of protected areas involves removing people from their ancestral land or excluding people from undertaking livelihood activities in their usual areas. The approach perpetuates the human-nature dichotomy, where protected areas are regarded as pristine lands that need to be separated from human activities. Beyond material loss, displaced communities suffer loss of symbolic representation and identity that is attached to the place. The aim of this paper was to assess impacts of Ruaha National Park expansions to the adjoining communities. Five villages were surveyed: Ikoga Mpya, Igomelo, Nyeregete, Mahango and Luhango. All participants were victims of the eviction to expand the park borders. Based on the conceptual analysis, major themes generated were: loss of access to livelihood resources, change in resource ownership, conservation costs, resource use conflict, place identity, and the role of power. Similar to previous studies, results show that local communities suffered both symbolic and material loss as a result of park expansion. Furthermore, it has shown that conflicts related to land use changes have roots within (pastoralist vs. farmers; Sangu vs. Sukuma) as well as from the outside. Hence, to better understand resource access and ownership, a deeper understanding of community characteristics/composition and their local interaction is important. Further, park expansion needs to take into consideration human livelihood need.