UNIVERSITY OF DAR ES SALAAM
INSTITUTE OF RESOURCE ASSESSMENT (IRA)

FASCO CHENGULA

Lecturer, Institute of Resource Assessment
Education:

BSc (UDSM, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania), MSc (UDSM, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania), PhD (London)

Teaching:

Specialised areas of teaching

Climate Change Adaptation (Vulnerability, Resilience and Governance), Weather and Climate Services, Natural Resource Management and Environmental Anthropology.

Research:

Research interests

Utilizing Anthropological and Social Science research approaches to understand the complex relationships between humans and their environments particularly how Societies shape (and are shaped by) the environments they live in (e.g., Climate Change and biophysical/ecosystems resource,) and their implications on ethical, inclusive, and sustainable socio-economic growth and ecological integrity.

Projects:

Recent projects

  1. Climate change Research for Action and Transformative Education for Green Africa (CREATE-GREENAFRICA), a capacity building mobility project.
  2. “Enhancing resilience of Tanzanian coastal communities: Towards sustainable fisheries and a healthy marine environment (ECOFISH)” (Starts on 1st April 2024 to March 2029 funded by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark- through the Danish International Development Agency and Danish International Development Assistance-DANIDA)
  3. LICCI Project (Co-Researcher) – Local Indicators of Climate Change Impacts: the contribution of local knowledge to climate change research –a European Research Council (ERC) funded project hosted at University of Barcelona (2018-2023). Partnering (representing Tanzania) with other 40 researchers worldwide The project aims to bring indigenous and local knowledge to climate change research by providing data on local perceptions of climate change impacts on climatic (e.g. rainfall patterns change), physical (e.g sea level rise), biological (e.g., phenological changes), and socioeconomic systems (livelihoods, cultural and demographic patterns change) that determine and influence the socio economic and demographic distribution of local climate change impacts indicators at both local and Global scale https://licci.eu/Fasco-I-Chengula/
  4. “Rising from the Depths” protecting and utilizing marine cultural heritage of East Africa for Sustainable development of coastal communities. Rising from the Depths Network aims to identify how the tangible submerged and coastal Marine Cultural Heritage (MCH) of Kenya, Tanzania, Mozambique and Madagascar, and its associated intangible aspects can stimulate ethical, inclusive, and sustainable economic growth in the region, of benefit to building social cohesion and reducing poverty. https://risingfromthedepths.com/fasco-i-chengula/

Publications:

Recent publications

Reyes-García, V., García-del-Amo, D., Álvarez-Fernández, S.,  Benyei,P,…Chengula,F.,  et al. Indigenous Peoples and local communities report ongoing and widespread climate change impacts on local social-ecological systems. Commun Earth Environ 5, 29 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-023-01164-y

Eric D. Galbraitha, Christopher Barrington- Leighd, Sara Miñarroa, Santiago Álvarez- Fernándeza, Emmanuel M. N. A. N. Attohf, Petra Benyeia, Laura Calvet- Mira, Rosario Carmonaj, Rumbidzayi Chakauyak, Zhuo Chenl, Fasco Chengula, et al., (2024). High life satisfaction reported among small- scale societies with low incomes, PNAS  2024 Vol. 121 No. 7 e2311703121, https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2311703121

Liwenga, E.T., Ndaki, P., Chengula, F. and Kalokola, R. (2019) Coastal Communities’ Perceptions on Climate Change Impacts and Implications for Adaptation Strategies in Mtwara, Southern Tanzania. In: Yanda, P.Z., Bryceson, I., Mwevura, H.and Mung’ong’o, C.G.(Eds.) Climate Change and Coastal Resources in Tanzania Studies on Socio-Ecological Systems’ Vulnerability, Resilience and Governance, © Springer Nature Switzerland

Chengula F, Nyambo B (2017). Dissemination of agricultural weather forecasts under weather and climate variability: a case of the smallholder farmers in Moshi rural District, Tanzania. International Journal of Agricultural Education and Extension, 3(1): 048-057.

Chengula F, Nyambo B (2016). The significance of indigenous weather forecast knowledge and practices under weather variability and climate change: a case study of smallholder farmers on the slopes of Mount Kilimanjaro. International Journal of Agricultural Education and Extension, 2(2): 031-043.