ARTICLES

'Street Dog' Population Control 2001.
This case study discusses various technical, practical, social and ethical issues relating to 'Animal Birth Control' projects. It draws heavily on the author's experience working for a year as a volunteer veterinarian in an ABC project in Jaipur, India. It was written as part of a Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons (UK) 'Certificate in Welfare'.
full case study

The Welfare of Donkeys 1994
This report reviews the published literature on donkey welfare drawing out the main veterinary, husbandry, practical and social issues affecting the welfre of donkeys in the modern world. It was written as part of a dissertation towards an MSc Degree in Applied Animal Behaviour and Welfare at the University of Edinburgh, UK.
full review

Reading The Rains: Local Knowledge and Rainfall Forecasting among Farmers of Burkina Faso 2002.
Roncoli, C, K. Ingram, and P. Kirshen. 2002. “Reading the Rains: Local Knowledge and Rainfall Forecasting among Farmers of Burkina Faso.” Society and Natural Resources, 15, pp. 411-430.
Abstract: This paper describes how farmers of Burkina Faso predict seasonal rainfall and examines how their forecasts relate to those produced by meteorological science. Farmers’ forecasting knowledge encompasses shared and selective repertoires. Most farmers formulate expectations from observation of natural phenomena. Cultural and ritual spiritualists also predict rainfall from divination, visions, and dreams. Rather than positing local and scientific knowledge as self-exclusive, our research shows that farmers operate in multiple cognitive frameworks. Moreover, they are interested in receiving scientific information because they perceive local forecasts as becoming less reliable as a result of increasing climate variability. Some aspects of local forecasting knowledge, such as those stressing the relationship between temperatures, wind, and rainfall, can help explain meteorology-based forecasts. But significant discordance remains between scientific and local forecasts. The former predict total rainfall quantity at a regional scale, whereas the latter stress rainfall duration and distribution, and are more attuned to crop-weather interactions. Local systems of thought stress the relationship between knowledge and social responsibility. This emphasizes the need for scientists to integrate information dissemination projects with efforts to improve farmers’ capacity to respond to forecasts and to cope with suboptimal climate impacts.
full report

CAPE electronic brochure
The Community-based Animal Health and Participatory Epidemiology (CAPE) Unit was established in January 2001 as a component of the Pan African Programme for the Control of Epizootics (PACE). The CAPE Unit focuses in pastoral areas of Horn of Africa countries and works with a wide range of governmental, non governmental and international partners. Their website describes the origins and activities of the unit, and houses various documents categorised as: