This article critically examines engagements of village leaders in an NGO-facilitated participatory conservation program in eastern Indonesia. It explores how the program's implementation strengthened leadership legitimacy of a dominant customary social group. Customary leaders ensured distribution according to particular norms, and in organizing village governance upheld specific interests and...

Of all the naturally occurring groundwater contaminants, arsenic is by far the most toxic. Any large-scale treatment strategy to remove arsenic from groundwater must take into consideration safe containment of the arsenic removed with no adverse ecological impact. Currently, 175 well-head communitybased arsenic removal units are in operation in remote villages of the Indian subcontinent. Approx...

A combined weekly low dosage and short term standard dose treatment with diethylcarbamazine (DEC) to control Timorian filariasis is described. Weekly low dosage DEC was distributed by the village chief to all villagers for 6 months. The dosage of DEC was 50 mg weekly for group A, and 100 mg for group B. Children below 10 years of age received half the adult dose. Following the initial phase of ...

Local health determinants, perceived by a local community in Mueang District, Khon Kaen Province, were explored using a qualitative approach during November 2006. Health determinants could be classified into three categories: environmental, individual and family, and institutional factors. Community perspectives on health determinants included flooding, habits of lottery buying, fluctuation of ...

We performed a survey in a rural village, in Nam Som District, Udon Thani Province, northeastern Thailand, focusing on intestinal parasitic infections and possible related personal factors. From a survey of the 178 villagers, we found the intestinal parasitic infection rate equal to 26.4% (47 cases). Further factor analysis was performed to find whether factors were related to the intestinal pa...

This report discusses the health and socioeconomic problems that have recently emerged in the Bangladesh countryside because of arsenic contamination of the groundwater. A survey found that men in rural households are generally found to be more susceptible to arsenicosis than women. The survey also indicated that villagers with lower annual income are more likely to experience arsenicosis. Abou...

Competitive behavior has often been presented as the ultimate engine of economic, technological, and scientific progress. Since all such progress is likely to imply some measure of social benefit, competition has been widely praised in modern western culture. However, competition can have very negative effects on social wellbeing. An early example is known as the "tragedy of the commons." The c...

Medicinal plants are indicators of indigenous knowledge in the context of political volatility and sociocultural and ecological change in the Pamir Mountains of Afghanistan and Tajikistan. Medicinal plants are the primary health care option in this region of Central Asia. The main objective of this paper is to demonstrate that medicinal plants contribute to health security and sovereignty in a ...