Poster session on Population and the environment

This paper seeks to improve the understanding of the household-level dynamics (life-cycle) and its relationship to agricultural practices, land use & environmental perception focusing on long-settled communities in the Andes.
A primary data generation (the 3-Paute survey) has been carried out obtaining 239 surveyed households. Gathered data have been analyzed by the Factor Analysis for Mixed Data (FMDA), the Hierarchical Clustering on Principal Components (HCPC); as well as Chi2 (test of independence), ANOVA & Kruskal-Wallis tests.
The presented findings advance our understanding of the complex dynamics in long-settled communities in the Andes region in five ways: 1) some household life-cycle variables influence the availability of the household labor force, that may impact the diversification of economic activities and cropping, the type of agriculture, and the use of intensive and/or extensive agriculture; 2) gender roles are well defined in function of the production scale; 3) we argue that household access to hired labor and focus on profit beyond subsistence; 4) migration plays an important role on the different dynamics under study mainly on wealthy households; and 5) the local livelihoods, adaptations, and environmental outcomes extend beyond a focus on macro-level to those operating at the household life-cycle level.

In the long history of human civilization man has changed the natural environment of the earth as step by step. Recently it enhanced by the technologically developed modern mankind. Population pressure may be the direct causes of environmental degradation in the fragile landscape. High rainfall affected tropical mountainous region of the world are most sensitive to environmental problem due to extreme and unplanned growth. Agriculture, construction and other economic activities triggered mass movement, soil erosion and other related problem in these regions. The present paper highlights the environmental problems of Darjeeling Himalaya by increasing population pressure, consequence with their activities; in the perspective of landslide and soil erosion. Census data of different decades have been used to analyses the population growth, whether satellite imageries used to analyses spatial and temporal dimension of hazard. The result shows that most of the landslides occur in the human modification landscape or near the construction sites. So it is clearly pointed out that anthropogenic activities are responsible for the above problems.

Many studies estimate the temperature’s effect on mortality with the daily mean temperature and the relative humidity. However, some studies considered the temperature percentile instead of temperature, and absolute humidity or dew point temperature instead of the relative humidity in the study. Therefore, we compared 6 combined models including daily mean temperature/temperature percentile and the relative humidity/absolute humidity/dew point temperature. We set the model using GAM with the temperature variable, the humidity variable, time trends and day of week. We compared AICs of the 6 models for finding out the best fitted model. After comparing 6 models, it is illustrated that model (T, DPT) had the minimum AIC value among the 6 models among 8 cites. Model (T, AH) had the minimum AIC among the 6 models among 3 cities and model (T, RH) and model (TP, AH) among 2 cities respectively. When comparing the models using the same temperature variables but the different humidity variables, the model employing the dew point temperature had the smallest AIC among the 3 models in most cities. Comparing the models using the same humidity variables but the different temperature variables, the models employing the temperature variables had the smaller AIC than the models employing temperature percentile in most cases.

Indigenous population live in their remote inaccessible abode and are being deprived of the fruits of development. They belong to lower strata of the society at large and their socio-cultural practices make them vulnerable to health risk particularly of child health. As a result ensuring health of indigenous people still remains an elusive goal even today. This paper attempts to examine the relevance of socio-cultural and environmental factors in explaining morbidity and nutritional status among indigenous children in North Eastern States of India which is considered one of the most inaccessible and diverse region with high concentration of tribal people. Analysis of data from Indian National Family Health Survey-3 (2005-06) reveals that households without windows, house structure, electricity, wealth index and place of residence have important bearing in moulding child health. Affluent neighbourhood are found to be key determinants of child health (p<.001). For indigenous people, the broader approach must complement the existing emphasis on risk factors, life style or behaviours because of the financial barriers and inaccessibility to health facilities which adds the burden of the morbidity and out of which children becomes the victim.

Most deaths of children under age five in India and other developing countries are linked to the household environment. This study, therefore, hypothesized that variations in household environments could affect children’s survival chances. Using secondary data from National Family Health Surveys (NFHS) round 3, the study broadly categorized the eight selected states into low and high under-five mortality groups. Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar and Rajasthan are selected as high under five mortality group and Maharashtra, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu are selected as low under-five mortality group. The household environmental variables include sources of drinking water, time to water source, types of toilet facilities, main flooring material and type of cooking fuel. The study found that high-mortality states are at a relative disadvantage on basic household environmental variables. Differences found in childhood morbidity and mortality between low and high under-five mortality states can be explained by levels of household environmental health hazards and by mother’s socioeconomic status. In order to meet Millennium Development Goal 4—to reduce under-five mortality by two-thirds between 1990 and 2015—attention should be given to the high mortality states to distribute of resources and facilities for better tomorrow.

This study investigates land cover change and land ownership turnover in an area that is both the agricultural frontier and a priority conservation zone, the Sierra del Lacandón National Park (SLNP), Petén, Guatemala. The goal is to understand how the agricultural frontier changes over time with regard to population, household characteristics, and land use. This study analyzes panel-data consisting of household interviews conducted with farmers living within the SLNP boundaries or its buffer zone in 1998 and 2009. Despite dramatic population growth, the overall trend of the area is towards the deintensification of farming practices. On average, households crop larger areas of higher value crops and less maize, but these changes have not kept pace with pasture expansion. As in Latin America overall, pasture expansion is a main driver of deforestation. The area simultaneously experiences farm parcel consolidation and splintering. Half of the landowning households in 1998 sold their land by 2009; some such land was consolidated by large landholders, while other parcels became split among multiple owners. Understanding land cover changes over time and how land ownership turnover occurs is key for crafting policies aimed at slowing further forest clearing and the impoverishment of subsistence populations.

Millions of people around the world are suffering from food shortages and hunger. Children and pregnant women are at risk of becoming permanently malnourished. It is therefore, imperative to provide adequate information about the dynamics of food insecurity at the household level as well as the nutrient intake of nursing mothers and their children as it affects their health. Both quantitative and qualitative methods were used to collect information. From the study, it was revealed that only 10% can afford appropriate nutrition for their children based on the nutritional chart provided during the survey. Thirteen percent of the respondents indicated that their children had anaemia four weeks preceding the survey. The logistic regression shows that women’s socio-economic status and nutritional intake are the predisposing factors for likelihood of having illness among infants in the study area. The study concludes that households should be encouraged to practise irrigated farming

The study aims to explore the potential associations between the monthly Acute Lower Respiratory Infections (ALRI) rates among children 0-5 years in four health zones located in Benin (West Africa) and the monthly values of several weather variables by using Pearson correlation coefficients. Only February has similar results in all studied health zone. Particularly dry and cold conditions are associated with increases in ALRI cases. During the other months, significant relations vary across regions but generally coincide with the results relayed in the literature. This research contributes to a better understanding of the temporal and spatial variability of ALRI among children 0-5 years in rural areas of Benin and may help to predict future occurrences of ALRI for the planning of public health activities.

Although sub-Saharan Africa does not contribute significantly to greenhouse gas emissions, significant adverse impacts of climate change are anticipated in this region. Countries in West Africa, which are heavily dependent on rain-fed agriculture, are projected to experience more frequent and intense droughts, altered rainfall patterns and increases in temperature through the end of this century. The changes in climate pattern are likely to affect crop yields, thereby placing pressure on scarce resources in a region that is characterized by limited social, political, technical and financial resources. This paper assessed the preferred adaptation strategies during floods and droughts of males and females in three different occupations (farming, fishing and charcoal production). Findings are based upon an analysis of focus group discussions and ranking of preferred adaptation options in three communities in the Afram Plains of Ghana. Assessments of this nature should aid in the selection and implementation of adaptation strategies for communities and households, which is the level at which climate change adaptation is likely to occur in West Africa.

Rural areas of developing countries are continuously facing new constraints that render the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals elusive. The constraints are either environmental or social, but often emerged at the intersection of both of it. Constraints are changing and evolving since changes is an intrinsic characteristic of the social and environmental systems. The novel intensity with which natural resources are extracted, polluted and degraded by modern societies trigger novel type of constraints with which population try to deal with. Migration is one strategy among others chosen by the household in their attempt to maintain or to improve their livelihood. This paper aims to show at a watershed scale the different constraints that have affected the household and their livelihood decision, in particular the migration as a coping strategy. A specific methodology combining in-depth interviews, focus group discussions and satellite image analysis has been elaborated to consider the longitudinal and multi-scale patterns of migrations. Preliminary results concerned the population dynamics that occurred in the watershed after the Second World War. The mapping of land use changes also revealed the major changes that occurred in the watershed while some evidence of emerging new pattern for youth generation were found.