Indigenous Health, Livestock, and Climate Change Adaptation in Kanungu District, Uganda
Indigenous populations are considered among the most susceptible to the impacts of climate change due to social, economic, and political marginalization, and dependence on the environment for resources and spiritual well-being. Uganda's Batwa are an Indigenous group with traditional hunter-gath...
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| Format: | Dissertation |
| Language: | English |
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ProQuest Dissertations & Theses
01-01-2016
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| Online Access: | Get full text |
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| Summary: | Indigenous populations are considered among the most susceptible to the impacts of climate change due to social, economic, and political marginalization, and dependence on the environment for resources and spiritual well-being. Uganda's Batwa are an Indigenous group with traditional hunter-gatherer livelihoods who, as conservation refugees since the early 1990s, are attempting to transition to an agrarian lifestyle. Livestock keeping may represent an appropriate adaptation option contributing to health and socio-economic development through food security and income generation. Currently, our understanding of planned adaptation remains limited, particularly as it pertains to livestock.This dissertation assessed livestock keeping as a climate change adaptation option for Batwa with the overarching hypothesis that livestock have the potential to improve health and well-being. The first objective was to systematically synthesize the evidence on the impacts of livestock on human malaria risk. Malaria was selected as a globally significant, climate-sensitive health outcome reported by Batwa as a health priority. Findings from the systematic review suggested that livestock may reduce malaria risk where local mosquito vectors do not prefer human to animal hosts, where livestock are kept away from human sleeping quarters during peak mosquito feeding times, and where mosquito bed nets are used. This objective thus validated and characterized the role of livestock in affecting malaria outcomes.The second objective was to compare malaria prevalence between Batwa and non-Batwa of Kanungu District and identify risk factors for infection. This objective aimed to understand and characterize the differential health burden—focusing on malaria—between the Batwa and their non-Indigenous neighbours as a baseline for investigating the role that livestock might play in affecting health outcomes in the two populations. The Batwa had twice the odds of malaria parasitemia as non-Batwa (OR 2.2, 95% CI 1.2–4.0). Results of multivariate models showed that relative poverty (OR 2.0, 95% CI 1.0–3.9) and house construction (OR 2.5, 95% CI 1.0–6.7) were additional risk factors to the influence of ethnicity for malaria in this region. Livestock reduced the odds of infection among a sub-sample of livestock owners (OR 0.3, 95% CI 0.1–0.9). These results point to substantial differences in malaria burden between Batwa and non-Batwa, highlight socio-economic gradients between the two populations, and indicate a potential role for livestock in affecting health outcomes.The third objective was to characterize the potential of livestock to reduce the climate change vulnerability of Batwa, using non-Batwa as a comparative temporal analogue. A concurrent mixed methods analysis identified current benefits and drawbacks of livestock keeping, in addition to barriers and facilitators of engaging in this livelihood strategy. A set of criteria for assessing appropriate adaptations was modified from the vulnerability and sustainable livelihoods literatures, and applied to qualitative data on livestock livelihoods in the Kanungu context. The analysis suggested that livestock represent an adaptation option that offers a range of health and monetary benefits with the potential to decrease dependence on climate-sensitive livelihoods in the long-term. However, extreme poverty, limited access to land and technical support exclude Batwa from taking advantage of livestock livelihood-related opportunities. Interventions that simultaneously address immediate needs and medium-to-long-term development goals would be required for Batwa adaptation.This thesis contributes to the climate change adaptation, Indigenous health, and malaria literatures, combining a set of disparate but overlapping methodological lenses to provide an evidence-base to support livestock keeping as an adaptation intervention to reduce Batwa vulnerability to climate change. |
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| ISBN: | 9798597019987 |