Continuity and change within the social-ecological and political landscape of the Maasai Mara, Kenya

Abstract

Traditional livestock management has historically been blamed for the mismanagement of rangelands, but there is a growing recognition of the importance of extensive herding strategies and the local knowledge embedded in these practices. Here, we apply the lens of continuity and change to understand how local herders interpret environmental change. By exploring traditional rangeland indicators as used by Maasai herders, we highlight some of the forces of change that appear to constrain the application of local knowledge of rangeland health. Fieldwork was conducted from January to August 2013 in the Mara Division, Narok County, Kenya, employing semi-structured interviews, transect walks, focus groups, participatory mapping and participant observation. Findings suggest that continuity exists in many of the traditional methods of observing land and livestock. However, various obstructions are surfacing in a political landscape in which local knowledge holders are not always able to put their knowledge and observations into practice. These obstructions of knowledge, practices and skills occurred through three broad forces involving acculturation, prohibition and applicability. As possible consequences of a system in transition, these forces illustrate the unbalanced nature of overlap between heterogeneous users, conflicting interests and power differentials. In order to facilitate continued importance and growth of local knowledge, we conclude that resource and protected area managers must recognize local knowledge holders and ensure such knowledge is considered as more than anecdotal or strategic. By encouraging hybrid knowledge co-production in management decisions, the decision-making frame can be broadened to include herders for more inclusive decision-making.

Opportunities to integrate herders’ indicators into formal rangeland monitoring: an example from Mongolia

“…This could be because herders in the sparsely vegetated DS zone focus on forage quality over vegetation quantity as an indicator of healthy pasture. This finding is consistent with what African pastoralists observe (Roba and Oba , Jandreau and Berkes ).…”

“…, 2013, Stringer and Reed , Roba and Oba , Raymond et al. , Jandreau and Berkes ), the USA (Knapp and Fernandez‐Gimenez ), and Australia (Moller et al. , Waudby et al.…”

Pastoralist societies in flux: A conceptual framework analysis of herding and land use among the Mukugodo Maasai of Kenya

“…Recent scholarship on pastoralism has benefitted from shifting its focus away from traditional views of pastoral economics to more modern approaches that incorporate the important links between globalization, local markets, migration, economic opportunities, and traditional pastoral livelihoods (Bollig and Lesorogol 2016;Bond 2014;Catley et al 2013;Galaty 2016;Gertel and LeHeron 2011;Jandreau and Berkes 2016;Kibet et al 2016;Mwangi 2016;Watson et al 2016). These new opportunities have subsequently generated new behavioural adaptations and economic strategies that require us to reclassify many of the livelihood tactics and approaches used by modern pastoralists we presented in Table 1.…”

Political ecology of asymmetric ecological knowledges: diverging views on the eucalyptus-water nexus in the Taita Hills, Kenya

“…The survival and resilience of local ecological knowledge systems require that their regeneration capacity and applicability are preserved and transmitted across generations (Gómez-Baggethun and ReyesGarcía 2013; Jandreau and Berkes 2016;Pearce et al 2015). Local knowledge systems continuously adapt to new conditions and become hybridized by contact with external cultures (cf.…”

“…Dear and Burridge 2005;. Hybridization is also influenced by power relations in intercultural encounters (Bentley 1993;Jandreau and Berkes 2016). Nygren (1999: 271) describes this as knowledge reconfiguration "within the ongoing struggles over resources and representations" that are also inevitably affected by peoples' competitive roles, and their gender, class, age, religion and political standing.…”