Determinants of Solid Fuel Use and Emission Risks among Households: Insights from Limpopo, South Africa.

Emissions from residential solid fuels reduce ambient air quality and cause indoor air pollution resulting in adverse human health. The traditional solid fuels used for cooking include coal, straws, dung, and wood, with the latter identified as the prevalent energy source in developing countries. Emissions from such fuel sources appear to be significant hazards and risk factors for asthma and other respiratory diseases. This study aimed at reporting factors influencing the choice of dominant solid fuel for cooking and determine the emission risk from such solid fuel in three villages of Phalaborwa, Limpopo province, South Africa. The study used descriptive analysis to show the relationship between the socio-economic variables and the choice of cooking fuel at the household level. Multiple correspondence analysis (MCA) was used further to detect and represent underlying structures in the choice of dominant fuels. MCA shows the diversity and existing relationship of how variables are related analytically and graphically. Generalised linear logistic weight estimation procedure (WLS) was also used to investigate the factors influencing choice of fuel used and the inherent emission risks. In the three villages, wood was the prevalent cooking fuel with 76.8% of participant households using it during the summer and winter seasons. Variables such as low monthly income, level of education, and system of burning are revealed as strong predictors of wood fuel usage. Moreover, income, water heating energy, types of wood, and number of cooking hours are significant (p ≤ 0.05) in influencing emission from wood fuel in the community. A notable conclusion is that variables such as income, education status and system of burning are determinants of wood fuel usage in the three villages, while income, water heating energy, types of wood and number of hours influence vulnerability to household emission and possible health risks in the use of solid energy sources.

Integrating endemic medicinal plants into the global value chains: the ecological degradation challenges and opportunities.

Though innovations for sustainable management of natural resources have emerged over time, the rising demand for nature based health solutions and integration of endemic flora into global value chains could have adverse impacts on ecosystems. The ecological risks in the exploitation of the wild endemic medicinal plant resources are exacerbated by a myriad of agrotechnological risks and challenges that highly constrain their domestication. Successful exploitation and commercialisation of medicinal plants thus require a clear understanding of their demand and production systems or value chain analysis. Accordingly there is need for innovative approaches towards their integration into global value chains. Since quality and safety, traceability, certification, as well as consumer tastes and preferences are critical drivers in purchasing decisions by global consumers, they are inadvertently exploited to weaken Indigenous knowledge (IK), undermine common property rights and entrench value chains that favour a few elite buyers. This tend to create pervasive incentives for overexploitation of medicinal plant resources and environmental degradation. Potential solution lies in the recognition of drivers of vulnerability to environmental degradation and the innovative use of policy bricolage, feedback loops and interactions between knowledge, power and agency on one hand, and collective action and property rights institutions on the other hand. We conceptualise a framework that can mediate a transformational agenda and enhance systematic understanding of sustainability lenses in endemic medicinal plant resources value chains. This could strengthen IK, enhance collective action and promote participation of local actors with positive impact on the utilisation and integration of endemic medicinal plant resources into global value chains.

Greenhouse gas emissions as sustainability indicators in agricultural sectors' adaptation to climate change: Policy implications.

Effective adaptation action to climate change requires a balance between reducing vulnerabilities and managing risks. However, in most adaptation actions, risks such as greenhouse gas emissions, and those that impose negative externalities on global communities and ecosystems, are often overlooked. This article contextualises adaptation of maize stover (MS) as a dairy cattle feed among resource-poor farmers in western Kenya. In so doing, it attempts to establish the nexus between resource constraint and maladaptation to climate change. Simulation of methane emissions was carried out from secondary data and a survey of dairy cattle feeding strategies by resource-poor farmers. The level of greenhouse gas emissions in dairy feeding strategies is used as a measure and indicator of sustainability. Using disaster risk reduction principles, policymakers and community of practice in climate change action are encouraged to design and implement policies and strategies that take cognisance of poverty-maladaptation-environmental degradation nexus.

Ecological Public Health and Participatory Planning and Assessment Dilemmas: The Case of Water Resources Management.

Water is a key driver for socio-economic development, livelihoods and ecosystem integrity. This is reflected in the emergence of unified paradigms such as Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM) and the weight accorded to it in the Sustainable Development Goals agenda. This paper interrogated the effectiveness of existing participatory planning and assessment models adapted from IWRM model on water quality and public health at community level. The analysis was built around public health ecology perspective and drew useful lessons from critique of basin wide integrated Modeling approaches and existing community participatory models envisaged under Water Users Associations (WUA) in South Africa. We extended the use of political ecology lenses to ecological public health through use of communication for development approaches, to argue that public health risk reduction and resilience building in community water projects require the use of innovative analytical and conceptual lenses that unbundle cognitive biases and failures, as well as, integrate and transform individual and collective agency. The study concludes that the inherent "passive participation" adapted from IWRM model fail to adequately address water quality and public health dimensions in its pillars. Since water quality has direct bearing on disaster risks in public health, building a coherent mitigatory vision requires the adoption of active participatory assessment and planning models that incorporate livelihoods, agency, social learning dynamics and resilience through recognition of communication for development approaches in community empowerment.