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This study investigates the history and political economy of farmer-herder conflicts using field surveys to advance the theoretical understanding of the linkages between agro-pastoralism and farmer-herder conflicts in Northwest Cameroon (NWC). Although the political ecological factors of environmental change and irrational land use policies seem to be the main drivers of farmer-herder conflicts, economic interests of the colonial and postcolonial administrations of Cameroon greatly contributed to the rise and persistence of farmer-herder conflicts in NWC. Using expert and indigenous agro-ecological knowledge, this study identified alternative farmer-herder conflict management strategies, providing a platform for sustainable agro-pastoral development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study used the Water Quality Analysis Simulation Program (WASP) to simulate nutrients, dissolved oxygen (DO), and chlorophyll-a dynamics in the Shenandoah River basin and performed an uncertainty analysis to examine the complexity of these variables in water quality estimation and their influence on the Shenandoah River. Significant progress has been made; however, nutrient loads emitted into the Shenandoah River from nonpoint sources remain high. Modeling of three points on the Shenandoah River in Virginia and West Virginia provides an ideal case study since the river is classified by the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality as being impaired. The results of a sensitivity test show that model error decreases with increasing model complexity and sensitivity. The model predicted DO values that tended to be close to the measured data, while total nitrogen and phosphorus tended to be overemphasized. Our results examine the importance of temperature, stream flow, and velocity in influencing water quality between seasons and levels on the different sections of the watershed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]