Transcript Community Adaptations to Environmental Changes and Policy

Community Adaptations to Environmental
Changes and Policy Problems
• Coping strategies for extreme events
• Adaptation mechanisms for environmental changes
• Tragedy of Commons and African farming systems
– South Africa case study
• Dryland drought case study - Namibian Case Study
Lecture Learning Outcomes
• To recognise some of the problems imposed on
dryland Africa by land tenure reform due to the
‘Tragedy of the Commons’ argument
• The ability to analyse the impacts of land
privatisation on dryland societies and environments,
through case studies from across Southern Africa
Desertification : The Issue and Controversy
• Portrayed as the first big global environmental issue with
African famines & link to desertification driving much
debate from UNCHD (1972) to WSSD (2002)
• Contrasting views that –
• “desertification affects 3.6 billion hectares & threatens
livelihoods of over 1 billion people” (UN, 1992, 1997; 2002)
• “desertification is an institutional myth … one that an
institution wanted to believe & served its purposes” (Warren
& Agnew, 1988; Binns, 1990; Thomas & Middleton, 1994)
Reasons for ‘Myth / Fact’ Controversy
• Uncertainties over definitions of terms – desertification,
degradation, desiccation, drought etc.
• Problems with subjective nature of expert-led assessments
used to portray desertification extent (UNCOD, 1977; UN
GAP, 1984; GLASOD, 1990; UNEP, 1992; 1997)
• Natural variability of drylands leading to environmental
changes & suffering in droughts
• Lack of engagement with local people
or Government extension staff
Contemporary Drylands Research Messages
– Stocking, 2003
• “interventions to reverse declining trends in food security
must recognise the variable resilience & sensitivity of major
soil types” p. 1356
• “The greatest threat to soil quality and food security is if the
security of tenure for smallholders is made even more
difficult by changing world conditions” p.1359
• “Science does not always get it right and does not
necessarily provide workable or acceptable solutions” p.
1359
• “The ‘tragedy of the commons’ lies more in our simplistic,
linear, disciplinary thinking than in reality” p.1359
Mixed Farming Systems
• Mixed farming simply implies use of both arable and
pastoral production within household livelihood strategies
• The main production system followed by hundreds of
millions of dryland farmers, notably in sub-Saharan Africa
• Offers flexibility within dynamic environment – e.g.
opportunistic cropping when wet; sale of cattle when dry –
needs access to communal rangeland for grazing
Case Study 1 – Molopo Basin, South
Africa / Botswana
Mixed farming region classed by
international (e.g. GLASOD) &
national surveys (e.g. NBI, 2000)
as affected by severe degradation
Interdisciplinary Research Case Study Thomas and Dougill, 2003
Aim - combine different information sources for simple &
applicable land degradation assessment at a field scale
1. Inventory of environmental indicators of soil degradation (fencelines,
nebkha dunes, rills) & livelihoods survey identifying farmers concerns
2. Participatory nutrient budget studies - farmer interviews aimed at
quantifying nutrient fluxes at field and farm scales
3. Soil chemical analysis (N, P, K, pH and OM)
from fields chosen by farmer
4. Soil degradation discussions - two-way
discussion of soil degradation constraints
on farming practices and crop yields
5. Local and national workshops
Key Study Findings
• Soil fertility assessments in combination with farmer
interviews suggest acidification (due to fertiliser inputs) or
nutrient depletion (due to reduced manure inputs) are the
main processes of land degradation NOT erosion
• Participatory studies highlight constraint as a decline in
flow of nutrients from rangeland to arable due to access
problems to privatised rangeland & lack of herding labour
• Institutional frameworks need to enable increased
availability & use of organic manure inputs as key factor
affecting sustainability of arable production on sandy soils
Pastoral Farming Systems
• A living and way of life to over 25 million people in dryland Africa
• A production system that continues to make more efficient &
sustainable use of drylands than alternatives
• Pastoralists are suffering disproportionately, with many experiencing
declining living standards, increased poverty & insecurity
• Difficulties compounded by the best traditional common grazing lands
having been privatised or allocated to agricultural schemes
• Settled pastoralists more likely than traditional pastoral groups, to
suffer from extreme poverty & social
dysfunction
– All UNRISD, quoted in Lane, 1998; p. ix-xi
Received Wisdoms & Need for Change
• Conventional wisdoms (that have driven development efforts in
Africa) may be deeply misleading (Leach & Mearns, 1996; p.1): eg. • ‘desertification affects 3.6 billion hectares’ (UN, 1992; p.92)
• ‘more than half of the world’s pasturelands are overgrazed and
subject to erosive degradation’ (Pimentel et al., 1995; p.1117)
• ‘traditional farming & livestock husbandry (&) traditional land tenure
arrangements .. Became the major source of degradation of the rural
environment’ (Cleaver, 1992; p.67)
• ‘ruin is the destination toward which all men rush, each pursuing his
own best interest in a society that believes in the freedom of the
commons’ (Hardin, 1968; p.1244)
A dryland landscape - drought coping strategies, land
tenure and management options
• For mapped example region, discuss  Likely impacts of spatial variations in
rainfall (local droughts)
 Available coping strategies for
pastoralists during regional drought
 Likely threats to traditional coping
strategies
Traditional Drought Coping Strategies
Local Drought
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Regional Drought
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Threats to Traditional Coping Strategies
• Land Management
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• Environmental
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• Institutional
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Case Study 2 - Omaheke District, Eastern Namibia Twyman et al., 2001
• Research Aims – Examine the processes leading to community self-empowerment in form of
community fencing at Okonyoka
– Assess implications of fencing at range of scales (intra-community, household &
individual) & on different spheres (social, environmental & political)
• Research Methods
– Integrated participatory studies focusing on drought coping strategies, natural
resource changes (spatial and temporal) and social networks
Okonyoka - Route to Community Fencing
• External Pressures:
• Govt drought subsidies discourage cattle movements
• Establishment of water committees by Govt (Min of Agr & Min
of Water Affiars)
• Internal Issues:
• Opening and subsequent settlement of emergency boreholes (Min
of Lands)
• Private fencing by neighbouring village resident
• Resident trained in livestock management - improved local
knowledge base (Min of Education)
• Agreed by water committee - funded and built by community enabled by community empowerment encouraged by
Government & local NGO (Oxfam)
Social implications
• Unanimous view of fence as ‘good’ thing despite cost
• Increased sense of community & control over resources
• Key case studies – Younger son and wife - ‘break with father’ and bring cattle to
Okonyoka - community want them to leave
– Eldest son - moved away, but now returned with large no. of cattle.
Dual family rights established
– Female headed households –
established subtly next to family kraal
Environmental implications
• Large area enclosed reducing grazing across many areas
• Mapping shows – Ecological heterogeneity in bush cover
– Return of perennial grass cover to marginal areas improving
rangeland condition for cattle, providing drought feed
• Positive environmental effects
at the expense of
neighbouring areas
Policy implications
• Many other communities discussing community led fencing
of commons
• Current gap in Namibian policy whereby fencing neither
legal or illegal (leading inadvertently to community
empowerment) now being redressed by Communal land bill
• Ambiguities remain with further provision for subdivision
of communal lands (Lands / Agriculture conflicts)
• As yet, no provision for community land ownership within
policy frameworks
Implications to NGO’s
• Plans to start community land use planning and extend
community natural resource management
• Okonyoka a good case study? But community
empowerment marginalises poorer and more vulnerable
households along the way
• Empowerment process dynamic with notable positive
impacts at local level at expense of marginalised elsewhere
• Growing number of landless and tensions on traditional
drought-coping strategies
Key Reading
• Lane, C.R. (1998) Custodians of the Commons. Pastoral Land tenure
in East and West Africa. Earthscan, London. Chapter 1.
• Stocking, M.A. (2003) Tropical Soils and Food Security: The next 50
years. Science, 302, 1356-1359.
• Thomas, A.D. and Dougill, A.J. (2003) Desertification in Southern
Africa. Geography Review, 17 (2), 24-27.
• Twyman, C., Dougill, A.J., Sporton, D. and Thomas, D.S.G. (2001) A
case of community self empowerment, Okonyoka, Eastern Namibia:
environmental and policy implications. Review of African Political
Economy, 28 (87), 9-26. Available on Nathan Bodington.