TITLE:
Bottom-Up Approach towards a Human Wellbeing Assessment for the Design of a Management Plan: A Study Case with Contributions to Improve Sustainable Management of Resources in a Northern Area of Mozambique
AUTHORS:
Rita Sofia Anastácio, Lúcia Nunes Schertenleib, Jorge Paiva, Jorge Ferrão, Mário Jorge Pereira
KEYWORDS:
North of Mozambique, Ecosystem Services, Ecosystem Based-Management
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Ecology,
Vol.4 No.17,
December
30,
2014
ABSTRACT: The loss of biodiversity and ecosystem services disturbance will result
in serious ecological and socioeconomic consequences. How can people be
prepared to be more efficient in preserving ecosystems, its services and
resources? The Messalo Wilderness Area (MWA) is an area lacking a bottom-up
approach for the design of a management plan. This research intended to develop
a strategy to gather people’s views to begin a human wellbeing assessment for
the area, for which a Digital Questionnaire (DQ) was developed and tested. The
specific objectives were to 1) verify the dispersion/distribution of people and
elephants; 2) study the natural resources used by the inhabitants; 3) locate
the areas from where the most important natural resources are extracted and where
conflict between humans and animals occur; 4) propose a Management Plan (MP)
capable of mitigating the human-animals conflict, promoting the conservation of
elephants and, consequently, of other types of biodiversity, thus working
towards a better socio-economical development of the area. The elements gathered in the consulted references were used to design
several maps and cartographic figures shown in this article, using the Map
Window software. These maps describe: fresh water distribution, habitat
distribution, population dispersal and main road connections, crop fields
distribution and main exploitation spots of the different resources, orography and topography. The results from the DQ analysis helped to gather
indicators to the human wellbeing assessment. The information gathered in the literature and by
inquiry was effective in confirming the high dependency of local people on land
and sea resources, as well as the conflicts between people and wild animals,
such as elephants and African wild dogs, and the reasons for those conflicts.
The DQ is effective in gathering people’s opinions and it constitutes an
important tool in a bottom-up approach to the design of a management plan as to
the design of the MP for the MWA.