Prospects of Cattle Farming in an Era of Land Degradation-Perceptions of the Farmers in the Okakarara Communal Area, Namibia

Livestock farming plays an important role in many rural people s’ livelihoods around the globe. The sector is, however, faced with numerous challenges, particularly land degradation. Namibia, one of the driest countries in the world, is no exception to land degradation challenges, mostly among communal rangeland areas. Several studies and interventions on land degradation have been conducted in the country, however, with limited or no information on farmers\u27 perceptions. Although land degradation may be a physical process, understanding its causes, process, indicators, and effects from the own users’ is indispensable. Here, we assessed farmers\u27 perception in the eastern part of Namibia, Okakarara communal area. We conducted detailed interviews with 41 livestock farming households, selected through purposive sampling, from four villages. We documented how farmers perceive cattle farming in their areas amid land degradation and the interventions that they intend to make to sustain their livelihood in the future. Amongst others, farmers perceive livestock farming to be costly, relying mainly on procured supplements (97%), rangelands will deteriorate further due to increasing droughts (85%) and the land will become more bush encroached. To overcome future farming uncertainties, over 70% of the farmers state that they aim to diversify farming practices e.g. engaging in crop farming, use encroacher bushes to feed livestock (51%), planting grasses and preserving grasses for drought conditions (37%) as other key interventions to sustain livelihoods. Interestingly, removing the encroached bushes (de-bushing) was only mentioned by few farmers (10 %) as an intervention to improve rangelands. This is despite that the technique has lately gained momentum in the country as one of the solutions to overcome rangeland degradation. This could imply, farmers, are not yet made aware of the de-bushing techniques. The study suggests future community programs such as on-farm range research and development should consider farmers\u27 views instead of side lining them

An Integrated Framework to Study Ecological Tipping Points in Social-Ecological Systems

Sudden regime shifts or tipping points pose a major threat to various ecosystems and people\u27s livelihoods worldwide. However, tipping points are still hard to predict and often occur without warning. To avoid dramatic social-ecological consequences, it is crucial to understand tipping point behaviour and to identify early warning indicators. Previous studies have hardly implemented an integrated social-ecological approach, which has led to a fragmented understanding and oversimplification of tipping point phenomena. Against this background, we present a systemic research framework that harmonizes ecological and social perspectives to gain a mechanistic understanding of tipping point behaviour. We utilize a social-ecological systems (SES) approach to identify drivers, consequences, and feasible preventive strategies. Our proposed framework consists of a retrospective, a comparative and a prospective perspective; each of them utilizes interdisciplinary studies in both sub systems at multiple scales. The research framework was developed by the members of NamTip, an inter- and transdisciplinary research project aiming to understand and manage desertification tipping points in Namibia’s semi-arid rangelands. The NamTip project represents a practical implementation of the research framework, that uses an integrated, social-ecological study design combining the threefold approach with dynamic modelling. This includes analyses of time-series and archival data, experimental and observational studies, as well as scenario development and exploration of decision-making with local farmers. After the initial practical implementation and with our ongoing evaluation, we are convinced that such an ambitious and complex framework will guide the way to a profound understanding of tipping point phenomena and feasible management options