Historical perspectives on pastoralism and land tenure transformation in Ngamiland, Botswana: What are the policy and institutional lessons?

Pastoral societies in dryland Africa continue to face changes to their pastoral systems. These systems are influenced by a range of historical factors but little use is made of this information to design policies that suit pastoralists’ landscapes. This article provides a synthesis of historical perspectives on pastoral land use and tenure transformations in Ngamiland, south of the Okavango Delta, Botswana. Little documentation of herders’ historical perspectives exists and less is known about how past experiences can be applied to sustainable pastoralism policies. In this article, current land use pressing issues are examined and analysed within the context of past experiences. We use a series of oral histories with key informants, focus group discussions, expert interviews and rangelands field observations. Ngamiland historical perspectives depict a pastoral landscape that has been shaped by a variety of factors; livestock diseases, Human-wildlife-conflicts, droughts, land tenure transformations associated with rangeland policies and the pastoral identity of the Ovaherero/Ovambanderu ethnic groups. Pastoralists have followed unique trajectories, specific to their rangeland conditions and socio-cultural context. Resilience to climate shocks and diseases has been weakened by inequitable patterns of control over rangeland resources. We recommend institutional diversity such that from experiences of the past, lessons can be drawn of the sort of processes and institutions required for pastoralism policies including targeted pastoralists’ adaptations. Using pastoralists to provide information, especially in the area of indigenous knowledge, strategies can be developed to link conservation of wildlife and rangelands with pastoral production by developing ecologically-sensitive low-volume tourism that pastoral communities can tap in to diversify their livelihoods

Analysis of GPS trajectories to assess spatio-temporal differences in grazing patterns and land use preferences of domestic livestock in southwestern Madagascar

In order to investigate spatial and temporal characteristics of the purely grazing-based livestock husbandry system in southwestern Madagascar, individual animals from 12 cattle and 12 goat herds that were equally distributed across four villages were fitted with GPS tracking collars and their behaviour during pasturing was directly observed to identify seasonal variations in land use and movement patterns along the regional altitude and vegetation gradient. Monitoring occurred at regular intervals of two months over a two-year period to capture inter-annual variability. Herds of both species from the inland limestone plateau covered longer distances and were found further away from their home corrals than those from the coastal plain. Patterns of feeding behaviour and utilization of grazing areas mostly reflected the spatial occurrence of specific land cover classes around the villages and differed significantly between seasons and sites. Seasonal water shortage was one of the key factors affecting dry season livestock movements on the plateau but played a minor role in the coastal plain where livestock keeping proved to be more limited by feed availability. While on transhumance, mobile cattle herds were vulnerable to disadvantages such as limited access to pastureland and water sources nearby their temporary homesteads. The recent problem of armed cattle raids along with emerging land use conflicts compel livestock owners to utilize fewer grazing areas, which threatens to destabilize the region’s animal husbandry system

Shift in Herders' Territorialities from Regional to Local Scale: The Political Ecology of Pastoral Herding in Western Burkina Faso

International audienceIn Burkina Faso, livestock sedentarization programmes are still at the top of policy makers’ agendas and at the heart of their discourse, despite huge changes in land cover, land use and territorialities in rural areas. This paper contributes to the literature on the impact of livestock policies targeting the sedentarization of pastoralism in sub-Saharan Africa by specifically highlighting the territorial consequences of such policies. This paper suggests that policies directed at improving livestock governance in a context of climate change and changes in land cover and land tenure need to focus on securing pastoralists’ reticular territories, which are made up of corridors and numerous areas of pastureland, rather than on creating disconnected state ranches

Transhumance, livestock mobility and mutual benefits between crop and livestock production

Grazing-based livestock production, named pastoralism, is classified into nomadism, transhumance and agro-pastoralism. Transhumance is characterised by the seasonal and recurring movement of livestock whereby seasonal grazing areas and routes for livestock movement are fixed. All grazing based livestock production systems including transhumance are constrained globally for a variety of reasons. The major threats to the system are globalisation, nationalisation or privatisation of rangelands, national parks and community forestry policies restricting free grazing and shortage of labour. The collapse or decline of such social-ecological systems (SESs), which have existed for over 1000s years, often induces adverse impacts on societies and ecosystems. Here we review the literature on transhumance, and discuss reasons for transhumance, and the associated advantages and disadvantages of livestock movement in transhumance. Our review also focuses on how the integration of crop and livestock production in transhumance derives mutual benefits. The review indicates that the seasonal movement of livestock is an ecological necessity in areas with harsh climates and low pasture production. Transhumance is also a herders’ adaptive management to adjust to variable grazing resources and environmental conditions. The disadvantages of seasonal movement of livestock such as greater herding labour required and expenditure of more energy for livestock, are far outweighed by the ecological advantages. Some of these are: to minimise grazing competition and to protect rangeland pastures from being overgrazed. Our review also indicates that the integration of crop and livestock production derives mutual benefits and contributes for their enhanced sustainability