Before 1970, Oman’s economy was largely dependent on a workforce employed in agriculture, and the per capita income was very low (159 OMR = £261.8). All this changed dramatically as His Majesty Sultan Qaboos bin Said, on July 23, 1970, became the Sultan of Oman. The per capita income rose to 5648.9 OMR (£9,118) in 2007 (MONE, 2008). This
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coincided with commercial exploitation of oil which brought the real start of development planning in the early seventies. Since then, Oman has witnessed diverse increases in the Gross Domestic Product and in per capita income. The notable economic and social achievements in the period are reflected in the development of modern infrastructure, an improved education system, improved basic health provision, and rising living standards of the Omanis (MNE, 2008). This is also the case in the AAR, where all the residents in the region now have access to the government’s basic services (education, health, housing, electricity, drinking water, roads, social insurance, and communications).
As far as education is concerned, Table 3.1 illustrates the number of schools, teachers, and students in the AAR in the school year 2009 – 2010. Schools are located in three villages only, and this could lead to non-enrolment of six-year-old children because of the scattering of the schools, the travelling distance, and the difficulty in making transitions to those circumstances at that age (Al-Azri, 2006). However, student class size in different education stages (basic education and secondary school) did not exceed the standard average in the region (30 students in each class), while the students per teacher ratio does not exceed the standard average of the region (16 students per teacher) (MOE, 2009).
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Table 3.1 The number of schools, teachers, and students in the AAR in the school year 2009 – 2010.
Name of
Source: Ministry of Education, 2009, Section of Statistics, unpublished data.
Health services provide one hospital in Saih Qeteneh with a capacity of 24 beds divided into four sections: for men, for children, for women, and for childbirth. This means that there are six beds in each section, plus an equipped childbirth section. A number of outpatient clinics, such as the Clinic of Internal Medicine, the Diabetes Clinic, and the Children’s Clinic, and a diagnostic X-ray and laboratory, are also available to patients. The hospital operates to provide all basic health services to all residents in the region, offering free treatment, medicines, and immunization.
The government is keen to equip the region with infrastructure, such as road networks (Figure 3.17), drinking water networks (Figure 3.18), and telecommunications (Figure 3.19).
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Figure 3.17 The road network linking residential neighbourhoods in the AAR.
Figure 3.18 Water tank at a high altitude at Saiq in the AAR.
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Figure 3.19 Telecommunications tower and the new hotel (Sahab) overlooking a spectacular view of the agricultural terraces at Al-Shuraijeh in the AAR.
The Director General of the Directorate General of Agriculture and Animal Wealth in Al-Dakhiliyah Governorate described the agricultural development programmes provided by the Department of Agriculture in the AAR:
‘‘The government has many programmes to enhance the cultivation methods and production such as: agricultural mechanization programs through which the government provide the farmer with farm tractor/tiller (Figure 3.20) that suited to the nature of the region, as well as pruning shears and machines of picking fruit; plant protection programs to control diseases and pests of trees in a timely and appropriate manner to reduce the damage of those crops; Provide veterinary services (Figure 3.20) for animals through veterinary treatments and prevention programs for diseases that affect animals and through the implementation of national immunization project for livestock; and provide agricultural extension programs for the sectors of plant and animal production, these programmes aim at educating farmers and breeders to follow the modern farming and livestock methods that lead to maximizing the income from this sector’’.
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The Social Development Department is making appropriate efforts for the advancement of rural women in the region, making them aware of their roles, as they live in accelerated changes in life patterns, in the family, in society, and in the nation. Along with literacy classes run by the department, it offers several workshops in order to maximize women’s time to contribute in raising the family income. There are workshops held in sewing, embroidery, weaving and distilling aromatic flowers and herbs, in cooperation with the Omani Women's Association and the Centre of Aromatic Plants Distillation (Figure 3.21).
Figure 3.20 The agricultural development programmes provided by the Department of Agriculture in the AAR.
Source: (Al-Riyami, 2006).
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Figure 3.21 A workshop on distilling aromatic herbs for rural women in the AAR.
Source: the Social Development Department in the AAR.
Today, notwithstanding the successes achieved for the development of the region, unfortunately, this was at the expense of success in maintaining the region’s environment and its natural resources. Chapter 5 will detail the environmental situation and the factors that positively or negatively influence the environmental changes in the AAR.
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Methodology
4.1 Introduction.
The methodology detailed below is aimed at addressing the key research questions outlined in chapter 1. These questions target the nature of sustainable natural and environmental resources management practices in AAR by examining the attitudes and practices of both local people and government officials.
Contemporary geographers study a variety of topics, such as geographical locations (places), people, bodies, discourses, and fragmented landscapes. The interlocking or intertwining of subjects raises different research questions that geographers have dealt with in different ways to bring together both quantitative and qualitative methods and approaches. Increasingly, qualitative approaches have become more common in terms of human environments, individual experiences, and social processes (Graham, 2005; Winchester, 2008). Debate surrounding the methodology of doing research has existed for a long time (Kitchin and Tate, 2000) and is mainly aimed at creating a homogeneous set of rules and procedures to investigate certain phenomena or situations. Geographers often resort to multi-method approaches to fill the gaps between qualitative and quantitative methods and to avoid any defects that may exist in each. On one hand, the personality and characteristics of the respondents (memory, experience, knowledge and attitude) can affect the acquired data and there is no guarantee that respondents will deliver their opinions and convictions accurately.
On the other, detachment, objectivity, and a statistical approach can often ignore important
“soft”, more subjective, data. Qualitative researchers, in particular, tend to use multi-method
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approaches as instruments to improve the internal validity of their research (Meijer et al, 2002). As the interpretation of the data secured through such methods is open to personal bias and misunderstanding between the researcher and the (written or spoken) discourse (Phillip, 1998), using a multi-method approach avoids some of the defects of qualitative methods, which suffer from accusations of subjectivity and small samples. This should limit researcher-bias in data collection, with sources or subjects may being equally credible.
Therefore, this study uses the multi-method approach to achieve the research aims.