1.4.3. RESEARCH QUESTIONS
To structure the data collection, the following research
questions were formulated:
1. What are the major changes occurred in Gishwati?
2. To which extent has Gishwati been changed and what are the
driving forces behind? ? These two questions concern the main changes, their
location and their corresponding causes.
3. What are the tremendous socio-economic
effects/consequences of those changes to the environment including local
population?
4. How these changes have affected the livelihoods of local
population?
? These questions relate to outcomes of those land use changes
on the environment and local population.
5. What are the possible solutions to those changes with
regard to the forest sustainability and improved local livelihoods of
population?
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I.5. RESEARCH HYPOTHESES
The following hypotheses will be tested:
? Settlement development in Gishwati forest was the worst
land use on the population around.
? Local population are being affected by soil erosion and
flooding resulting from the forest changes.
? The integration of socio-economic, educational and
environmental benefits to the human population around is necessary for double
sustainability of Gishwati and human?s livelihoods.
I.6. SCOPE OF THE STUDY
This research is limited to Gishwati forest. And the focus is
put on the changes of Gishwati forest land use from 1970s up to now because it
is during this time that many adverse changes have occurred and impacted the
forest and the surrounding population.
I.7. ORGANIZATION OF THE STUDY
This research is organized under four chapters and the
following sections outline each chapter. Chapter one outlines the general
background information on the land use change that natural forests encountered
as a result of poor or absent management. This includes objectives and
hypotheses pertaining to the study and the key guiding research questions were
set out in order to get answers that assist to reach the main objective of the
research. Research motivation and limitation also are included in this
chapter.
The second Chapter gives an overview of the study area and
details for the methods and materials by which the study was conducted. It
presents also details on the instrumentation, data collection methodology and
analysis techniques, which were used in the whole process. The chapter ends up
by highlighting limitations that were encountered in the research.
The third chapter presents and discusses the detailed results
of the research. Data from the survey questionnaires were computerized,
tabulated and analyzed with the aid of Microsoft Excel, Microsoft word and
statistical packages for social sciences (SPSS). Descriptive statistics such as
mean and percent distributions were generated to summarize the property of the
dataset.
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Data processing using GIS software have been also carried out
for data analysis and presentation in order to generate maps. The major
patterns in the observations, relationships, trends and generalizations among
the results have been shown. Also some information on the hypotheses test has
been provided.
The last chapter, chapter four highlights the general
conclusion derived from the results and some recommendations or actions to be
taken as a solution from what were found in the research to improve the
protection and management of natural resources specifically Gishwati forest.
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CHAPTER TWO: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
This chapter describes how the study was carried out. It
therefore presents the research design, sources of data, various data
collection techniques and methods, data processing and analysis appropriate to
this research.
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