Papers by Johanna Hohenthal
Diaspora, Indigenous, and Minority Education, Jan 3, 2022
Earth Surface Processes and Landforms, Mar 18, 2011
The contribution of bioturbation to downslope soil transport is significant in many situations, p... more The contribution of bioturbation to downslope soil transport is significant in many situations, particularly in the context of soil formation, erosion and creep. This study explored the direct flux of soil caused by Aphaenogaster ant mounding, vertebrate scraping and tree‐throw on a wildfire‐affected hillslope in south‐east Australia. This included the development of methods previously applied to Californian gopher bioturbation, and an evaluation of methods for estimating the volume of soil displaced by tree‐throw events. All three bioturbation types resulted in a net downslope flux, but any influence of hillslope angle on flux rates appeared to be overshadowed by environmental controls over the spatial extent of bioturbation. As a result, the highest flux rates occurred on the footslope and lower slope. The overall contribution of vertebrate scraping (57.0 ± 89.4 g m−1 yr−1) exceeded that of ant mounding (36.4 ± 66.0 g m−1 yr−1), although mean rates were subject to considerable uncertainty. Tree‐throw events, which individually cause major disturbance, were limited in their importance by their scarcity relative to faunalturbation. However, tree‐throw might be the dominant mechanism of biotic soil flux on the mid‐slope provided that it occurs at a frequency of at least 2–3 events ha−1 yr−1. Although direct biotic soil flux appears to be geomorphologically significant on this hillslope, such transport processes are probably subordinate to other impacts of bioturbation at this site such as the enhancement of infiltration following wildfire. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Global sustainability, Apr 24, 2023
The industrial food system is widely considered to be unsustainable due to its undesired climate ... more The industrial food system is widely considered to be unsustainable due to its undesired climate and negative health effects. One proposed alternative to these problems is a more local system of food provisioning. This means involving individuals, households, and communities in growing and acquiring edibles, like vegetables and other food stuff. This study based on literature review found that food self-provisioning practitioners are mainly driven by health concerns and less by reasoning linked to the environment, like climate change adaptation and mitigation. We propose that the potential of food self-provisioning is underutilized in developing the sustainability of the food system.
Globalizations, Feb 28, 2022
Global Sustainability
Non-technical summary The industrial food system is widely considered to be unsustainable due to ... more Non-technical summary The industrial food system is widely considered to be unsustainable due to its undesired climate and health effects. One proposed alternative to these problems is a more local system of food provisioning. This means involving individuals, households, and communities in growing and acquiring edibles, like vegetables and other food stuff. This study based on a literature review found that food self-provisioning practitioners are mainly driven by health concerns and less by reasoning linked to the environment, like climate change adaptation and mitigation. We propose that the potential of food self-provisioning is underutilised in developing the sustainability of food systems. Technical summary In this article, we review and analyse the literature and concept of ‘food self-provisioning’ in order to understand its potential as a response to contemporary challenges. The focus of the study is on investigating the meanings related to environmental problems, particular...
Diaspora, Indigenous, and Minority Education, 2022
Handbook of Drought and Water Scarcity, 2017
Her PhD research focuses on Development Geography, human-environment interactions, local ecologic... more Her PhD research focuses on Development Geography, human-environment interactions, local ecological knowledge, participatory methods, migration and political ecology of water.
Mobilities, 2021
Indigenous people of Ecuador have suffered for a long time from marginalisation in access to qual... more Indigenous people of Ecuador have suffered for a long time from marginalisation in access to quality education, which for them means culturally and ecologically pertinent education close to their own communities. During the past decade, education reform and closure of small rural schools worsened the spatial accessibility of schooling and increased the eco-cultural distance of education from the students' lives. These two elements-spatial and eco-cultural representation-are constitutive of territorial rights claimed by Indigenous people. In this study, we aim to articulate the relationship between access to eco-culturally pertinent education, and mobility and territorial justice. Based on the review of studies on education reform, fieldwork in Amazonia in 2018-2019, and remote conversations in 2020, we identified and analysed three eventseducation reform, Indigenous protests and the Covid-19 pandemic, which have disrupted access to education within Indigenous territories. These turbulent events make visible territorial and mobility injustices, including the dismissal of Indigenous visions of education, the strategic weakening of Indigenous territorial defence, and the lack of state support for access to education in remote areas. The analysis advocates for the recognition of mobility and territoriality as part of the social justice agenda in quality education.
The Professional Geographer, 2016
Participation of local people is often neglected in natural resource management, which leads to f... more Participation of local people is often neglected in natural resource management, which leads to failure to understand the social aspects and historical construction of environmental problems. Participatory mapping can enhance the communication of local spatial knowledge for management processes and challenge the official maps and other spatial representations produced by state authorities and scientists. In this study, we analyze what kind of social meanings can be revealed through a multimethod participatory mapping process focusing on water resources in Taita Hills, Kenya. The participatory mapping clearly complicates the simplified image of the physical science mappings, typically depicting natural water supply, by addressing the impacts of contamination, inadequate infrastructure, poverty, distance to the sources, and restrictions in their uses on people's access to water. Moreover, this shared exercise is able to trigger discussion on issues that cannot always be localized but still contribute to place making. Local historical accounts reveal the social and political drivers of the current water-related problems, making explicit the political ecology dynamics in the area.
International Journal of Biodiversity Science, Ecosystem Services & Management, 2015
Fresh water provisioning is a crucial ecosystem service (ES) in the agrarian societies of East Af... more Fresh water provisioning is a crucial ecosystem service (ES) in the agrarian societies of East Africa. Water resources are highly dependent on several other ES such as the water retention capacity of vegetation and the purification properties of soil. However, ES are constantly challenged by dynamic changes within water-land-vegetation-human relations. Environmental policies usually address immediate anthropic pressures but overlook multiple historical stressors, or 'drivers'. This article presents a local assessment of changes in the water-related ES in the Taita Hills, Kenya, applying the Drivers, Pressures, Actions, State, Ecosystem services, Responses (DPASER) model, adapted from the Drivers, Pressures, State, Impacts, Responses (DPSIR) framework, boosted with ecosystem services and human actions and combined into a historical perspective. A review of the legislation, interviews, participatory mapping, timelines and focus group discussions were used in data gathering. The results indicate that land demarcation in the 1960s and consequent land privatization have been the main drivers of change in water-related ES, since these determined the prioritization of agricultural production over conservation of forests, wetlands and rivers. This case study shows that the degradation of water-related ES is strongly linked to historical development of land ownership and loss of commonality, and suggests enhancement of inter-sectoral management.
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During recent decades, the use of high-resolution light detection and ranging altimetry (LiDAR) d... more During recent decades, the use of high-resolution light detection and ranging altimetry (LiDAR) data in fluvial studies has rapidly increased. Airborne laser scanning (ALS) can be used to extensively map riverine topo-graphy. Although airborne blue/green LiDAR can also be utilized for the mapping of river bathymetry, the accuracy levels achieved are not as good as those of terrain elevation measurements. Moreover, airborne bathymetric LiDAR is not yet suitable for mapping shallow water areas. More detailed topographical data may be obtained by fixed-position terrestrial laser scanning (TLS) or mobile terrestrial laser scanning (MLS). One of the newest applications of MLS approaches involves a boat/cart-based mobile mapping sys-tem (BoMMS/CartMMS). This set-up includes laser scanning and imaging from a boat moving along a river course and may be used to expand the spatial extent of terrestrial scanning. Detailed digital terrain models (DTMs) derived from LiDAR data can be used to imp...
Tree nursery Forestry Mambisi Dam Mwasineyi water project Lower Mwatate WRUA Water Water Water Up... more Tree nursery Forestry Mambisi Dam Mwasineyi water project Lower Mwatate WRUA Water Water Water Upper Mwatate WRUA TTWF Water Conservation Note: The participants of the Workshop held in 2014 included all the participants from the 2013 workshops as well as representatives from relevant government departments, the county government and local NGOs.
Water scarcity and drought are often discussed under the lenses of natural and physical sciences.... more Water scarcity and drought are often discussed under the lenses of natural and physical sciences. But simply understanding climatic drivers is not enough to address hazards that are intertwined with history, people, society, and geography. Neither can the role humans play in environmental degradation be limited to the study of human impacts. Our world is formed by social, economic, and political structures that are tied to physical space and ecological processes in complex ways. In places where socially transformative actions are needed to improve water availability and access to safe sources, researchers and policymakers need to engage with social sciences, human geography, political ecology and environmental histories. These scholarly lines of inquiry can reveal tensions over resources and territories that deepen critical environmental conditions and interfere with the traditional local systems that were once resilient to conditions of water scarcity and recurrent droughts. While mostly under-represented in policy making, applied research, and funding, their contributions deserve wider exposure and legitimacy.
Mobilities
Indigenous people of Ecuador have suffered for a long time from marginalisation in access to qual... more Indigenous people of Ecuador have suffered for a long time from marginalisation in access to quality education, which for them means culturally and ecologically pertinent education close to their own communities. During the past decade, education reform and closure of small rural schools worsened the spatial accessibility of schooling and increased the eco-cultural distance of education from the students' lives. These two elements-spatial and eco-cultural representation-are constitutive of territorial rights claimed by Indigenous people. In this study, we aim to articulate the relationship between access to eco-culturally pertinent education, and mobility and territorial justice. Based on the review of studies on education reform, fieldwork in Amazonia in 2018-2019, and remote conversations in 2020, we identified and analysed three eventseducation reform, Indigenous protests and the Covid-19 pandemic, which have disrupted access to education within Indigenous territories. These turbulent events make visible territorial and mobility injustices, including the dismissal of Indigenous visions of education, the strategic weakening of Indigenous territorial defence, and the lack of state support for access to education in remote areas. The analysis advocates for the recognition of mobility and territoriality as part of the social justice agenda in quality education.
Journal of Political Ecology, Feb 13, 2018
Environmental resource management policies worldwide have long insisted on the need to involve lo... more Environmental resource management policies worldwide have long insisted on the need to involve local communities and their diverse ecological knowledges in management planning and decision-making. In Sub-Saharan post-colonial countries, however, formal resource management is still largely dominated by bureaucratic governance regimes that date back to colonial power structures and that rely mainly on professional or formal knowledge. In this study, we use a political ecology approach to analyze disputes over eucalyptus plantations in the Taita Hills, Kenya. The approach recognizes the plurality of socially constructed and powerladen perceptions of environmental resources. We found that local people regard eucalyptus plantations not only as a threat to local water resources but they also highlight historical injustices and the loss of control over, and cultural relationships to their land. Bureaucratic resource management institutions, however, support the planting of eucalyptus to meet national demands for commercial forestry. Management officials also plead a lack of "valid" evidence for the negative impacts of eucalyptus on local water resources, diverting attention away from the formal environmental governance system which has unequal sharing of benefits, unclear policies, and internal incoherence. Recognition of historically rooted asymmetries of knowledge and power provides a step towards social transformation, ending a long-standing reproduction of subalternity, and promoting environmental justice and pluralism in decision-making.
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Papers by Johanna Hohenthal
Les politiques de gestion des ressources environnementales dans le monde insistent depuis longtemps sur la nécessité d'impliquer les communautés locales et leurs diverses connaissances écologiques dans la planification, l'aménagement et la prise de décisions. Dans les pays post-coloniaux subsahariens, cependant, la gestion formelle des ressources est encore largement dominée par des régimes de gouvernance bureaucratique qui remontent aux structures de pouvoir coloniales et qui reposent principalement sur des connaissances professionnelles ou formelles. Dans cette étude, on propose une approche d'écologie politique pour l'analyse des disputes sur les plantations d'eucalyptus dans les collines de Taita au Kenya. L'approche reconnaît la pluralité des perceptions sur les ressources environnementales en tant que socialement construites et chargées des relations de pouvoir. On a constaté que pas seulement les populations locales considèrent les plantations d'eucalyptus comme une menace pour les ressources en eau locales, mais aussi qu'elles mettent en évidence les injustices historiques et la perte de contrôle et de relations culturelles avec leurs terres. Cependant, les institutions de gestion des ressources bureaucratiques soutiennent les plantations d'eucalyptus pour répondre aux demandes nationales de foresterie commerciale. En outre, ils invoquent l'absence de preuves «valables» des impacts négatifs de l'eucalyptus sur les ressources en eau locales, détournant l'attention du système officiel de gouvernance environnementale qui partage inégalement les avantages et, au même temps, agit par des politiques peu claires et incohérentes. Par contre, la reconnaissance des asymétries historiquement enracinées du savoir et du pouvoir constituerait un pas en avant vers la transformation sociale, mettant fin à une reproduction de la subalternité de longue date et promouvant la justice environnementale et le pluralisme dans la prise de décisions.
Las políticas de gestión de recursos ambientales en todo el mundo han insistido durante mucho tiempo en la necesidad de involucrar a las comunidades locales y sus diversos conocimientos ecológicos en la planificación de la gestión y la toma de decisiones. Sin embargo, en países poscoloniales subsaharianos, la gestión formal de los recursos aún está dominada en gran medida por regímenes burocráticos de gobernanza que se remontan a las estructuras de poder coloniales y que se basan principalmente en el conocimiento profesional o formal. En este estudio, se propone un enfoque de ecología política para analizar disputas sobre plantaciones de eucalipto en las colinas de Taita en Kenia. El enfoque reconoce la pluralidad de las percepciones de los recursos ambientales como socialmente construidas y cargadas de relaciones de poder. Se ha observado que la gente local no solamente considera las plantaciones de eucalipto como una amenaza para los recursos hídricos locales, sino que también destacan las injusticias históricas y la pérdida de control y las relaciones culturales con sus tierras. Sin embargo, las instituciones burocráticas de gestión de recursos apoyan las plantaciones de eucaliptos para satisfacer las demandas nacionales de silvicultura comercial. Además, los funcionarios de gestión también aducen la falta de pruebas "válidas" de los impactos negativos de los eucaliptos en los recursos hídricos locales, desviando la atención del sistema formal de gobernanza ambiental que tiene una repartición desigual de beneficios y, al mismo tiempo, mantiene políticas poco claras e incoherencias internas. Por el contrario, el reconocimiento de las asimetrías de conocimiento y poder históricamente enraizadas proporciona un paso hacia la transformación social, poniendo fin a una prolongada reproducción de la subalternidad y promoviendo la justicia ambiental y el pluralismo en la toma de decisiones.