University of Canterbury

Two University of Canterbury masters students will be conducting research in developing countries this semester thanks to funding from New Zealand's International Aid and Development Agency NZAID.

Anthropology student Fraser Macdonald and human geography student Rewa Tomlinson were awarded NZAID postgraduate field research awards worth $3500 each in the 2005/2006 funding round.

Rewa headed this month to Matagalpa, Nicaragua to conduct field research analysing post disaster rehabilitation and transformation in the community following the devastation left by Hurricane Mitch.

Fraser will travel next month to eastern Nigeria where he will spend three months investigating land use amongst the Mambila and Fulani peoples of the Ngel Nyaki Forest Reserve and the implications of this use for conservation management.

A base for his activities will be UC's newest research station in Ngel Nyaki and Fraser's fieldwork will contribute to the wider Nigerian Montane Forest Project (NMFP) led by Dr Hazel Chapman (Biological Sciences).

The aim of the NMFP studies is to better understand the forest and in turn to develop strategies for long-term sustainable management of Nigeria's mountainous forest regions.

Fraser said that the Ngel Nyaki forest was an important resource in the everyday life of a number of communities and that the conservation management programme would seek to restrict these peoples' use of the forest whilst at the same time providing alternative means of livelihood.

“There needs to be an informed discussion between the project workers and the local people about sustainable land use. For this to happen someone needs to get in there and gain a lot of information on how these communities use the forest as an economic resource as well as how they conceive of it within an ideological frame,” Fraser said.

“We also want to find out what these communities think about the project and how they feel about the prospect of any change to their way of life.”

Fraser's primary research method will be participant-observation. He will live among three village communities – Yelwa, Ndongo Ngishi and Dujere – and will observe and describe their everyday activities, especially as these relate to use of the forest reserve.

He will also conduct 20 to 30 semi-structured interviews with the help of a local field assistant acting as translator.

Fraser said the NZAID scholarship would cover his international airfares and domestic flights within Nigeria.

“It wouldn't have been possible for me to undertake field research overseas otherwise. The award brings a lot of opportunites that weren't possible well within your grasp.”

Having only ever travelled to Australia a few times Fraser is expecting Nigeria to offer “an eye-opening experience”.

“After being an anthropology student and reading about remote communities for years and years and then finally getting an opportunity to go and conduct my own field work is astounding.”

For further information please contact:
Maria De Cort
Communications Officer
Communications & Development
University of Canterbury
Tel: +64-3-364 2072
Mob: +64-27-224 5104
maria.decort@canterbury.ac.nz