Fair Trade Rooibos tea: Connecting South African producers and American consumer markets

This article analyzes the recent growth and configuration of Fair Trade networks connecting South African Rooibos tea producers with American consumer markets. As we demonstrate, Fair Trade’s growth in the Rooibos sector engages key issues of black empowerment, land reform, and sustainable development in post-Apartheid South Africa. Fair Trade networks provide small-scale black Rooibos producers with critical markets. Most significantly, the Wupperthal and Heiveld cooperatives have upgraded into processing and packaging and their jointly owned Fairpackers facility now exports shelf-ready Rooibos tea. Analyzing the nature of US Fair Trade Rooibos buyers and their South African sourcing arrangements, we identify key variations in Fair Trade commitment and engagement between mission-driven and market-driven distributors. While mission-driven buyers engage small-scale Rooibos cooperatives in multifaceted partnership networks, market-driven buyers pursue conventional sourcing strategies favoring purchases from large plantations and exporters. We conclude that tensions between a radical and commercial orientation toward Fair Trade in Rooibos tea networks in many ways mirror those in the broader movement.     

Phytoliths infer locally dense and heterogeneous paleovegetation at FLK North and surrounding localities during upper Bed I time, Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania

The phytolith content of 10 samples collected immediately under Tuff IF (~ 1.785 Ma) at FLK N and other surrounding localities (~ 2 km²) provides a direct botanical evidence for woody vegetation in the eastern margin of Olduvai Gorge during uppermost Bed I time. Observation and counting of 143 phytolith types (5 to >150 μ) reveal dense but heterogeneous woody cover (~ 40–90%) of unidentified trees and/or shrubs and palms associated to the freshwater springs surrounding FLK N, and more open formation (presumably ~ 25–70% woody cover) in the southeast at localities VEK, HWK W and HWK E. The paleovegetation is best described as groundwater palm forest/woodland or bushland, which current analogue may be found near Lake Manyara in similar hydrogeological context (freshwater springs near saline/alkaline lake). Re-evaluating the published pollen data based on this analogy shows that 70% of the pollen signal at FLK N may be attributed to thicket-woodland, Acacia groundwater woodland, gallery and groundwater forests; while < 30% is attributed to swamp herbage and grasslands. Micro-botanical, isotopic, and taphonomical studies of faunal remains converge on the same conclusion that the area surrounding FLK N, which attracted both carnivores and hominins in the early Pleistocene, was densely wooded during uppermost Bed I time.     

南非主要金矿集区研究现状及存在问题

南非是世界上金矿石资源量最为丰富的国家,其金矿床主要产于东北部地区,主要有三种类型:1赋存于兰德盆地砾岩型建造中的"兰德"砾岩型金矿床,2产在绿岩带中的绿岩带型金矿床,和3主要与白云岩有关的白云岩型金矿床,以前两种类型为主。"兰德"砾岩型金矿床通常品位高,开采规模最大,目前采矿的深度最大,是南非最重要的矿床类型,其矿床成因长期以来存有争议,主要有两种观点,分别是砂矿模式和热液模式,就目前资料来看笔者等认为其代表了两个不同的矿化阶段;绿岩带型金矿床则以巴伯顿地区为代表,矿床具有规模大、易开采等特征,因此在南非金矿床开采中占有重要位置,其矿床主要赋存于石英脉或剪切带中,矿床成因主要有三种,分别是火山成矿模式、转换滑脱构造模式和构造交叉模式。     

非洲矿业企业社会责任发展现状研究

非洲是矿业投资的热点地区,随着进入非洲的矿业公司数量的增多,企业社会责任的履行日益成为衡量矿业公司优良与否的重要标准之一。受诸多因素的影响,非洲各国之间的企业社会责任发展水平并不相同。本文从认知水平、参与国际倡议的情况、立法情况等主要方面,比较简略地分析和总结非洲的矿业企业社会责任的总体情况,从而提出了未来非洲地区的企业社会责任将呈现出企业社会责任意识将不断提高以及在矿法中规定企业社会责任两大趋势。     

Adaptive capacity in Tanzanian Maasailand: Changing strategies to cope with drought in fragmented landscapes

This study examines the ways in which the adaptive capacity of households to climatic events varies within communities and is mediated by institutional and landscape changes. We present qualitative and quantitative data from two Maasai communities differentially exposed to the devastating drought of 2009 in Northern Tanzania. We show how rangeland fragmentation combined with the decoupling of institutions and landscapes are affecting pastoralists’ ability to cope with drought. Our data highlight that mobility remains a key coping mechanism for pastoralists to avoid cattle loss during a drought. However, mobility is now happening in new ways that require not only large amounts of money but new forms of knowledge and connections outside of customary reciprocity networks. Those least affected by the drought, in terms of cattle lost, were those with large herds who were able to sell some of their cattle and to pay for private access to pastures outside of Maasai areas. Drawing on an entitlements framework, we argue that the new coping mechanisms are not available to all, could be making some households more vulnerable to climate change, and reduce the adaptive capacity of the overall system as reciprocity networks and customary institutions are weakened. As such, we posit that adaptive capacity to climate change is uneven within and across communities, is scale-dependent, and is intimately tied to institutional and landscape changes.     

中南部非洲的地质构造演化与矿产分布规律

中南部非洲优势矿产资源有金、铜、铁、铬、金刚石,锰、铀、镍、钒、钴、铂、锑的储量也居世界前列。主要的矿产集中分布于前寒武纪地体内,中南部非洲前寒武纪地体的形成演化决定了矿产的种类和主要成矿类型。文章总结了中南部非洲的地质构造演化以及其主要矿产资源的成矿类型和分布规律,并划分成矿区带至三级。探讨了部分主要成矿区带的成矿规律:太古宙的矿产主要与花岗-绿岩地体有关;古元古代的矿产主要分布于陆缘盆地,与岩浆作用有关;中元古代的矿产主要与岩浆作用有关,次为沉积变质作用;新元古代的矿产主要与沉积变质作用有关,次为岩浆作用。     

西非 Ｒio Muni 盆地复杂盐拱构造油藏特征

为精细解剖西非油气富集的 Ｒio Muni 盆地复杂盐拱构造带上的油藏特征,为其他相似地区油藏评价提供一定参考,以位于复杂盐拱构造带上的 H 油藏为例,利用地震、测井、录井、钻井和 MDT 测试等资料分析 H 油藏的构造、沉积、储层和油层分布特征及成藏主控因素等。研究得出,H 油藏属于典型的构造岩性复合油藏,为构造背景下的岩性边水油藏,具有多套油水系统,构造高部位发育盐刺穿,储层既有浊积砂岩储层又有滑脱灰岩储层,主要分布于构造的翼部低部位,滑脱断层和盐拱是油气成藏的主控因素。     

Monitoring vegetation dynamics with medium resolution MODIS-EVI time series at sub-regional scale in southern Africa

Currently there is a lack of knowledge on spatio-temporal patterns of land surface dynamics at medium spatial scale in southern Africa, even though this information is essential for better understanding of ecosystem response to climatic variability and human-induced land transformations. In this study, we analysed vegetation dynamics across a large area in southern Africa using the 14-years (2000–2013) of medium spatial resolution (250 m) MODIS-EVI time-series data. Specifically, we investigated temporal changes in the time series of key phenometrics including overall greenness, peak and timing of annual greenness over the monitoring period and study region. In order to specifically capture spatial and per pixel vegetation changes over time, we calculated trends in these phenometrics using a robust trend analysis method. The results showed that interannual vegetation dynamics followed precipitation patterns with clearly differentiated seasonality. The earliest peak greenness during 2000–2013 occurred at the end of January in the year 2000 and the latest peak greenness was observed at the mid of March in 2012. Specifically spatial patterns of long-term vegetation trends allowed mapping areas of (i) decrease or increase in overall greenness, (ii) decrease or increase of peak greenness, and (iii) shifts in timing of occurrence of peak greenness over the 14-year monitoring period. The observed vegetation decline in the study area was mainly attributed to human-induced factors. The obtained information is useful to guide selection of field sites for detailed vegetation studies and land rehabilitation interventions and serve as an input for a range of land surface models.     

Intergenerational relations and the power of the cell phone: Perspectives on young people’s phone usage in sub-Saharan Africa

Cell phones present new forms of sociality and new possibilities of encounter for young people across the globe. Nowhere is this more evident than in sub-Saharan Africa where the scale of usage, even among the very poor, is remarkable. In this paper we reflect on the inter-generational encounters which are embedded in young people’s cell phone interactions, and consider the wider societal implications, not least the potential for associated shifts in the generational balance of power. An intriguing feature of this changing generational nexus is that while many young people’s phone-based interactions, from their mid-teens onwards, are shifting away from the older generation towards friendship networks in their own age cohort, at the same time they are repositioning themselves – or becoming repositioned – as family information hubs, as a consequence of their phone expertise. The paper draws on mixed-methods research with young people aged c. 9–25 years and in-depth interviews with older age-groups in 24 sites (ranging from high density poor urban to remote rural) across Ghana, Malawi and South Africa.