Research interests:
Local/traditional ecological knowledge; ethno-climatology/ethno-meteorology; ethnography; environmental anthropology; Climate change: impacts (vulnerability), adaptation (resilience); rural livelihoods; and natural resources management and use.
Biography:
Born and bred in Southern Highlands of Tanzania, Fasco completed his first degree in Geography and Environmental Studies and an M.Sc degree in Climate Change and Sustainable Development from the University of Dar es Salaam. As part of his postgraduate research career based at the International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology (Icipe) in Nairobi Kenya, Fasco carried out his Masters research focusing on dissemination practices of traditional knowledge of weather forecasting on the slopes of Mt Kilimanjaro and Taita Hills in Tanzania and Kenya respectively. He then joined the Academic faculty at the Institute of Resource Assessment (IRA), University of Dar Es Salaam (Tanzania) teaching and researching in the field of Climate change impacts and adaptation; rural livelihoods; and natural resource management.
Currently, Fasco is a PhD student at the University of Roehampton, London United Kingdom. His research topic titled “Knowing weather and climate, strengthening rural livelihoods: the role of Indigenous knowledge weather and climate in agro-fishing communities in coastal Tanzania”. The research is carried out in Mafia Island archipelago in Tanzania, East Africa. This study is being conducted at a time when Local and Indigenous Knowledge pedestal in weather and climate is lacking in the scientific literature, and highly needed to inform international policy processes to curb environmental and climate change challenges. The research is concordant with LICCI project that strives to deepen our understandings of perceived climate change impacts as understood and perceived by local and indigenous communities, and endeavor to bring their knowledge into policy-making processes and influence international climate change negotiations by intergovernmental bodies such as the IPCC and UNFCCC.