UNE’s environmental studies chair Rick Peterson, Emily Campbell ’13 and Kenyan colleagues publish on gully rehabilitation trusts in western Kenya

Rick Peterson (left of center table) and one of his Kenyan co-authors Peter Nyabua (center table, right) conduct a focus group with Katuk Odeyo Gully Rehabilitation Trust members. Photo taken by Dr. Raphael Kapiyo, the second Kenyan co-author.

UNE Associate Professor Richard Peterson, Ph.D., chair of the Department of Environmental Studies, published an article in the February 2018 issue of the Journal of Rural Studies. Titled "Gully Rehabilitation Trusts: Fighting Soil Erosion through Community Participation in Western Kenya,” the article is co-authored by two of Peterson’s Kenyan colleagues and his former student Emily Campbell ’13 (Environmental Science and Sociology).

The article features the work of the Kenyan NGO the Nyando Development Community Center for Environmental Conservation (NYADEC), assessing its unique model of community collaboration built on "Gully Rehabilitation Trusts.” Trust members work together to restore their farmlands through a variety of soil conservation measures, including the planting of soil-retaining and income-generating species of plants.

The article also discusses the long-term partnership between UNE and NYADEC, which has included study abroad homestays, student-led fundraising, reciprocal educational exchanges and symposium presentations.

Peterson and his colleagues argue the need to not only scale up from the grassroots but to also scale down from the global institution and to scale across both vertical and horizontal lines of institutional collaboration in order to enhance the potency of the cooperative effort that it will take to secure lands and livelihoods affected by soil erosion.

Read the article

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Rick Peterson plants a tree with Matthew Ogutu in his compound. Ogutu’s story of transitioning from professional sand harvester to tree farmer is featured in Peterson's article, recently published by the 'Journal of Rural Studies.'

Rick Peterson (center) and co-author Peter Nyabua (right) with Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organization soil scientist Wilson Aore (left). The vetiver grass in the background is a key species used in preventing soil erosion due to its root system that can extend as far as three meters.