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Environmental Monitoring Systems for Sustainable Development
Introduction The Ssese islands are found in Uganda in the Lake Victoria in Kalangala District. The main economic activities that are carried out on the island are fishing, lumbering and charcoal making. There is also a lot of agriculture that goes on in the islands; crops grown include pineapples, sugar cane, yams, sweet potatoes and bananas. The islands are mainly covered by tropical forests. There is a lot of wildlife especially of the monkey family and many birds are found here and as such a lot of tourism takes place here. The area was formally under populated in the past due to a sleeping sickness epidemic in the early 1920s and so many people were resettled in other areas of the main land. However, over the years people have returned to the islands and now the area is very active commercially. The population has grown to the point where a lot of damage has been created on the environment. The original inhabitants were mainly fishermen, unfortunently fishing was no longer profitable so they have resorted to lumbering and charcoal burning which is damages the environment. I wish to establish a system that can bring about sustainable development on the islands where by the inhabitants utilise the land and the lake resources without impairing the ability of future generations to use of these resources. As this system is taking place I hope to measure its success using a monitoring system. This system is basically a set of indicators that are can easily be measured and interpreted to give a picture on the state of the living conditions of the people and there environment. Pressure State Response Framework This kind of framework is easily applicable to this problem in that the increase of the population of the people on the islands created a pressure on the environment and the lake resource. This was shown in the state of the resource by the loss in Biodiversity and a reduction in the amount of fish caught by the fishermen. The response would be the actions that can be taken to correct the pressure on the state of the environment. In coming up with a sustainable development system for these islands. A monitoring system is also discussed too measures the success of this system. A method to measure progress in sustainable development. In order to do this the area I chose was with in Lake Victoria on one of its many islands, (Ssese Island) in this island people depend on the Lake for all there every day needs. Unfortunently, the lake is currently experiencing a huge loss in Biodiversity. The resource, from which these people in the islands used to depend on, can no longer provide for them as it used to. As a result of this, there has been a change in the livelihoods of these people. This report is intended to be of use in establishing a monitoring system to measure progress in creating a sustainable means of utilisation of this resource. Before doing this, I had to come up with a set of objectives. These objectives could include the dreams and aspirations these inhabitants wish for their island. The main objective would be to improve the quality and amount of fish that the fishermen can get from the lake. Other objectives would include the development of a Tourism industry in the islands and also the improvement of the agricultural sector of the islands. Since this project is intended to help local communities come up with a sustainable way of utilising the lake resource, I have to involve them at the very beginning of the project in identifying the various ways in which they are utilising the resource. One notable thing here is that a number stakeholders are involved in the utilisation of this resource so all of them have to be consulted before any developmental programme is implemented. The stakeholders are either direct resource users, indirect resource users or groups of individuals interested in the existence of the resource. The direct resource users will include the fishermen and there families and organisations of fishermen. Indirect stakeholders will include Ministries of Agriculture and fisheries, Environment and Natural resources, Wildlife and Tourism and Ministry of Local government. The indirect stakeholders will include conservation groups and all NGOs[1] involved in developmental projects on the islands. This would be done using a number of ways. One of them is by setting up meetings with local communities were the people of the islands could be met and conducting rapid rural appraisals. Talking to organisations of the fishing communities could also be a good way of getting information on the resource use. Seeking and interviewing key informants like Local council chiefs, older women and men in the villages and also youth leaders is very important in information gathering. The researcher too has to go to these place and conduct transect walks and also make a number of observations as a way of checking the information delivered to him/her by the above processes with what actually happens on the ground. In this part of the system the researcher gathers a lot of information about the livelihoods of the people and environment of the local communities. Some of this information can include data on fish species caught in the area, the amounts and in what times of the year these kinds of fish are caught. The researcher is also supposed to get an insight into the other economic activities that are carried out in the islands. How fish are actually caught and lastly get a feel of the every day life of an average person on the islands. After being equipped with all this information the researcher then has to bring all the different stakeholders to a forum where all the issues that have been raised are discussed and solutions to these issues sought with the consent of all the affected parties. As part of an ongoing monitoring system to check whether all ideas are considered by all the stakeholders an effort can be made to see that every one who has an interest in the utilisation of the resource is considered. A monitoring system in this case would have to be developed by the researcher it will essentially comprise of a set of tools/ indicators which the researcher has to look at and access the rate of progress and then finally judge whether sustainable development has really taken place or not. The tools that the researcher can come up with may include a specialised test for the water quality this can be done in a laboratory where the faecal contamination is determined by looking at the presence of certain bacteria in the water. The amount of nutrients in the water can also be measured in the laboratory to determine the extent at which erosion from farm lands is getting into the water such tests would give an indication on the level of pollution that is taking place in the lake. Other indicators the researcher needs to come up with might be a look at the livelihoods off the people and try to access if they indicate development or not. Issues like the number of schools and medical centres that have been put up and the portion of the population on the island that they serve. How many families are able to pay school fees for there children, do the hospitals have drugs and do the islanders go there. The average income of the families might also be calculated by finding out the total amount of money obtained from fishing divided by the total population of people engaged in the fishing sector. The amount of fish caught and the distances from the shore at which the fishermen have to go can also be considered as one of the indicators to indicate the amount of fish in the lake. The type of boats used can also indicate the scarcity of fish. Do they have to use motor boats and go far away from the islands or use simple canoes and get all the fish they need from near the lakeshores? The researcher can also look at the other economic activities that are being carried out on the island and try and find out the number of people employed in these sectors and compare them with fishing this will give an indication of the relevance of fishing to these communities. The researcher then needs to keep this as a checklist and it would always be referred to when assessing the system that the people are likely to come up with so as to bring about sustainable development. At this time the researcher is supposed to go back to the local communities and sit with them through the same methods he initially used to find out there problems find solutions to these problems. Some of the solutions expected to come out of this would include the advocating for a body where by all the fisher men would be organised and fishing licences given out to people who could met proper fishing standards Like the use of the right fish net sizes, stopping the use of poisons as a way of catching fish and lastly within this organisation they could bargain for a better price for there fish on a larger market like the world market which individual farmers can not do. The other solution I expect would be the encouraging of better farming methods especially discouraging the excessive use of artificial fertilisers and emphasising aforestation practices. The tourism potential can be improved by conserving wildlife especially the monkey communities that are found mainly in these areas by creating sanctuary homes or game reserves. More schools can be constructed with the help of locally available materials. Basic hygiene should be taught to all the pupils as compulsory subject. Environmental awareness workshops and seminars need to be carried out so as to raise awareness on environmental issues. After coming up with all these solutions an institution or an organisation has to be put in place to ensure that these solutions are implemented. This body should have representatives from all the identified stake holders and should have a chairman who will assign responsibilities to all the people who have been allocated work and a period over which these responsibilities are to be completed. The inhabitants of these islands have to be made aware of the changes that are going to take place in there area and a person must be elected to do this from this committee that has been set up. Sources of funding for the changes that might take place if required should also be made clear at this point. Monitoring and evaluation Using the tools earlier in agreed by the researcher, he is supposed to collect data on these islands before any changes are carried out by the elected body. Half way through the period the body has been assigned to carry out the changes, the researcher needs to collect more information basing on these tools again to find if the body is still working on the agreed plans. If any unexpected problems have arisen as a result of some unforeseen problem they should also be taken care of and also included in these plans. At the end of the period these changes are to be carried out the same monitoring tools have to be used again and access if any progress has been made in improving the livelihoods of the people of the islands. The researcher is supposed to re-list the objectives that were made in the earlier steps and also add a few that may have emerged after the process of sustainable development had began. He/she is then supposed to compare what is being achieved with what was intended to be achieved. He/she should identify elements that show success or failure of achieving set objectives and also try to identify why he/she failed to achieve these objectives. The researcher has to lastly report his results to the team that was elected to carry out these changes and explain why some of them were not achieved and also recommend some other interventions to see that sustainable development is achieved. References Abbort, J. and Guijt, I. (1998) Changing views of change: participatory approaches to monitoring the environment, Pages 37, 56-60 SARL Discussion paper No.2 July 1998. Hardi, P. and Barg, S. with Hodge, T. and Pinter, L. (1997) Measuring sustainable development: Review of current Practice. Occasional Paper No. 17 Nov. 1997. pages 1-11 |
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