VIDEO TO INTRODUCE THE PROJECT

WHY THIS PROJECT?

Climate change and agricultural encroachment are leading to lifestyle changes for the Maasai. For example, communities are becoming more residential, or moving to areas where they interact with wildlife. This increases vulnerability to Human and Animal African trypanosomiasis.

THE AIM

To develop an ecohealth partnership on vector-borne disease control that encompasses local leadership, contemporary modeling and other approaches to enhance community resilience and to mitigate the impact of environmental change.

THE RESEARCH SITES

The Maasai Steppe ecosystem in northern Tanzania.

RESEARCH APPROACHES

• Modeling temperature and precipitation patterns in East Africa
• Modeling land-use and land cover
• Vector distribution and infection prevalence measurements
• Vector density and location predictions
• Collecting confidential data on the views and responses of Maasai people to VBDs
• Working with Maasai communities to raise awareness of risks, and develop adaptive strategies