Abstract
Mobile livestock herders have long been seen as the main culprits of over-stocking and rangeland degradation. In recent years, however, anthropologists and ecologists have argued that African pastoralists have developed sustainable modes of pasture management based on a sound knowledge of savanna ecosystems. Comparing indigenous knowledge on species' grazing values, plant succession, and ideas about the causes for environmental change in two African pastoral societies (the Kenyan Pokot and the Namibian Himba), it is shown that their knowledge is indeed fine-grained and complex but at the same time socially constructed and embedded in ideology. It relates to a cultural landscape and not to abstract considerations on climax vegetation and its changes over time. Pastoral knowledge is built up around the interaction between herds and vegetation rather than around the environment as such.
Similar content being viewed by others
REFERENCES
Behnke, R. H., Scoones, I., and Kerven, C. (Eds.) (1993). Range Ecology at Disequilibrium: New Models of natural Variability and Pastoral Adaptation in African Savannas. Overseas Development Institute, London.
Bollig, M. (1993). Intra-and Interethnic conflict in northwest Kenya: A multicausal analysis of confl ict behaviour. Anthropos 87: 176-184.
Bollig, M. (1997). Risk and risk minimisation among himba pastoralists in northwestern Namibia. Nomadic Peoples 1 N. S.: 66-89.
Bollig,M. (1998a).Moral economy and self-interest: Kinship, friendship, and exchange among the Pokot (N.W. Kenya). In Schweizer, T., and White, D. (Eds.), Kinship, Networks, and Exchange. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp. 137-157.
Bollig, M. (1998b). Power and trade in precolonial and early colonial northern Kaokoland, 1860s-1940s. In Hayes, P., Silvester, J., Wallace, M., and Hartmann, W. (Eds.), Namibia under South African Rule. Mobility and Containment. James Currey, Oxford, pp. 175-193.
Bollig, M. (1998c). The colonial encapsulation of the North-Western Namibian pastoral economy. Africa 68(4): 506-536.
Boudet, G. (1983). Sysèmes de pro duction d’ élevage au Sénégal;étude du cou vert herb acé, compte-rendu de fin d’ étude. IEMVT, Maisons-Alfort.
Coppock, L. (1993). The Borana Plateau of Southern Ethiopia: Synthesis of Pastoral Research, Development and Change. ILRI, Addis Ababa.
Dietz, T. (1987). Pastoralists in Dire Straits: Survival Strategies in a Semi-Arid Region at the Kenya/Uga nd a Border: Western Pokot 1900-1986. Netherlands Geographical Studies 49, Amste rdam.
Fratkin, E. (1997). Pastoralism: Governance and development issues. Annual Reviews in Anthropology 26: 235-261.
Galaty, J., and Johnson, D. L. (Eds.), (1990). The World of Pastoralism. Guilford, New York.
Hardin, G. (1968). The tragedy of the commons. Science 162:1243-1248.
Hilton-Taylor, C. (1994). The Kaokoveld: Namibia and Angola. In Davis, S. D., Heywood, V. H., and Hamilton, A. C. (Eds.), Centres of Plant Diversity: A Guide and Strategy for Their Conservation. Cambridge, pp. 201-203.
Homewood, K., and Rodgers, W. A. (1989). Pastoralism, conservation and the overgrazing controversy. In Anderson, D., and Grove, R. (Eds.), Conservation in Africa: People, Policies, and Practice.Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp. 111-128.
Krzywinski, K., Vetaas, O. R., and Manger, L. (1996). Vegetation dynamics in the Red Sea Hills. In Manger, L., el Ati, H., Harir, Sh., Krzywinski, K., and Vetaas, O. R. (Eds.), Survival on Meagre Resources in the Red Sea Hills. Nordiska Afrikainstitutet, Uppsala, pp. 59-80.
Lamprey, H. F. (1983). Pastoralism yesterday and today: The ove rgrazing problem. In Bourlière F. (Ed.), Tropical Savannas. Elsevie r, Amsterdam, pp. 643-666.
Le Houérou, H. N. (1980). The rangelands of the Sahel. Journal of Range Management 33: 41-46.
Le Houérou, H. N. (1992). Outline of the biological history of the Sahara. Journal of Arid Environments 22: 3-30.
Mainguet, M. (1994). Desertification: Natural Background and Human Mismanagement. Springer Verlag, Berlin.
McCabe, T. (1998). Risk and uncertainty among the Maasai of the Ngorongoro conservation area in Tanzania: A case study in economic change. Nomadic Peoples N. S. 1: 54-65.
Müller, M. (1985). Gräser Südwestafrika/ Namibia. John Meinert, Windhoek.
Neumann, K. (1994). Wirtschaftsweisen im Neolithikum der Ostsahara und ihr Einfl uss auf die Vegetation. In Bollig, M., and Klees, F. (Eds.), Überleben sstrategien in Afrika.Heinrich Barth Institut, Köln, pp. 47-65.
Neumann, K., and Schulz, E. (1987). Middle Holocene savanna vegetation in the Central Sahara: Preliminary report. Palaeoecology of Africa 18: 163-166.
Oudtshoorn, van F. (1991). Grazing value and ecological status of grasses. In van Oudtshoorn, F. (Ed.), Grasses of South Africa. Cape Town, pp. 57-61.
Pflaumbaum, H. (1994). Futterressourcen in der Butana (Re. Sudana): Zur Problematik der Dynamik ökologischer Tragfähigkeit. In Bollig, M., and Klees, F. (Eds.),Überlebensstrategien in Afrika. Heinrich Barth Institut, Köln, pp. 67-80.
Pratt, D. J., and Gwynne, M. D. (1977). Rangeland Mangement and Ecology in East Africa. London.
Reckers, U. (1992). Nomadische Viehhalter in Kenya. Die Ost-Pokot aus human-ökologischer Sicht. Institut für Afrika-Kunde, Hamburg.
SALTLICK (1991). A Base line Data Survey in the Nginyang and Tangulbei Divisions of Baringo District. Isiolo, Kenya, manuscript.
Sander, H. Bollig, M., and Schulte, A. (1998). Himba Paradise Lost: Stab ility, Degradation and Pastoralist Management of the Omuhonga Basin (Northwestern Namibia). Die Erde 129: 301-315.
Sanford, W. W., and Isiche i, A. O. (1986). Savanna. In Lawton, G. W. (Ed.), Plant Ecology in West Africa. New York, pp. 95-149.
Schneider, H. (1953). The Päkot (Suk)of Kenya with Special Reference to the Role of Livestock in their Subsistence Economy. University of Michigan Press, Ann Arbor, MI.
Scoones, I. (1995). Living with Uncertainty. New Directions in Pasto ral Development in Africa. International Institute for Environment and Development, London.
Sillitoe, P. (1998).What, know natives? Local knowledge in development. Social Anthropology 6: 203-220.
Spencer, P. (1998). The Pastoral Continuum. The Marginaliz ation of Tradition East Africa. Clarendon Press, London.
Tapson, D. (1993). Biological sustainability in pastoral systems. In Behnke, R. H., Scoones, I., and Kerven, C. (Eds.), Range Ecology at Disequilibrium. New Models of Natural Variability an d Pastoral Adaptation in African Savannas. Overseas Development Institute, London, pp. 118-134.
Timberlake, J. (1987). Ethnobotany of the Pokot of Northern Kenya. Nairobi, manuscript.
Trollope, W. S. W. e t al. (1990). Veld and pasture manageme nt terminology in southern Africa. Journal of the Grassland Society of South Africa 7(1): 52-61.
Tully, D. (1985). Human Ecology and Political Process: The Context of Market Incorporation in West Poko t District.University of Michigan Press, Ann Arbor, MI.
Viljoen, P. J. (1980). Veldtipes, Verspreiding van die gro ter Soogdiere, en enkele Aspekte van die Ekoloie van Kaokoland. University of Pretoria, M.Sc. Thesis, manuscript.
Walter, H., and Breckle, S. W. (Eds.) (1991). Spezielle Ökologie der Tropischen und Subtropischen Zonen. Gustav Fische r, Stuttgart.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Bollig, M., Schulte, A. Environmental Change and Pastoral Perceptions: Degradation and Indigenous Knowledge in Two African Pastoral Communities. Human Ecology 27, 493–514 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1018783725398
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1018783725398