Pastoral utilization and land cover change
A case study from the Sanqebethu Valley, eastern Lesotho
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 13432575 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Marcus Nüsser (0000-0002-8626-8336, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2002 |
| Volume | 56 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 207-221 |
| Publication date | 2002-01-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Erdkunde (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0014-0015 • E-ISSN: 2702-5985 |
| Publisher | Erdkunde (PUBLISHER • DE) |
| DOI | 10.3112/erdkunde.2002.02.07 |
| OpenAlex | W1984491844 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 4 |
| References cited | 3 |
Management systems and changes in the intensity of pastoral utilization are widely recognized as key issues of integrated and applied research on African rangelands. The contemporary debate focuses on topics such as sustainability of indigenous range management strategies, legitimacy of transhumance, and ecological outcomes such as land cover change and environmental degradation. Classic concepts, based on assumptions of stability and equilibrium of ecological carrying capacity, have provided the standard by which many rangelands are considered overstocked and deteriorated. This conventional view stresses the destructive potential of mobile livestock keeping and the need for control of animal numbers and herd movements. Especially in the case of rangelands managed under traditional common property regimes, land mismanagement and subsequent land degradation are typically attributed to pastoralism. The theoretical framework is based on the ‘tragedy of the commons’ paradigm (HARDIN 1968), which serves as an underlying key model to describe resource degradation as a consequence of many individuals using scarce resources in common. A number of recent studies (e.g. SCOONES 1995; LEACH a. MEARNS 1996; NIAMIR-FULLER 1999) challenge these core conjectures for the semiarid rangelands and thus give way to a ‘new paradigm’ in the assessment of pastoral development in Africa. Production potentials of semiarid rangelands are generally characterized by non-equilibrium dynamic patterns (BEHNKE a. SCOONES 1993; BEHNKE a. ABEL 1996) due to high levels of inter-annual variability of precipitation with frequent droughts and other unpredictable factors. Therefore, prognostic scenarios and explanations of calamities primarily based on concepts of ecological carrying capacity are often insufficient. Apparently, most classic approaches tend to neglect issues such as indigenous knowledge in range management and do not recognize the necessities and particularities of livelihood strategies under conditions of uncertainty (e.g. PERRIER 1995; SANDFORD 1995; SCOONES 1996). More recent approaches on ‘governing the commons’ (OSTROM 1990) put particular emphasis on understandMarcus Nusser: Pastoral utilization and land cover change: a case study from the Sanquebethu Valley, eastern Lesotho 207
Agroforestry · Biology · Cover (algebra · Geography · Land cover · Land use · Physical geography · Agriculture and Rural Development Research · Conservation, Biodiversity, and Resource Management · Ecology · Environmental Science · Rangeland Management and Livestock Ecology
| Unique citing works | 4 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,5 |
| Citation span | 2018 - 2023 (6) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 4 |