Climate of the Past Discussions www.clim-past-discuss.net 1814-9340 1814-9359 6 3 2010 10.5194/cpd-6-963-2010 http://www.clim-past-discuss.net/6/963/2010/ http://www.clim-past-discuss.net/6/963/2010/cpd-6-963-2010.html http://www.clim-past-discuss.net/6/963/2010/cpd-6-963-2010.pdf 963 1007 2010-05-26 Palaeoenvironmental perspectives for sustainable development in East Africa R. Marchant rm524@york.ac.uk J. Finch R. Kinyanjui V. Muiruri C. Mumbi P. J. Platts S. Rucina York Institute for Tropical Ecosystem Dynamics (KITE), Environment Department, University of York, Heslington, York, YO10 5DD, UK Department of Environmental and Geographical Science, University of Cape Town, Rondebosch, 7700, South Africa Department of Earth Sciences, Palynology and Palaeobotany Section, National Museums of Kenya, P.O. Box 40658, Nairobi, 00100, Kenya Tanzanian Wildlife Research Institute, P.O. Box 364, Arusha, Tanzania East African ecosystems are shaped by long-term interaction with changing climate, human population, fire and wildlife. There remains today a strong connection between people and ecosystems, a relationship that is being strained by the rapidly developing and growing East African population, and their associated resource needs. Predicted climatic and atmospheric change will further impact on ecosystems culminating in a host of challenges for their management and sustainable development, further compounded by a backdrop of political, land tenure and economic constraints. Given the many direct and indirect benefits that ecosystems provide to surrounding human populations, understanding how they have changed over time and space deserves a special place on the ecosystem management agenda. Such a perspective can only be derived from a palaeoecology, particularly where there is high resolution, both through time and across space. 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