Ecological footprint of rural communities in Homa Bay County, kenya
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Date
2014
Authors
Ogalo, Tom Osewe
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Kenyatta University
Abstract
Environmental sustainability of a nation or region is a major concern to
governments, industrialists, academicians, environmental practitioners and
even ordinary individuals living on planet earth. The rate of exploitation of
natural resources is not matched by the regenerative capacity of these resources
for sustainable existence. There are several methods of quantifying the earth's
natural resources as well as sustainability. Natural capital accounting with the
ecological footprint is one method of auditing our relation with nature.
Ecological Footprint analysis was pioneered by Dr.Rees and Dr.Mathis
Wackernagel in 1999 and has since been modified and is in use all over the
world. This research aims to assess the sustainability of the rural communities
in Homa Bay District in Homa Bay County of the Republic of Kenya. It will
seek to answer questions as to whether the natural wealth available in the
district is enough to sustain the resident population, what is the technological
level of exploitation of the natural resources, means of waste disposal. The
final determination is the Ecological Footprint, or natural resource demand,
imposed on the region. The study will also seek to establish the biocapacity or
the natural resource supply available. The research design will use structured
questionnaires administered at household level to capture the six parameters of
Ecological Footprint analysis, that is, crop land area, grazing land, forest land,
fishing grounds, built-up land as well as fossil energy land. The individual
component areas will be converted into global hectares using weighting
factors. The sampling frame is based on the 2009 National population census.
The data generated will be analyzed using the Sta~~sticalPackage for the Social
Sciences (SPSS) software and Microsoft excel. The Ecological Footprint will
be determined using National Footprint Account developed by the Global
Footprint Network. Visual presentation will include bar charts, pie charts.
frequencies amongst other descriptive statistics.
Description
Department of Environmental Science