TaitaWater - WG Social issues in Water management

Research summary

Scientific assessments and politics addressing environmental changes rarely involve local residents and their knowledge. Usually reasons of demographic growth and environmental mismanagement are used to justify local degradation; however, our aim is to understand the local perspective about causes and reasons of the degradation that causes insecurity, livelihood changes, migration trends and other decisions that bring into further environmental degradation. An ethnographic research has been conducted in two catchments of Taita Hills, South-East Kenya. Participatory mapping, observation, transect walks, historical timelines, semi-structured interviews with experts and civil society representatives, as well as focus groups were employed as main methods of data gathering.

Description

Research info

Research title
TaitaWater - WG Social issues in Water management

Research timeline
1.9.2012 - 1.9.2015

Keywords
Water Ecosystem services, Livelihoods, Environmental change, Migration, Ethnography, Political ecology, Participatory research, Development geography

Region
Africa

Countries
Finland, Kenya

Institution
University of Helsinki
Geosciences and Geography
Helsinki, Finland

Head of research
Paola Minoia, Petri Pellikka

Research team
Paola Minoia, Johanna Hohenthal, Belinda Kivivuori, Marinka Leppänen, Emmah Owidi.

Contact information
Paola Minoia
+358 204151638
paola.minoia@helsinki.fi

Record last updated
29.1.2015