The Improvement of Tropical and Subtropical Rangelands (BOSTID): Part I: The nature of tropical and subtropical rangelands: Social system-ecosystem interactions

The Improvement of Tropical and Subtropical Rangelands (BOSTID)

(introduction...)

Acknowledgements

Panel on the improvement of tropical and subtropical rangelands

Contributors

National research council staff

Preface

Overview: Dimensions of a worldwide environmental crisis

The geographical scope

References

Part I

Introduction

(introduction...)

References

The nature of tropical and subtropical rangelands

(introduction...)

Range classification

Social system-ecosystem interactions

References

The social context for rangeland improvement

(introduction...)

Production systems in tropical and subtropical regions

Context of environmental degradation

References

The economic context

(introduction...)

Range systems

The basis of range economics

Project analysis

Determining costs and benefits

Resource evaluation

Market price determination

References

Regional resource assessment

(introduction...)

Information needs

Information acquisition

References

Site evaluation

(introduction...)

An ecosystem perspective

A systems approach to site evaluation

Evaluation of abiotic and biotic components

Integrated evaluations

References

Grazing management

(introduction...)

Grazing management concepts

Time of grazing

Distribution of grazing

Type of animal grazing

Number of animals grazing

Grazing management planning

Grazing management systems

Livestock management

The herima system in Mali

References

Rehabilitation techniques

Establishing plants on the range

Natural revegetation

Direct seeding

Improvement of tropical and subtropical rangelands

Selected practices

References

Criteria for plant selection

Project planning

Socioeconomic and management considerations in feasibility studies

Adaptation to ecoclimatic conditions

Adaptation to soils

Adaptation to physiography, geomorphology, topography, slope, and aspect

Ability of introduced species to compete with native vegetation

Use regimes

Availability of seeds and plant materials

Maintenance of biological diversity

Plant improvement

References

Part II

Introduction to the case studies

Pastoral regimes of Mauritania

(introduction...)

Physical geography

Migration cycle

The Beni Mguild of Morocco

(introduction...)

Physical geography

Migratory cycle

The Kel Tamasheq

(introduction...)

Introduction

Camp organization

References

Dromedary pastoralism in Africa and Arabia

(introduction...)

Introduction

Reproduction and risk

Management and labor

Subsistence production

Marketing

Predatory pastoralism

The future of camel pastoralism

References

The mountain nomads of Iran: Basseri and Bakhtiari

(introduction...)

The physical environment

The basseri

The bakhtiari

The Marri Baluch of Pakistan

(introduction...)

Physical environment

Seasons and migrations

A mixed economic system

Conclusiones

Changing patterns of resource use in the Bedthi-Aghanashini valleys of Karnataka state, India

(introduction...)

Introduction

The setting

Human communities

Traditional patterns of resource management

Colonial period

After independence

Recent trends

References

Kenya: Seeking remedies for desert encroachment

(introduction...)

Introduction

Background

Traditional pastoralism

Baseline studies

Vegetation and livestock

Directions for the future

The hema system in the Arabian peninsula

(introduction...)

Rights of ownership or use

The hema system in Saudi Arabia

The mahmia or marah, and the koze system in Syria

Neglect of the hema and its consequences

Hema in the range improvement and conservation programs in the near east

References

Wildlife land use at the Athi River, Kenya

(introduction...)

Background

Some early findings

Conclusion

Camel husbandry in Kenya: Increasing the productivity of ranchland

(introduction...)

Introduction

Location

Vegetation

Livestock

Introduction of camels

Management and adaptability

Reproduction and lactation

Veterinary notes

Economics

Reference

The potential of faidherbia albida for desertification control and increased productivity in Chad

(introduction...)

Background

Characteristics of faidherbia albida

Project description

Project analysis and evaluation

Conclusions

References

Improving Nigeria's animal feed resources: Pastoralists and scientists cooperate in fodder bank research

Board on science technology for international development

(introduction...)

Members

Social system-ecosystem interactions

Most environmental systems are highly modified by human activity. Hence, an understanding of the biological and use potential of these systems benefits greatly from analyses of environmental change over time (National Research Council, 1981). Such analysis is also important in defining ecosystems and in identifying cause-effect relationships that have contributed to changes in the composition and productivity of these systems.

Indigenous social systems, through selection and adaptation, are functionally associated with local ecosystems through flows of energy, material, and information (4) (Rambo and Sajise, 1984). Changes in either the social or environmental system result in changes in the other. Hence, each system must be thoroughly understood if positive change is to be realized. In many, perhaps most, instances, highly disruptive changes are responses to external stimuli. Many examples could be cited. For example, the highly regulated land-use systems of many societies (see the discussion of the hema system in case study 9, Part II) were commonly transformed into open-access systems through the imposition of European public-domain law often combined with land expropriation, a situation that, in many regions, has led to intense use pressure and severe environmental degradation. Similarly, colonial era introductions of cattle into inappropriate areas (such as Zone 5 of the above classificatory system) has led to severe degradation and zonal compression (National Research Council, 1983b). The fixing of boundaries, at national and sub-national levels, has reduced or eliminated strategies of mobility that are crucial to these areas. In addition, increasing market integration has converted highly conservative systems of land use into opportunistic systems that impose greater pressure on available resources. In some cases, this has destroyed the subsistence base that supported the coping strategies of local populations, and has reduced the range of economic options available to them. Wildlife, honey and beeswax, gums and resins, cordage, tannin, and medicinals are among the economic products lost through the de gradation of environmental systems in Africa and Asia.

Characteristically more subtle, but equally important, impacts on socioeconomic and environmental systems result from destructive modifications of indigenous systems of values, ideology, knowledge, and social organization. An unfortunate consequence of past efforts in international development is that so much attention was directed toward the transformation of what are now belatedly recognized to be critically important social adaptations, without corresponding effort being made to understand the context or consequences of the changes promoted.

In addressing issues of range management in the tropics and subtropics, many of the most important clues as to appropriate actions for governments and development agencies reside in the analysis of traditional adaptations to local environmental systems. Growing awareness of the importance of traditional adaptations is contributing to a shift of emphasis by governments and development agencies from open-field cultivation and plantation forestry to more biologically complex agroforestry or agro-sylvo-pastoral systems (National Research Council, 1983a). The growing interest in camel husbandry in the drylands of Africa and Asia similarly reflects pre-colonial strategies of rangeland utilization. In West Africa, for example, camel-based livestock systems were commonly replaced by cattlebased systems by colonial administrators unfamiliar with the characteristics of the drylands of West Africa in relation to the requirements of cattle. By so doing, these administrators contributed greatly to the current environ mental emergency in Africa ( National Research Council, 1983a). An overview of selected African and Asian pastoral adaptations is contained in Douglas Johnson's The Nature of Nomadism (1969).

NOTES

1. In this report, the terms "tropics" and “tropical” are expanded to include the subtropics (Tropical and Subtropical Steppe, Tropical and Subtropical Desert, Mediterranean or Dry Summer Subtropical, and Humid Subtropical climatic regions) as well.
2. Moisture indexes provide expressions of climate derived from monthly rainfafl and evaporation, with the estimate of evaporation based upon measures of radiation, temperature, saturation deficit, and wind speed, weighted for altitude and latitude. They are calculated on the basis of Thornthwaite's concept of moisture indexes (1948), combined with Penman's estimate of evaporation (1948) .
3. In many areas of the tropics, a livestock unit is taken to be a mature zebu cow with calf at Soot (averaging about 300 kg liveweight and having a daily dry matter requirement of 6.5 to 8.5 kg).
4. In an ecological context, information is simply organized or patterned energy or material that tells the observer something about the past, present, or probable future state of an ecosystem or its components. Human response to environmental information is unique compared with that of other organisms because it occurs largely at the cognitive level where cultural conditioning affects both perception and the selection of appropriate responses.