Coping with Natural Hazards in a Conservation Context: Resource-Use Decisions of Maasai Households During Recent and Historical Droughts

Miller, Brian W.; Leslie, Paul W.; McCabe, J. Terrence

doi:10.1007/s10745-014-9683-3

Cited by 25 publications

(23 citation statements)

References 49 publications

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“…Access to the Tarangire River and the Silalo Swamp were no longer possible, and it has been argued that the pasture and water resources within what is now the park were extremely important, especially as a drought reserve, to Maasai households living in Simanjiro (Igoe andBrockington 1999, Sachedina 2008). However, it has also been argued that the grazing and water in what is now the park were primarily used for small stock and only occasionally used by cattle (Miller et al 2014). Nevertheless, Tarangire National Park continues to impact people in Simanjiro in various ways, exposing them to the risk of crop damage by migrating wildlife (Baird et al 2009), but has also increased development activities and improved infrastructure (Baird 2014).…”

Section: Study Sitementioning

confidence: 99%

Well-being and conservation: diversity and change in visions of a good life among the Maasai of northern Tanzania

Woodhouse¹,

McCabe²

2018

E&S

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ABSTRACT. The Simanjiro plains, east of Tarangire National Park in Northern Tanzania are a key dispersal area for wildlife, and are of vital importance to Maasai pastoral livelihoods, which are rapidly diversifying. Diversification is coupled with fragmentation of the rangelands as agriculture expands and multiple actors compete for land. These changes reflect transformations occurring across pastoral rangelands, and pose the broader challenge of reconciling conservation and development objectives. We propose that qualitative research using a three-dimensional human well-being framework, encompassing material, relational, and subjective aspects, can inform locally legitimate and socially just conservation. Through semistructured group interviews across four villages, we explore well-being conceptions of Maasai men and women in Simanjiro. In particular we focus on the value of understanding social complexity for conservation research in the form of (i) the heterogeneity of conceptions of well-being across gender, age groups, and villages; (ii) temporal dynamics in notions and experiences. Material assets, namely land (for grazing and agriculture) and livestock are important to people but are intertwined with other aspects of well-being. Subjective well-being is centered on concerns about future security, especially with regards to land. Autonomy and social unity (relational dimension) are key priorities. We reflect on the implications for conservation at the study site, and more broadly on how well-being can better be incorporated into policy and practice that takes social justice seriously. The diversity we find in well-being priorities and experiences shows the importance of taking a disaggregated approach that conceptualizes benefits and burdens across a range of locally important well-being components ensuring the priorities of the most marginalized groups are represented.

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Section: Study Sitementioning

confidence: 99%

Well-being and conservation: diversity and change in visions of a good life among the Maasai of northern Tanzania

Woodhouse¹,

McCabe²

2018

E&S

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“…Extended family homesteads or nkang are the units of production and corrals for livestock when animals are not traveling with moran in search of grazing and water. For recent accounts of Simanjiro Maasai see Leslie and McCabe (2013), McCabe et al (2014), Miller et al (2014, and Sachedina and Trench (2009).…”

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confidence: 99%

Searching for Symbolic Value of Cattle: Tropical Livestock Units, Market Price, and Cultural Value of Maasai Livestock

Quinlan¹,

Rumas²,

Naiskye³

et al. 2016

EBL

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We examine metabolic, market, and symbolic values of livestock relative to cultural “positioning” by gender, marriage, and household production among Maasai people in Simanjiro, Tanzania to assess local “proximate currencies” relevant for “cultural success.” Data from mixed methods ethnographic research include qualitative interviews since 2012, observation of 85 livestock market sales in 2013 and 2015, and 37 short key informant interviews in 2015. We examine fit between market values, Tropical Livestock Units (TLU, weight-based species exchange ratio), and perceived value from interviews for moran (unmarried men), muruo (married men), and tɔmɔnɔ́k (married women). Hedonic regression using livestock species, sex, maturity, and size accounted for 90% of the local market price of livestock. We compared the market-based exchange ratio between cattle and smallstock (sheep and goats) to TLU and perceived values situating symbolic value of cattle in terms of Maasai household production schema. One TLU model accurately predicted market exchange ratios, while another predicted hypothetical exchanges, suggesting need for improved livestock wealth estimation for pastoralists. Ritual context, subsistence work, and cultural position influenced perceived values: Moran overvalued cattle by 100% of the local market value. Tɔmɔnɔ́k accurately perceived the market exchange ratio despite never directly engaging in livestock market transactions. Muruo perceived exchange ratios intermediate between moran and tɔmɔnɔ́k. We argue that these perceptions of value reflect distinct labor responsibilities of moran, muruo, and tɔmɔnɔ́k in livestock management, differential value of bridewealth, and control of meat and milk.Attention to value of different livestock species in cultural models of production may prove useful for development efforts.

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“…Scenario planning could identify the key agents and institutions, and additional social science could identify and describe the 'rules' governing their interactions with each other and the environment (e.g., decisionmaking processes, institutional context, opportunities and constraints; arrow F). For instance, ethnographic decision modeling could be used to identify the indicators and processes that resource users or managers use to make decisions about the timing and types of responses to climatic and environmental changes (Miller et al 2014), which would allow researchers to more accurately simulate the timing and application of potential management responses. This workflow could also draw on socioeconomic models, which range from deterministic statistical models to more qualitative approaches.…”

Section: Integrationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Integrating Research Tools to Support the Management of Social-Ecological Systems Under Climate Change

Miller¹,

Morisette²

2014

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ABSTRACT. Developing resource management strategies in the face of climate change is complicated by the considerable uncertainty associated with projections of climate and its impacts and by the complex interactions between social and ecological variables. The broad, interconnected nature of this challenge has resulted in calls for analytical frameworks that integrate research tools and can support natural resource management decision making in the face of uncertainty and complex interactions. We respond to this call by first reviewing three methods that have proven useful for climate change research, but whose application and development have been largely isolated: species distribution modeling, scenario planning, and simulation modeling. Species distribution models provide datadriven estimates of the future distributions of species of interest, but they face several limitations and their output alone is not sufficient to guide complex decisions for how best to manage resources given social and economic considerations along with dynamic and uncertain future conditions. Researchers and managers are increasingly exploring potential futures of social-ecological systems through scenario planning, but this process often lacks quantitative response modeling and validation procedures. Simulation models are well placed to provide added rigor to scenario planning because of their ability to reproduce complex system dynamics, but the scenarios and management options explored in simulations are often not developed by stakeholders, and there is not a clear consensus on how to include climate model outputs. We see these strengths and weaknesses as complementarities and offer an analytical framework for integrating these three tools. We then describe the ways in which this framework can help shift climate change research from useful to usable.

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Coping with Natural Hazards in a Conservation Context: Resource-Use Decisions of Maasai Households During Recent and Historical Droughts

Cited by 25 publications

References 49 publications

Well-being and conservation: diversity and change in visions of a good life among the Maasai of northern Tanzania

Well-being and conservation: diversity and change in visions of a good life among the Maasai of northern Tanzania

Searching for Symbolic Value of Cattle: Tropical Livestock Units, Market Price, and Cultural Value of Maasai Livestock

Integrating Research Tools to Support the Management of Social-Ecological Systems Under Climate Change

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