Browsing by Author "Mahonge, C. P. I."

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Linking livelihood improvement and environmental conservation: Case of east Uluguru mountains in Tanzania
(International Journal of Environmental Science, Management and Engineering Research, 2013) Mattee, A. Z.; Mahonge, C. P. I.; Nsenga, J. V.; Kayeye, H.
Livelihoods improvement and environmental management need to be linked. In order to attain sustainable livelihoods and environmental management, it is important to empower natural resource users with skills on the interdependencies between livelihoods and natural environment. Among the strategies to achieve this is through an action research wherein various resource use options are tested and the interplay among the tested options is determined. In this paper, we present and analyse results obtained from an action research that focused on participatory improvement of farming practices and rehabilitation of watershed through tree nursery management and tree planting in Nyachilo village situated in the East Uluguru Mountains. In the farming trial, we tested conventional ridges, ngolo, contour, and traditional slash and burn flat cultivation (the control) technologies on the basis of their potential to improve yields and control soil erosion. The findings indicated that ngolo ranked the first whereas conventional slash and burn technology ranked the last; farmers showed a desire to learn about useful technologies to improve their traditional farming system. As for tree planting, there existed internal heterogeneities as reflected in the heterogeneous participation of local people in tree nursery management implying that in order to thoroughly understand the community, it is necessary to unpack it and analyze its constituent parts. We concluded that a though analysis of the dispersion of a given community is imperative as such scrutiny may lead to an accurate determination of the practical mix of the community strata for effecting the desired ends.
Out-scaling of hybrid institution for socio-economic development and environmental conservation: The case of Mbinga district, Tanzania
(IJPSS, 2013) Mahonge, C. P. I.
I present a case study of institutional hybridization in Mbinga district within and across politically defined boundaries after the occurrence of stress, which purist institutions (state institutions or customary institutions independently) fail to contain. Thus, based on the experiential learning and facilitation by non-local-based players, a hybrid institution is designed in one spatial space at a certain temporal point. This seems to be successful in addressing the stress. As such, other social players at another politically defined boundary adapt the hybrid institution based on their local context. Similarly, some actions governed by the hybrid institution at specific spaces of time and place out-scale across the politically defined boundaries to other spatial and temporal spaces. As a conclusion, the implications of out-scaling and hybridization are given with reference to socio-economic development and environmental conservation.
Trade-offs between communal and private institutions in natural resource management along the spaces of time and space: Reflection from four case studies in Tanzania
(IJPSS, 2014) Mahonge, C. P. I.
Classic scholars Hardin and Ostrom emerged with counter-traditions to each other in favor of private and communal natural resource management institutions respectively. In these premises, Hardin argues that it is not possible for local people cooperatively to manage a common resource sustainably because individuals in the community will always be driven by the rationale of ensuring more of personal gains at the expense of others. And, according to him, because every individual is driven by the same rationality the common will ultimately collapse, the state he calls “tragedy of the commons”. On the contrary, Ostrom opposes Hardin by arguing that the community has the power of devising rules systems that enable it to manage the common sustainably. Impliedly, the two scholars portray that either communal or private institutions will prevail at specific spaces of time and place but not both. In this article, I challenge this contention using four case studies that have substantiated the use of both communal and private institutions by the same social players at different time-space, and/or co-existence of both communal and private institutions at the same spaces of time and/or place.
Utilization of medicinal plants by waluguru people in east uluguru mountains Tanzania
(2006) Mahonge, C. P. I.; Nsenga, J. V.; Mtengeti, E. J.; Mattee, A.Z.
A study was done to assess utilization of medicinal plants in Nyachilo village situated in eastern Uluguru Mountains, Tanzania. Semi-structured questionnaires were administered and informal discussions conducted to traditional healers and midwives. The respondents were selected from Changa, Mselelo, Tanana, Mitamba, Kimeza, Mandani and Kibundi subvillages. Within the subvillages random sampling was used to determine the number of respondents to be interviewed. The study found that plant medicines utilized in the area can be categorized into groups for treating convulsion, pain killers, rituals and casting evil spirits, treating diseases, relieving respiratory complications, and treating skin eruptions. Many medicinal plants are collected from the forests (37.3%) and farms (37.3%). However, 16.4 % of the medicinal plants are not easily accessible. The community perceives modern medical system far advanced in comparison with traditional healing system. Both systems however, are useful in their sights. The study also revealed that in most medicinal plants, leaves are used as medicines (31.7%), followed by roots (29.6%), then barks (20.7%). The community proposed that in order to sustain conservation of medicinal plants, the traditional healers should be trained on appropriate harvesting and utilization techniques of the medicines. It is recommended that appropriate agronomic techniques that will ensure cultivation of medicinal plants should be taught to the community so as to guarantee sustainable utilization in future