This dissertation research project will support a student in cultural anthropology who will travel to a semi-arid region of Tanzania. The student study the impact of resource conflicts by herders on environmental, mainly range, degradation. In addition the political and economic factors that have impelled herders to migrate will be analyzed as they indirectly cause degradation in the natural environment. The student will use a combination of intensive ethnographic interviewing and observation and surveys with archival research on policy and census information. %%% This sort of research is important because environmental degradation causes deteriorating living conditions for many people in the world. Increased understanding of the factors causing such degradation can help policy makers design procedures that minimize such problems.
