P E C A R News & project updates
Dec. 2014. In the journal Population and Environment, PECAR tell the story of landscape transformation around Kibale National Park in western Uganda.
In the article, Now there is no land: a story of ethnic migration in a protected area landscape in western Uganda, we show that the region has gone from sparsely populated bushland to densely settled subsistence agricultural landscape occupied by tens of thousands of small-scale farming households since the last half of the twentieth century. Population density closer to the park has grown to 1.5 times higher than places more distant from the park. Migration to areas near the park has not necessarily been driven by economic benefits from the park itself, but rather by important push and pull factors at different scales. |
Nov. 2014. In the journal Oryx, researchers examine healthcare provisioning in western Uganda.
Providing health care to improve community perceptions of protected areas
Here we argue that two seemingly separate challenges of illegal resource extraction and access to affordable health care near protected areas may have a common solution. In particular, providing health care to communities adjacent to protected areas may be an efficient and effective way to reduce the disease burden while also improving local perceptions about protected areas, potentially reducing illegal extraction. We present a case study of a health centre on the edge of Kibale National Park, Uganda. The centre has provided care to c. 7,200 people since 2008 and its outreach programme extends to c. 4,500 schoolchildren each year.
Providing health care to improve community perceptions of protected areas
Here we argue that two seemingly separate challenges of illegal resource extraction and access to affordable health care near protected areas may have a common solution. In particular, providing health care to communities adjacent to protected areas may be an efficient and effective way to reduce the disease burden while also improving local perceptions about protected areas, potentially reducing illegal extraction. We present a case study of a health centre on the edge of Kibale National Park, Uganda. The centre has provided care to c. 7,200 people since 2008 and its outreach programme extends to c. 4,500 schoolchildren each year.
New paper in the journal Climatic Change from PECAR shows a drying trend Central Equatorial Africa. Found here.
April 5, 2014. MS Student Nick Dowhaniuk has been awarded a National Geographic Young Explorers grant for his research in and around Murchison Falls National Park in Uganda.
Former PECAR graduate student Elvira Breytenbach picked for prestigious
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry fellowship in Atlanta. Congratulations Elvira!
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry fellowship in Atlanta. Congratulations Elvira!
MFA Graduate Student Lisa Meerts talks about her experiences with local farmers in western Uganda. "Uganda: Salt, Soil and School Fees"
Tuesday October 15, 6.40-8pm in Murkland Hall at UNH.
Lisa also talks about her experiences here.
Tuesday October 15, 6.40-8pm in Murkland Hall at UNH.
Lisa also talks about her experiences here.
PECAR researchers comment on data stewardship and spatially explicit data in PLOS Biology. Also featured on CHANS-NET.
UNH Research blog, September 4, 2013
UNH Research blog, September 4, 2013
MFA graduate student Lisa Meerts shares her experiences in western Uganda.
http://www.unhtales.com/welcome-to-uganda/
http://www.unhtales.com/welcome-to-uganda/
June 2013. Field season 2013 is upon the PECAR team. We have the soil fertility team and the journalist in western Uganda now. Others will join in July. We look forward to the trip (and of course, navigating Kampala).
May 2013. PECAR welcomes two new graduate students to the project. Becky Fuda is pursuing a PhD will work with Sadie Ryan at SUNY ESF. Nick Dowhaniuk is currently a research assistant for Joel Hartter, will start a masters at UNH in the fall.
PECAR co-director Sadie Ryan is a 2013 CHANS Fellow. She presented her paper “Beyond ecological success of corridors: Integrating land use history and demographic change to provide a whole landscape perspective” on Wednesday, Aug. 7 at the Ecological Society of America annual meeting in Minneapolis.
PECAR 2013 field season begins! In May, we embarked on a multi-faceted field campaign in Uganda. Lisa Meerts, pursuing a MFA in creative non-fiction is the first investigator in Uganda. She will be writing stories about conservation, local livelihoods, farming, and other challenges and opportunities local people around Kibale National Park face. Soon, others from the US will join Lisa in Uganda.
Post-Doc Lisa Tiemann's research on soil fertility in Uganda featured here.
PECAR co-I Michael Palace has been invited to give a TED talk on May 3 at the TEDxPiscataquaRiver 2013. More information here.
PECAR welcomes new field assistant Jimmy, who will be working with our National Geographic funded grant in the Kibale-Queen corridor. He will primarily be working with the Basongora, which are Batoro, but are cattle-keepers.
February 2013. Corridor Conservation. Sadie Ryan's and Joel Hartter's article from Ecological Restoration about corridors was featured in the Conservation Corridor Digests:
http://www.conservationcorridor.org/2013/02/adding-land-use-and-demography-to-corridor-planning/
http://www.conservationcorridor.org/2013/02/adding-land-use-and-demography-to-corridor-planning/
February 2013. A grant from National Geographic Society is supporting field work for the Kibale-Queen Corridor Project. Our field assistant Elizabeth Amooti is talking to local farmers about climate change and life next to Kibale National Park.
Jan. 2013. PECAR welcomes Lisa Meerts, a graduate student in journalism, to the team. Lisa will be spending May-August 2013 in western Uganda blogging about PECAR activities and writing about sustainable agriculture to complete here MFA at UNH.
Jan. 2013. PECAR welcomes new Kibale-Queen Corridor Project Supervisor Amy Hanna to the team.
Piecing together Uganda's climate past. http://www.cas.gsu.edu/storydetail.aspx?id=786
Follow PECAR post-doc Lisa Tiemann's research and adventures in Uganda through her blog:
http://ugandasoils.blogspot.com/
Dec. 11, 2012. Beyond Ecological Success of Corridors. PECAR co-directors Sadie Ryan and Joel Hartter discuss the Kibale-Queen Elizabeth corridor in southwest Uganda and managing corridors by considering land use history. Check out the new CHANS-NET blog. http://chans-net.org/blog/corridors_ryan_dec2012
Nov. 28, 2012
Just published: Special Issue on Design Approaches to Ecological Restoration in Ecological Restoration.
Sadie Ryan and Joel Hartter's Beyond Ecological Success of Corridors: Integrating Land Use History and Demographic Change to Provide a Whole Landscape Perspective.
Just published: Special Issue on Design Approaches to Ecological Restoration in Ecological Restoration.
Sadie Ryan and Joel Hartter's Beyond Ecological Success of Corridors: Integrating Land Use History and Demographic Change to Provide a Whole Landscape Perspective.
Nov. 21, 2012.
Just published: Human-Environment Interactions: Current and Future Directions in the Human-Environment Interactions Series. Brondízio, Eduardo S.; Moran, Emilio F. (Eds.). Springer.
Gibbes, C., Cassidy, L., Hartter, J., and J. Southworth. The Monitoring of Land-Cover Change and Management Across Gradient Landscapes in Africa. (Ch. 7).
Just published: Human-Environment Interactions: Current and Future Directions in the Human-Environment Interactions Series. Brondízio, Eduardo S.; Moran, Emilio F. (Eds.). Springer.
Gibbes, C., Cassidy, L., Hartter, J., and J. Southworth. The Monitoring of Land-Cover Change and Management Across Gradient Landscapes in Africa. (Ch. 7).
PECAR scientists at American Geophysical Union Annual Meeting, December 2-7, 2012 in San Francisco.
- Joel Hartter, Sadie J. Ryan, Jeremy Diem, Michael W. Palace. POPULATION, ENVIRONMENT, AND CLIMATE IN THE ALBERTINE RIFT: UNDERSTANDING LOCAL IMPACTS OF REGIONAL CHANGE.
B53F. Resilience and Adaptation of Coupled Human and Natural Systems to Global Change II Posters
Greg DiSanto has been awarded an Undergraduate Research Award (URA) for his project PRECIPITATION TRENDS IN WESTERN UGANDA. Greg will be synthesizing precipitation data and contributing to conservation goals of Uganda's national parks. Congrats! November 16, 2012.
Michael Cesazza has been awarded an IROP undergraduate research fellowship to spend 9 weeks in Uganda beginning in June 2013 to study soil fertility on local farms. He'll work closely with Lisa Tiemann and Stuart Grandy. Congrats! November 15, 2012
Sadie Ryan invited to present, Population, Environment, and Climate in the Albertine Rift: Local Impacts of Regional Change, at special panel MAKING SENSE OF CLIMATE CHANGE: GLOBAL AND LOCAL DISCOURSES at the Applied Anthropological Association called in San Francisco. November 14, 2012
PECAR scientists make news in the CHANS-NET. November 2012
Joel Hartter speaking at Georgia State University, Atlanta on November 1st, 2012.
NSF Investments Develop a Workforce for Sustainability Research and Education featuring Lisa Tiemann's NSF SEES project NSF press release. October 15, 2012
The latest installment in ESA’s Issues in Ecology series takes on models and methods for reconnecting wildlife habitat in restoration and conservation planning and management.
Conservation scientists look beyond greenbelts to connect wildlife sanctuaries. October 19, 2012
Lisa Tiemann has been awarded a prestigious NSF Science, Engineering, and Education for Sustainability grant ($520,000) to study soil fertility, agricultural intensification, and sustainable agriculture in western Uganda. I am thrilled to have her join the PECAR project! More info here and here.
In the Bush. The Misadventures of a Geographer. The College Letter. Newsletter of the College of Liberal Arts, University of New Hampshire. September 10, 2012.
Three Geography Students Win Research Awards. College of Liberal Arts Blog. June 2012.
Conservation scientists look beyond greenbelts to connect wildlife sanctuaries. October 19, 2012
Lisa Tiemann has been awarded a prestigious NSF Science, Engineering, and Education for Sustainability grant ($520,000) to study soil fertility, agricultural intensification, and sustainable agriculture in western Uganda. I am thrilled to have her join the PECAR project! More info here and here.
In the Bush. The Misadventures of a Geographer. The College Letter. Newsletter of the College of Liberal Arts, University of New Hampshire. September 10, 2012.
Three Geography Students Win Research Awards. College of Liberal Arts Blog. June 2012.
Undergraduate research assistant Nick Dowhaniuk presents his results at the UNH Undergraduate Research Conference. May 2012.
CHANS-Net researchers find African farmers need better climate change date to improve practices. CHANS-Net International Network of Research on Coupled Human and Natural Systems. March 15, 2012.
Change Globally, React Locally: UNH Researchers find African Farmers Need Better climate Change Data to Improve Farming Practices (March 14, 2012)
The Value of Fragments: Extending Park Boundaries, Dwindling Resources, or Sourcing Crop Raiders? Sadie Ryan and Joel Hartter. 25th International Congress for Conservation Biology. Dec. 4-8, 2011. F1000
Change Globally, React Locally: UNH Researchers find African Farmers Need Better climate Change Data to Improve Farming Practices (March 14, 2012)
The Value of Fragments: Extending Park Boundaries, Dwindling Resources, or Sourcing Crop Raiders? Sadie Ryan and Joel Hartter. 25th International Congress for Conservation Biology. Dec. 4-8, 2011. F1000
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CIE Travel Grant Helps Professor Travel to
Uganda. Campus Journal. UNH.
November 30,
2011.
UNH Receives National Science Foundation Grant to Study Changes in Climate, Population, and Land Use in Africa. Campus Journal. UNH. September 28, 2011.
New Understanding of How Humans and the Environment Interact. Press Release. National Science Foundation. September 21, 2011.
GSU Scientist Examines Climate's Role in Pressures on Protected Lands in Africa. Press Release. Georgia State University. University Relations. September 16, 2011.
UNH Receives National Science Foundation Grant to Study Changes in Climate, Population, and Land Use in Africa. Campus Journal. UNH. September 28, 2011.
New Understanding of How Humans and the Environment Interact. Press Release. National Science Foundation. September 21, 2011.
GSU Scientist Examines Climate's Role in Pressures on Protected Lands in Africa. Press Release. Georgia State University. University Relations. September 16, 2011.