A people-centred framework for exploring water, energy and food security in a small developing island
File(s)
Published version
Author(s)
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Small developing islands face a number of environmental and social pressures which impact resource security. This study uses a people-centred framework to investigate social-ecological interactions for water, energy and food security. Ten semi-structured focus group discussions were conducted in Pemba and Unguja islands with village elders and leaders. Results demonstrate that shocks and stresses affecting resource security are attributed to land use and resource competition, deforestation, climate change and insufficient resource infrastructure. The scale and strength of such pressures are heightened in dry seasons and also correspond with spatial characteristics such as remoteness, intensity of land use and amount of natural resource capital. Whilst a number of adaptive responses are identified, these appear to be incremental and do not address the scale of the challenge. Maladaptive responses are also identified; most concerning is the use of poor quality water when piped water was disrupted, reduced nutritional intake during dry season and using unsustainable supplies or methods of obtaining of fuelwood. Findings illustrate the importance of using people-centred approaches for understanding the complexity of social-ecological interactions for resource security. They also demonstrate that interventions for resource management need to consider spatial heterogeneity and temporality in terms of how specific land cover uses connect to differential pressures and adaptation capacity over time.
Date Issued
2023-07-20
Date Acceptance
2023-06-27
Citation
Population and Environment, 2023, 45 (3)
ISSN
0199-0039
Publisher
Springer
Journal / Book Title
Population and Environment
Volume
45
Issue
3
Copyright Statement
© The Author(s) 2023 Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
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Subjects
Social Sciences
Science & Technology
Life Sciences & Biomedicine
Demography
Environmental Studies
Environmental Sciences & Ecology
Climate change
Socio-ecological
Land use competition
Deforestation
Resource management
Adaptation
Maladaptation
COMMUNITY-BASED ADAPTATION
CLIMATE-CHANGE
ADAPTIVE CAPACITY
DEVELOPING STATES
TROPICAL COASTAL
LAND-USE
ZANZIBAR
VULNERABILITY
RESILIENCE
GOVERNANCE
Publication Status
Published
Article Number
14
Date Publish Online
2023-07-20