Changing grazing systems in central north Namibia

Abstract

Current and historical livestock movement patterns are explored in a semi-arid communal environment in central-north Namibia, placed in context of increasing population, large-scale enclosures, increased water supply and changing vegetation. Farmer's knowledge of movements, rangeland potential, vegetation condition and plant indicators was gathered and analysed with various methods such as Canonical Correspondence Analysis (CCA). Local rangeland units were mapped with Landsat TM imagery and analysed with a Geographical Information System (GIS). The data suggest that good grazing was previously maintained by low herbivore pressure and frequent fires in a management regime controlled by hunter-gatherers and limited permanent water supply.Population increase in settled areas starts migration to more fertile land units in previous prime grazing areas causing a conflict between grazing and cropping and a decrease in grazing condition triggering further migration and need for new water supply. Recent large-scale enclosures are targeting predominantly more fertile land units with the most palatable perennial grass species and water, causing further conflict for communal farmers.Having reached the frontier of the traditional land there is no space for further expansion, resulting in the need to adapt to uncertainty with annual grasses more dependent on rainfall. Livestock movement patterns have changed drastically for large herd owners from transhumance and migration to largely permanent cattle posts. Small herd owners face increasing longer movements between kraals, water points, depending on less suitable and decreased unfenced grazing lands.

Knowing, farming and climate change adaptation in North-Central Namibia

“…In order to understand its contribution to farmers' adaptive capacity to climate variability, it is necessary to give an overview of this knowledge system. Researchers such as John McDonagh and Alex Verlinden have documented the classification system which farmers in Northern Namibia employ when making decisions about crops and livestock (Hillyer et al, 2006;Verlinden and Kruger, 2007). Farmers draw upon a sophisticated understanding of the productive potential of their environment, which Hillyer et al (2006:252) refer to as an ''indigenous land unit framework''.…”

“…Verlinden and Kruger (2007) documented the ten land units most popular for grazing purposes, finding a preference amongst farmers for Omutunda, Omutuntu and Omuthitu. As with cultivation, the range of land units used by people in the Oshikoto region gave them a flexibility to graze cattle in the face of a range of dynamic environmental states linked to climate variability.…”

“…Strikingly, studies which compared some (though not all) land units to scientific classification systems -derived from detrended correspondence analysis of cropping land units (Verlinden and Dayot, 2005), and canonical correspondence analysis of grazing units (Verlinden and Kruger, 2007) -found them to capture what, scientifically, we would term key ecological characteristics. Perhaps we might infer from this scientific robustness in the land unit system.…”

“…This tendency has been documented at some length by Verlinden and Kruger (2007) who, in a study in the Oshikoto region, suggest that this migration practice has become so widespread that it has led to increased competition and conflict between herders and cultivators. They go even further, suggesting that what has been taken historically as a transhumance system may have in fact been all along a migration system, which has only recently become problematic owing to greater human and animal population density.This is an intriguing reinterpretation of livestock farming practice in North Central Namibia; albeit one for which no historical evidence is presented.…”

Legalising Land Rights : Local Practices, State Responses and Tenure Security in Africa, Asia and Latin America

“…After independence, wealth accumulated by blacks in the urban-based economy has increasingly been invested in commercial farming on communal lands. Taking advantage of weak oversight by traditional authorities or of good connections, many of these commercial farmers have closed off attractive portions of commonage (often including boreholes) in order to assure themselves of a good return on their investment (Cox et al 1998;Verlinden and Kruger 2007). Subtractions from the commonage have also occurred due to population increases in towns and cattle posts.…”