scholarly journals Rural and urban views on elephants, conservation and poaching

Oryx ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 1-8
Author(s):  
Christie Sampson ◽  
Jenny Anne Glikman ◽  
S. L. Rodriguez ◽  
David Tonkyn ◽  
Paing Soe ◽  
...  

Abstract Successful anti-poaching policies and effective conservation of Asian elephants Elephas maximus require input and support from all stakeholders, including the public. But although Myanmar has one of the largest remaining populations of wild Asian elephants, there has been little research on public attitudes there towards elephants and poaching. We developed a questionnaire to assess attitudes of people in rural and urban areas towards elephants and conservation, and their perceptions of and experience with elephant poaching. We conducted 178 interviews across two regions in Myanmar. Although both rural and urban participants supported elephant conservation, people from urban areas expressed more favourable attitudes towards elephants than their rural counterparts. Similarly, conservation priorities differed between rural and urban communities, with rural communities less likely to believe that peaceful human–elephant coexistence was possible and preferring conservation initiatives that prioritize human activities over elephant conservation. Both groups were familiar with elephant poaching in Myanmar, but rural communities appeared to be better informed regarding the challenges faced by conservation agencies, and were more negatively affected by poaching. Our findings highlight potential areas for intervention by government and conservation agencies to reduce criminal activity and to protect both Myanmar's citizens and its elephants.

2017 ◽  
Vol 5 (7) ◽  
pp. 1011-1015
Author(s):  
Anthonia Ikpeme ◽  
Nchiewe Ani ◽  
Boniface Ago ◽  
Emmanuel Effa ◽  
Omofolasade Kosoko-Lasaki ◽  
...  

AIM: This paper examines the activities of mobile services units including ultrasound services in rural and urban communities in the Calabar region of South-South, Nigeria.MATERIALS AND METHODS: Consenting individuals were invited and attended five medical outreach activities in rural and urban areas of the Calabar region between January and June 2016. Abdomino-pelvic scans were done. Subsequently the results were analyzed.RESULTS: Five hundred and seventy-four (574) individuals had Abdomino-pelvic scans done, using a curvilinear probe to assess the abdomino-pelvic organs. The female to male ratio was 1.46:1. The age ranged from 1-78 years with a mean of 40.63 (standard deviation of 17.5). The commonest sonographic finding was uterine fibroids, 21 (8.1%). Fifty-four percent of the scans were normal. The commonest sonographic finding in men was prostatic enlargement.CONCLUSION: Medical outreach activities provided by mobile units provide much needed ultrasound services in poor resource settings in Nigeria. Significant clinical pathologies were identified at fairly high rates.


2016 ◽  
Vol 2016 ◽  
pp. 1-10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simon Boateng ◽  
Prince Amoako ◽  
Divine Odame Appiah ◽  
Adjoa Afriyie Poku ◽  
Emmanuel Kofi Garsonu

The comparative analysis of solid waste management between rural and urban Ghana is largely lacking. This study investigated the solid waste situation and the organisation of solid waste management in both urban and rural settings from the perspective of households. The study employed cross-sectional survey covering both rural and urban districts in the Ashanti and Greater Accra Regions of Ghana. The study systematically sampled houses from which 400 households and respondents were randomly selected. Pearson’s Chi square test was used to compare demographic and socioeconomic variables in rural and urban areas. Multivariate Test, Tests of Between-Subjects Effects, and Pair-Wise Comparisons were performed through one-way MANOVA to determine whether or not solid waste situations in rural and urban areas are significantly different. The results revealed that location significantly affects solid waste management in Ghana. Urban communities had lower mean scores than rural communities for poor solid waste situation in homes. However, urban communities had higher mean scores than rural communities for poor solid waste situation in principal streets and dumping sites. The study recommends that the local government authorities implement very comprehensive policies (sanitary inspection, infrastructure development, and community participation) that will take into consideration the specific solid waste management needs of both urban and rural areas.


Author(s):  
Remus Runcan

According to Romania’s National Rural Development Programme, the socio-economic situation of the rural environment has a large number of weaknesses – among which low access to financial resources for small entrepreneurs and new business initiatives in rural areas and poorly developed entrepreneurial culture, characterized by a lack of basic managerial knowledge – but also a large number of opportunities – among which access of the rural population to lifelong learning and entrepreneurial skills development programmes and entrepreneurs’ access to financial instruments. The population in rural areas depends mainly on agricultural activities which give them subsistence living conditions. The gap between rural and urban areas is due to low income levels and employment rates, hence the need to obtain additional income for the population employed in subsistence and semi-subsistence farming, especially in the context of the depopulation trend. At the same time, the need to stimulate entrepreneurship in rural areas is high and is at a resonance with the need to increase the potential of rural communities from the perspective of landscape, culture, traditional activities and local resources. A solution could be to turn vegetal and / or animal farms into social farms – farms on which people with disabilities (but also adolescents and young people with anxiety, depression, self-harm, suicide, and alexithymia issues) might find a “foster” family, bed and meals in a natural, healthy environment, and share the farm’s activities with the farmer and the farmer’s family: “committing to a regular day / days and times for a mutually agreed period involves complying with any required health and safety practices (including use of protective clothing and equipment), engaging socially with the farm family members and other people working on and around the farm, and taking on tasks which would include working on the land, taking care of animals, or helping out with maintenance and other physical work”


Author(s):  
Julián Briz ◽  
José María Duran ◽  
Isabel Felipe ◽  
Teresa Briz

Agriculture is facing new challenges in rural and urban areas, and Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) may play a significant role. In this chapter, there is a background description of the ICT sector in the interface of urban and rural communities within the framework of agriculture. It describes some case analyses focused in agronomy and social sciences. In agronomy, the focuses are environment, food production, and pollution. In socioeconomics, there is a brief identification of ICT applications such as the collaboration between the university and firms. Considering the heterogeneousness of the analysis, the future research directions include different methods of studies for ICT programs (house of quality, structural organization, and others).


2012 ◽  
pp. 769-785
Author(s):  
K. P. Joo

The rural communities in South Korea have faced serious challenges as the country has gradually opened the agricultural market and extended the conclusion of Free Trade Agreement with more and more countries. Moreover, due to the national socio-economic and political structures, South Korea has been undergoing the technological imbalance between rural and urban areas. In order to cope with these vital social challenges, the South Korean government has exerted considerable investment and effort in establishing ICT knowledge and skills as well as infrastructure in rural areas. Thus, conceptualizing ICT in the context of adult education, this chapter addresses three ICT-supported adult education programs oriented toward developing ICT skills and competencies of people in agricultural areas of South Korea. The South Korean cases of agricultural ICT education represent the vast and concentrated national efforts in integrating ICT across rural areas in this fast changing global situation.


2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ibrahim Rabiu Jalo ◽  
Gajida Auwal Umar ◽  
Jibo Abubakar Mohammed ◽  
Ibrahim Usman Muhammad ◽  
Abulfathi Aisha Aliyu ◽  
...  

Diarrhea remains a major cause of morbidity and mortality globally, and still poses a significant threat to the health, wellbeing and survival of under-fives in many developing countries, especially in Africa. This is despite the existence of simple, effective treatment – zinc plus ORS. A comparative cross- sectional design was used to collect information from 302 caregivers. Data was analysed using SPSS version 20. Utilization of zinc plus ORS by caregivers was found to be good (73.5%) in both settings; up to 120 (78.9%) of the caregivers in the urban community compared to over two-thirds 102 (68.0%) of those in the rural community had used zinc plus ORS. This difference was statistically significant between urban and rural caregivers (P=0.01). Caregivers having poor knowledge of zinc plus ORS were 98% less likely to use zinc plus ORS (P=0.00, AOR=0.02, 95% CI=0.00-0.12), caregivers whose children had non severe diarrhoea are 80% less likely to use zinc plus ORS (P=0.00, AOR=0.20, 95% CI=0.09-0.47) and caregivers in urban areas are 1.5 times more likely to give zinc plus ORS for any episode of diarrhoea (P=0.01. AOR=1.53, 95% CI=1.48-4.54). Utilisation of zinc plus ORS was fair in both rural and urban areas of Kano and continued efforts to reach caregivers using a variety of channels are needed to change caregiver’s knowledge and utilization of zinc plus ORS and alter incorrect diarrhoea treatment practices.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alfred Jerrod Anzalone ◽  
Ronald Horswell ◽  
Brian Hendricks ◽  
San Chu ◽  
William Hillegass ◽  
...  

IMPORTANCE: Rural communities are among the most underserved and resource-scarce populations in the United States (US), yet there are limited data on COVID-19 mortality in rural America. Furthermore, rural data are rarely centralized, precluding comparability across urban and rural regions. OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study is to assess hospitalization rates and all-cause inpatient mortality among persons with definitive COVID-19 diagnoses residing in rural and urban areas. DESIGN, SETTINGS, AND PARTICIPANTS: This retrospective cohort study from the National COVID Cohort Collaborative (N3C) examines a cohort of 573,018 patients from 27 US hospital systems presenting with SARS-CoV-2 infection between January 2020 and March 2021, of whom 117,897 were hospitalized. A sample of 450,725 hospitalized persons without COVID-19 diagnoses was identified for comparison. EXPOSURES: ZIP Codes provided by source hospital systems were classified by urban-rural gradient through a crosswalk to the US Department of Agriculture Rural-Urban Commuting Area Codes. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES: Primary outcomes were hospitalization and all-cause mortality among hospitalized patients. Kaplan-Meier analysis and mixed effects logistic regression were used to estimate 30-day survival in hospitalized patients and associations between rurality, hospitalization, and inpatient mortality while controlling for major risk factors. RESULTS: Rural patients were more likely to be older, white, have higher body mass index, and diagnosed with SARS-CoV-2 later in the pandemic compared with their urban counterparts. Rural compared with urban inhabitants had higher rates of hospitalization (23% vs. 19%) and all-cause mortality among hospitalized patients (16% vs. 11%). After adjustment for demographic and baseline differences, rural residents (both urban adjacent and non-adjacent) with COVID-19 were more likely to be hospitalized (Adjusted Odds Ratio (AOR) 1.41, 95% Confidence Interval (CI), 1.37-1.45 and AOR 1.42, CI 1.35-1.50) and to die or be transferred to hospice (AOR 1.62, CI 1.30-1.49 and 1.38, CI 1.30-1.49), respectively. Similar differences in mortality were noted for hospitalized patients without SARS-CoV-2 infection. CONCLUSIONS: Hospitalization and inpatient mortality are higher among rural compared with urban persons with COVID-19, even after adjusting for several factors, including age and comorbidities. Further research is needed to understand the factors that drive health disparities in rural populations.


Author(s):  
C. M. N. Khabo-Mmekoa ◽  
M. N. B. Momba

This study was undertaken to highlight the social disparity between rural and urban areas in terms of housing patterns, provision of safe drinking water, access to sanitation facilities, education, employment rate and health-related to diarrhoeal episodes in Ugu District Municipality of KwaZulu-Natal Province of South Africa. To achieve this aim, a survey was conducted using a structured questionnaire. Drinking water samples were collected from the point of supply and the storage containers to assess the microbiological quality of drinking water in both rural and urban areas. Results of this study revealed prominent residential segregation between rural and urban communities, whereby the houses in the rural areas were generally constructed with corrugated iron sheets, or mud brick and mortar whereas conventional brick-and-mortar construction was used to build those in the urban areas. All of the urban households had flush toilets in their houses (100%), while 98.2% of the rural households were relying on pit latrines and 1.8% were reported to defecate in an open field. The District unemployment rate was at 58.1% in rural areas and none among the urban community. Results also showed that only 13.6% of the rural dwellers completed their secondary education compared to 70.4% of the urban areas. The diarrhoeal episodes were high in rural areas (34.1%) while none of these episodes was reported in urban areas. Great disparity in the water supply persists between rural and urban communities. For the former, the standpipes located outside their homes (90.9%) remain the sole mode of access to drinking water, while in the urban area, all households had pipes/taps inside their houses. Assessment of the drinking water quality revealed only the stored drinking water used by the rural community of Ugu District was contaminated. High prevalence of E. coli ranging from 63.3 % to 66.7% was recorded only in stored water after the sequencing of 16S rRNA genes. Species-specific PCR primers exposed the presence of enteropathogenic Escherichia coli at a rate ranging between 1.4% and 3.7% in this water Overall, this study has been able to highlight the disparity left by the legacy of racial segregation in the Ugu Municipality District. Therefore, the local government must intervene in educating homeowners on safe water storage practices.


2017 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 80-102 ◽  
Author(s):  
Il-Hee Kim

AbstractThis study investigated metadiscourse in the persuasive essays of fourth graders from both urban and rural communities: 224 students in South Korea and 188 in the US. Each student was asked to write a persuasive essay in his or her native Korean or English in response to a story not previously read or discussed. Analysis with a taxonomy developed by Hyland (2004) indicated significant differences in the metadiscourse by country. In terms of interactive metadiscourse, South Korean students used more sentence-level transitions than U.S. students, who used more frame markers and endophoric markers. With regard to interactional metadiscourse, U.S. students used more hedges, boosters, engagement markers, and self-mentions in their essays. This study also compared the students′ essays by the type of community in which the writers lived. In the US the essays of students in rural communities contained more hedges, whereas those of students in urban areas included significantly more self-mentions. In South Korea, no significant difference was detected in the metadiscourse of students living in rural and urban areas.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julie Freeman ◽  
Sora Park ◽  
Catherine Middleton

As everyday practices are increasingly digitalised, many countries are prioritising broadband rollout. However, infrastructure provision under national policies has not been uniform. In comparison to urban populations, rural communities often have inferior broadband infrastructure and services and there are disparities in digital opportunities between rural and urban areas. A case study of twenty rural Australian internet users reveals that rural communities suffer from limited access, inconsistent and unreliable services, and rural broadband plans’ data restrictions and high prices, which we conceptualise as ‘interrupted access’. Rural internet experiences are subsequently shaped by the availability, speed, stability and affordability of connections. As a response, a form of ‘technological literacy’ is emerging through which rural consumers undertake technical and social manoeuvrings to self-address challenges from interrupted access and increase their opportunities for digital inclusion. Participants developed innovative local solutions, such as self-installed auxiliary hardware and mobile towers, which they used to improve mobile broadband coverage. Those unable to build such solutions displayed new types of knowledge encompassing broader contexts of connectivity (infrastructure, devices and plans) and re-structured rural life to accommodate internet use that is shaped by interrupted access. Growing community-level capacity and interest in broadband development suggests national policies could better reduce rural-urban inequities by supporting and empowering localised solutions. Without addressing the interrupted nature of rural connectivity to improve service quality and affordability, disparities in the digital opportunities available to rural and urban consumers will persist. KEYWORDS: Broadband infrastructure/services, digital divide, rural communities, digital inclusion


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