Variability in woody plant species, vegetation assemblages and anthropogenic activities derails the efforts to have common approaches for estimating biomass and carbon stocks in Africa. In order to suggest management options, it is important to understand the vegetation dynamics and the major drivers governing the observed conditions. This study uses data from 29 sentinel landscapes (4640 plots) across the southern Africa. We used T-Square distance method to sample trees.

Knowledge of population dynamics is essential for managing and conserving wildlife. Traditional methods of counting wild animals such as aerial survey or ground counts not only disturb animals, but also can be labour intensive and costly. New, commercially available very high-resolution satellite images offer great potential for accurate estimates of animal abundance over large open areas. However, little research has been conducted in the area of satellite-aided wildlife census, although computer processing speeds and image analysis algorithms have vastly improved.

Background

Excessive rainwater during the rainy season and lack of water in the dry season have been challenging the agricultural productivity and food security for rural communities in southern Mali. Various soil and water conservation practices were implemented in the past to improve crop yields and income, and reverse the effect of land degradation. However, none of these efforts looked into the potential use of shallow wells at a spatial scale to improve the agricultural productivity and hence the food security in the region.

Results

Despite emerging public and donor attention on women and agriculture, relatively few studies are based on gender analysis of sex-disaggregated quantitative data, particularly on women's involvement in marketing of livestock products. The objective of this article is therefore to investigate gender roles and processes of smallholder goat production and marketing in Inhassoro District, Mozambique, by analysing sex-disaggregated baseline data for women in male-headed households (W-MHH), men in male-headed households (M-MHH) and women in female-headed households (FHH).