| Peer-Reviewed

Influence of Political Interests on Management of Resource Access in Awoja Watershed

Received: 28 August 2018     Accepted: 6 November 2018     Published: 26 December 2018
Views:       Downloads:
Abstract

This study sought to determine the extent to which local political interests under decentralization influence watershed management. The study was carried out in Soroti, Katakwi and Amuria districts in Eastern Uganda where local governance of watershed resources is being challenged by floods, draughts and mobility of communities. A cross sectional study design using both qualitative and quantitative data collection methods was employed. Factor Analysis and a Logistics Regression Model were used to analyze household survey data gathered from 180 randomly selected households; to determine influence of political factor variables on watershed management. Focus Group Discussions and key informants’ interviews were also used to generate qualitative data with the purpose of explaining the relationships among variables and to analyze the extent to which various factors influenced watershed management. From the correlation results the factors that were significantly correlated to watershed management were: Community involvement in implementation was significantly correlated to watershed management (r=0.289, P<0.01), political interests in decisions r=0.187, P<0.05), Reasons for punishment of offenders (r=0.55, P, 0.001. Results from the logit regression showed that dissatisfaction with regulations had an increasing influence on watershed management by 90.8% (OR=1.908, P<0.05). This means that management systems were highly affected by dissatisfaction of communities with rules and regulations. Similarly, community involvement in implementation of rules and regulations significantly influenced watershed management by 3 fold (OR=3.436537, P<0.05). From the focus group discussions and KII interviews the study found that involving communities in policy implementation had led to compromises between communities and watershed governance institutions, which were perceived to have undermined the effective control of access and management of watershed resource use. The study concludes that some political interest factors and divergent activities of local institutions and actors in the watershed constrained the very processes that they should support thereby escalating degradation in Awoja.

Published in International Journal of Environmental Protection and Policy (Volume 6, Issue 5)
DOI 10.11648/j.ijepp.20180605.11
Page(s) 85-96
Creative Commons

This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.

Copyright

Copyright © The Author(s), 2018. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Political Interests, Watershed Management, Climate Change

References
[1] Knapp A (2014). Climate change and precipitation - Consequences of more extreme precipitation regimes for terrestrial ecosystems, Colorado State University.
[2] Khan, M. T. and T. Lynch (2013). The genealogy of contemporary nature/forest conservation. Human Geography: a New Radical Journal 6(3): 105-120.
[3] Amaru, S., &Chhetri, N. B. (2013). Climate adaptation: Institutional response to environmental constraints, and the need for increased flexibility, participation, and integration of approaches. Applied Geography, 39, 128-139.
[4] Bagdi, R. (2014). Climate Change Mitigation Finance for Smallholder Agriculture: A guide book to harvesting soil carbon sequestration benefits FAO Rome http://www.fao.org/docrep/015/i2485e/ i2485e00.pdf.
[5] Xu L. and Marinova D., (2013). Resilience thinking: a bibliometric analysis of socio-ecological research », Scientometrics, vol., p.DOI 10.1007/s11192- 11013-10957-11190.
[6] Caves R. (2013). A simplified approach to stakeholder engagement in natural resource management: the Five-Feature Framework: Ecology and Society, vol. 21, no. 4, 2016. JSTOR, JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/26270020.
[7] Butler H and Adamowski J. (2015). Towards adaptive and integrated management paradigms to meet the challenges of water governance; water science and technology : a journal of the International Association on Water Pollution Research, T1 - Towards adaptive and integrated management paradigms to meet the challenges of water governance, VL – 6.
[8] Turner M. D., 2014, « Political ecology I: An alliance with resilience?», Progress in Human Geography, vol. 38, n° 4, p.616-623.
[9] Jensen, N., M. Ikegami, and A. Mude. 2016. “Integrating social protection strategies for improved impact: A comparative evaluation of cash transfers and index insurance in Kenya.” Unpublished.
[10] Talley, J. L., J. Schneider, and E. Lindquist. 2016. A simplified approach to stakeholder engagement. In natural resource management: the Five-Feature Framework. Ecology and Society 21(4): 38. https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-08830-210438.
[11] Delia C. & Joseph T (2015). Engaging Stakeholders in Integrated Natural Resource Management: approaches and guidelines from Land care, New Delhi
[12] De Leeuw, J. (2016). Trees and Watershed Management in Karamoja, Uganda: Evidence on Demand. Climate & Environment, Infrastructure and Livelihoods. A quick desk study commissioned by DFID Uganda.
[13] Mutekanga, F. P., Kessler, A., Leber, K., & Visser, S. (2013). The Use of Stakeholder Analysis in Integrated Watershed Management: Experiences From the Ngenge Watershed, Uganda. Mountain Research and Development, 33(2), 122-131.
[14] Kyarigonza R (2014). Correlates of Research utilization in Institutions of Higher LEraning, Unpublished MA dissertation submitted to Makerere University.
[15] Mugenda, O. (2003). Mugenda (1999). Research methods: Quantitative and qualitative approaches.
[16] The National Climate Change Policy (NCCP, 2012), Kampala, Uganda
[17] Tabachnick H and Fidell J, (2007). Application of data screening Procedures, Vol. 5, No. 2. Copyright. The New School for Social Research
[18] Marshall, G. (1998). Snowballing technique. A dictionary of sociology, 201-216.
[19] Andersson, K. P., &Ostrom, E. (2008). Analyzing decentralized resource regimes from a polycentric perspective. Policy sciences, 41(1), 71-93.
[20] Akello, S., Turyahabwe, N., Sseguya, H., Okullo, P., &Agea, J. G. (2017). Local community participation in restoration of watersheds in Uganda.
[21] Sikor, T., & Lund, C. (2009). Access and property: a question of power and authority. Development and change, 40(1), 1-22.
[22] Ong’or, D.O. (2005). Community participation in Integrate Water Resource Management: The case of the lake Victoria Basin. Kenya: Department of Agriculture.
[23] Agrawal, A., & Gupta, K. (2005). Decentralization and participation: the governance of common pool resources in Nepal’s Terai. World development, 33(7), 1101-1114.
[24] Few, R. (2003). Flooding, vulnerability and coping strategies: local responses to a global threat. Progress in Development Studies, 3(1), 43-58.
[25] Baltissen, G., & Betsema, G. (2013). Linking land governance and food security in Africa.
[26] Holling C. S. (2015) Foundations of Ecological Resilience, Washington, Island Press.
[27] Mulugeta L (2004). Effects of land use change on soil quality and native flora degradation and restoration in the highlands of Ethiopia. Implication for sustainable land management. Ph.D Thesis. Swedish university of Agricultural Science. Uppsala, Sweden.
[28] Tippett, J., Searle, B., Pahl-Wostl, C., & Rees, Y. (2005). Social learning in public participation in river basin management—early findings from HarmoniCOP European case studies. Environmental science & policy, 8(3), 287-299.
Cite This Article
  • APA Style

    Charles Aben, John James Okiror, Jacob Godfrey Agea, Esbern Friis Hansen. (2018). Influence of Political Interests on Management of Resource Access in Awoja Watershed. International Journal of Environmental Protection and Policy, 6(5), 85-96. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijepp.20180605.11

    Copy | Download

    ACS Style

    Charles Aben; John James Okiror; Jacob Godfrey Agea; Esbern Friis Hansen. Influence of Political Interests on Management of Resource Access in Awoja Watershed. Int. J. Environ. Prot. Policy 2018, 6(5), 85-96. doi: 10.11648/j.ijepp.20180605.11

    Copy | Download

    AMA Style

    Charles Aben, John James Okiror, Jacob Godfrey Agea, Esbern Friis Hansen. Influence of Political Interests on Management of Resource Access in Awoja Watershed. Int J Environ Prot Policy. 2018;6(5):85-96. doi: 10.11648/j.ijepp.20180605.11

    Copy | Download

  • @article{10.11648/j.ijepp.20180605.11,
      author = {Charles Aben and John James Okiror and Jacob Godfrey Agea and Esbern Friis Hansen},
      title = {Influence of Political Interests on Management of Resource Access in Awoja Watershed},
      journal = {International Journal of Environmental Protection and Policy},
      volume = {6},
      number = {5},
      pages = {85-96},
      doi = {10.11648/j.ijepp.20180605.11},
      url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijepp.20180605.11},
      eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ijepp.20180605.11},
      abstract = {This study sought to determine the extent to which local political interests under decentralization influence watershed management. The study was carried out in Soroti, Katakwi and Amuria districts in Eastern Uganda where local governance of watershed resources is being challenged by floods, draughts and mobility of communities. A cross sectional study design using both qualitative and quantitative data collection methods was employed. Factor Analysis and a Logistics Regression Model were used to analyze household survey data gathered from 180 randomly selected households; to determine influence of political factor variables on watershed management. Focus Group Discussions and key informants’ interviews were also used to generate qualitative data with the purpose of explaining the relationships among variables and to analyze the extent to which various factors influenced watershed management. From the correlation results the factors that were significantly correlated to watershed management were: Community involvement in implementation was significantly correlated to watershed management (r=0.289, P<0.01), political interests in decisions r=0.187, P<0.05), Reasons for punishment of offenders (r=0.55, P, 0.001. Results from the logit regression showed that dissatisfaction with regulations had an increasing influence on watershed management by 90.8% (OR=1.908, P<0.05). This means that management systems were highly affected by dissatisfaction of communities with rules and regulations. Similarly, community involvement in implementation of rules and regulations significantly influenced watershed management by 3 fold (OR=3.436537, P<0.05). From the focus group discussions and KII interviews the study found that involving communities in policy implementation had led to compromises between communities and watershed governance institutions, which were perceived to have undermined the effective control of access and management of watershed resource use. The study concludes that some political interest factors and divergent activities of local institutions and actors in the watershed constrained the very processes that they should support thereby escalating degradation in Awoja.},
     year = {2018}
    }
    

    Copy | Download

  • TY  - JOUR
    T1  - Influence of Political Interests on Management of Resource Access in Awoja Watershed
    AU  - Charles Aben
    AU  - John James Okiror
    AU  - Jacob Godfrey Agea
    AU  - Esbern Friis Hansen
    Y1  - 2018/12/26
    PY  - 2018
    N1  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijepp.20180605.11
    DO  - 10.11648/j.ijepp.20180605.11
    T2  - International Journal of Environmental Protection and Policy
    JF  - International Journal of Environmental Protection and Policy
    JO  - International Journal of Environmental Protection and Policy
    SP  - 85
    EP  - 96
    PB  - Science Publishing Group
    SN  - 2330-7536
    UR  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijepp.20180605.11
    AB  - This study sought to determine the extent to which local political interests under decentralization influence watershed management. The study was carried out in Soroti, Katakwi and Amuria districts in Eastern Uganda where local governance of watershed resources is being challenged by floods, draughts and mobility of communities. A cross sectional study design using both qualitative and quantitative data collection methods was employed. Factor Analysis and a Logistics Regression Model were used to analyze household survey data gathered from 180 randomly selected households; to determine influence of political factor variables on watershed management. Focus Group Discussions and key informants’ interviews were also used to generate qualitative data with the purpose of explaining the relationships among variables and to analyze the extent to which various factors influenced watershed management. From the correlation results the factors that were significantly correlated to watershed management were: Community involvement in implementation was significantly correlated to watershed management (r=0.289, P<0.01), political interests in decisions r=0.187, P<0.05), Reasons for punishment of offenders (r=0.55, P, 0.001. Results from the logit regression showed that dissatisfaction with regulations had an increasing influence on watershed management by 90.8% (OR=1.908, P<0.05). This means that management systems were highly affected by dissatisfaction of communities with rules and regulations. Similarly, community involvement in implementation of rules and regulations significantly influenced watershed management by 3 fold (OR=3.436537, P<0.05). From the focus group discussions and KII interviews the study found that involving communities in policy implementation had led to compromises between communities and watershed governance institutions, which were perceived to have undermined the effective control of access and management of watershed resource use. The study concludes that some political interest factors and divergent activities of local institutions and actors in the watershed constrained the very processes that they should support thereby escalating degradation in Awoja.
    VL  - 6
    IS  - 5
    ER  - 

    Copy | Download

Author Information
  • Department of Extension and Innovation Studies, College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda

  • Department of Extension and Innovation Studies, College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda

  • Department of Extension and Innovation Studies, College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda

  • Danish Institute for International Studies, Copenhagen, Denmark

  • Sections