Adolescent fertility is a problem that is urgent in developing countries due to rapid population growth rates. To gain a better understanding of adolescent fertility within developing countries a study was undertaken to examine adolescent sexual behavior among teens within a developing country, Zambia. A self-administered questionnaire was given to secondary school going teenage women in Zambia. The sample population consisted of 503 women between the ages of 12 and 19. The survey was analyzed using both regression and univariate analysis of the data. The findings revealed that a high percentage of the teens have initiated sexual activity; yet few (4.2%) have ever used modern contraceptive methods. Suggestions were made for family planning programs that would involve both parents and their children.

Fertility studies have often focused on the behavioral and attitudinal attributes of women with regard to fertility. Until recently, the role of men in fertility studies have often been ignored within much of the literature concerning fertility decisions. The focus of this study will examine if differences exist between husbands and wives with regard to the following four aspects of fertility decisions: spacing of children, methods of family planning, sex preference, and desired family size. The data were collected from 125 households in Kitwe, Zambia. Identical questionnaires were submitted to the husbands and wives during separate interviews. Content analysis was used to analyze the data. Overall, no significant differences exist among husbands and wives with regard to the four aspects of fertility decisions being researched.

This report describes the strategy for the Miombo Network Initiative, developed at an International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme (IGBP) intercore-project workshop in Malawi in December 1995 and further refined during the Land Use and Cover Change (LUCC) Open Science Meeting in January, 1996 and through consultation and review by the LUCC Scientific Steering Committee (SSC). The Miombo Network comprises of an international network of researchers working in concert on a 'community' research agenda developed to address the critical global change research questions for the miombo woodland ecosystems. The network also addresses capacity building and training needs in the Central, Eastern and Southern Africa (SAF) region, of the Global Change System for Analysis Research and Training (START). The research strategy described here provides the basis for a proposed IGBP Terrestrial Transect study of land cover and land use changes in the miombo ecosystems of Central Africa. It therefore resides administratively within the LUCC programme with linkages to other Programme Elements of the IGBP such as Global Change and Terrestrial Ecosystems (GCTE). The report provides the framework for research activities aimed at understanding how land use is affecting land cover and associated ecosystem processes; assessing what contribution these changes are making to global change; …

The Kalahari Transect is proposed as one of IGBPs Transects (see Koch et al. 1995 [IGBP Report 36]). It is located so as to span the gradient between the arid subtropics and the moist tropics in southern Africa, a zone potentially susceptible to changes in the global precipitation pattern. Its focus is the relationships between the structure and function of ecosystems and their large-scale biophysical and human drivers (climate, atmosphere and land use). The Kalahari Transect spans a strong climatic gradient in southern Africa, from the arid south to the humid north, while remaining on a single broad soil type, the deep sands of the Kalahari basin. The vegetation ranges over the length of the transect from shrubland through savannas and woodlands to closed evergreen tropical forest, with land uses ranging from migratory wildlife systems, through pastoralism, subsistence cropping to forestry. The objectives of the Kalahari Transect activity are to: build an active network of regional and international researchers around the issue of ecosystem structure and function in savanna woodlands undergoing climatic and land use change; quantify the current and future role of southern African savanna woodlands in the global carbon, water and trace gas budgets and the degree of …