Drivers and impacts of land-use change in the Maasai Steppe of northern Tanzania: an ecological, social and political analysis

Msoffe, Fortunata; Kifugo, S.C.; Said, Mohammed Yahya; Neselle, M.O.; Gardingen, P.R. van; Reid, Robin S.; Ogutu, Joseph O.; Herero, M.; Leeuw, Jan de

doi:10.1080/1747423x.2010.511682

Cited by 77 publications

(90 citation statements)

References 28 publications

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“…In contrast, the intense and homogeneous livestock grazing in the pastoral ranches limits forage intake by herbivores (Arsenault and Owen-Smith 2002;Verweij et al 2006), and repels herbivores from water points. Ultimately, continued sedentarization of pastoralists in the Mara region will progressively exclude herbivores and other wildlife from the pastoral areas of the Mara, similar to patterns reported for other parts of Masailand (Western et al 2009;Msoffe et al 2011).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 76%

Hippopotamus and livestock grazing: influences on riparian vegetation and facilitation of other herbivores in the Mara Region of Kenya

et al. 2011

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Riparian savanna habitats grazed by hippopotamus or livestock experience seasonal ecological stresses through the depletion of herbaceous vegetation, and are often points of contacts and conflicts between herbivores, humans and their livestock. We investigated how hippopotamus and livestock grazing influence vegetation structure and cover and facilitate other wild herbivores in the Mara region of Kenya. We used 5 km-long transects, each with 13 plots measuring 10 9 10 m 2 , and which radiate from rivers in the Masai Mara National Reserve and adjoining community pastoral ranches. For each plot, we measured the height and visually estimated the percent cover of grasses, forbs, shrubs and bare ground, herbivore abundance and species richness. Our results showed that grass height was shortest closest to rivers in both landscapes, increased with increasing distance from rivers in the reserve, but was uniformly short in the pastoral ranches. Shifting mosaics of short grass lawns interspersed with patches of medium to tall grasses occurred within 2.5 km of the rivers in the reserve in areas grazed habitually by hippos. Hence, hippo grazing enhanced the structural heterogeneity of vegetation but livestock grazing had a homogenizing effect in the pastoral ranches. The distribution of biomass and the species richness of other ungulates with distance from rivers followed a quadratic pattern in the reserve, suggesting that hippopotamus grazing attracted more herbivores to the vegetation patches at intermediate distances from rivers in the reserve. However, the distribution of biomass and the species richness of other ungulates followed a linear pattern in the pastoral ranches, implying that herbivores avoided areas grazed heavily by livestock in the pastoral ranches, especially near rivers.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 76%

Hippopotamus and livestock grazing: influences on riparian vegetation and facilitation of other herbivores in the Mara Region of Kenya

et al. 2011

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“…The district has two major agro-ecological zones. The highland zone comprises isolated mountains with average altitude of 2000 m above sea level, characterized by sub-humid weather and an average annual rainfall ranging from 500 mm to 900 mm (ADF 2003;Msoffe et al 2011). The main economic activities in the highland zone are crop production and livestock keeping.…”

Section: Study Areamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Maasai communities in northern Tanzania are increasingly faced with a number of challenges related to (among other things) loss of land ownership due to establishment of new conservation and adminstrative areas and also increase of agricultural activities to meet their increasing food demands (Galvin et al 2001;Galvin et al 2004;Msoffe et al 2011). Global climate change is a significant additional stress to these communities.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Climate change perception and impacts on cattle production in pastoral communities of northern Tanzania

2018

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This study examines pastoralists' perception on climate change and impacts on cattle production from ten study villages of Monduli District in Tanzania. This study drew empirical data from 130 cattle owners and 81 participants from focus group discussions in the study villages. Descriptive statistics and thematic analysis were used to analyze the data respectively. Findings from this study indicate that pastoralists are well aware of the general climate trends in their location, its variability and the impacts of extreme weather events on cattle production. The main climate changes perceived by pastoralists include more erratic and reduced amounts of rainfall, rise in temperature and prolonged and frequent periods of drought. Pastoralists mainly view population pressure and tree cutting as the major causes of climate change. Further, this study found that there are no existing climate risk programmes and early warning systems across the district. Importantly, pastoralists reported the negative impacts of climate change on cattle production. The severe recurrent drought periods result in shortage of forage and water, leading to cattle starvation and malnutrition. Pastoralists reported massive cattle deaths and outbreaks of diseases such as contagious bovine pleuropneumonia and tick-borne diseases. Further, reduction in milk production and poor livestock market prices were also reported as negative impacts on cattle production. Given the range of negative impacts of current climate change and extreme weather events on cattle production, the implications of climate change must be taken into account to ensure longer-term survival and sustainability of pastoralist communities through strengthening of climate risk awareness programs and early warning systems across the district. Further, this study recommends that government and non-governmental organizations should improve institutional support to pastoralists in order to help them deal with the negative impacts of climate change on livestock production.

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“…The scrublands of the Southern African Karoo, for example, support >6,000 different plant species (7), whereas African savannas are reputed for their rich diversity of large mammals. However, losses of wildlife in African rangelands are increasingly attributed to encroachment of agriculture and competition with livestock (8,9).…”

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confidence: 99%

Assessing the impacts of livestock production on biodiversity in rangeland ecosystems

Alkemade

Reid

Berg

et al. 2012

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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Biodiversity in rangelands is decreasing, due to intense utilization for livestock production and conversion of rangeland into cropland; yet the outlook of rangeland biodiversity has not been considered in view of future global demand for food. Here we assess the impact of future livestock production on the global rangelands area and their biodiversity. First we formalized existing knowledge about livestock grazing impacts on biodiversity, expressed in mean species abundance (MSA) of the original rangeland native species assemblages, through metaanalysis of peer-reviewed literature. MSA values, ranging from 1 in natural rangelands to 0.3 in man-made grasslands, were entered in the IMAGE-GLOBIO model. This model was used to assess the impact of change in food demand and livestock production on future rangeland biodiversity. The model revealed remarkable regional variation in impact on rangeland area and MSA between two agricultural production scenarios. The area of used rangelands slightly increases globally between 2000 and 2050 in the baseline scenario and reduces under a scenario of enhanced uptake of resource-efficient production technologies increasing production [high levels of agricultural knowledge, science, and technology (high-AKST)], particularly in Africa. Both scenarios suggest a global decrease in MSA for rangelands until 2050. The contribution of livestock grazing to MSA loss is, however, expected to diminish after 2030, in particular in Africa under the high-AKST scenario. Policies fostering agricultural intensification can reduce the overall pressure on rangeland biodiversity, but additional measures, addressing factors such as climate change and infrastructural development, are necessary to totally halt biodiversity loss.

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Drivers and impacts of land-use change in the Maasai Steppe of northern Tanzania: an ecological, social and political analysis

Cited by 77 publications

References 28 publications

Hippopotamus and livestock grazing: influences on riparian vegetation and facilitation of other herbivores in the Mara Region of Kenya

Hippopotamus and livestock grazing: influences on riparian vegetation and facilitation of other herbivores in the Mara Region of Kenya

Climate change perception and impacts on cattle production in pastoral communities of northern Tanzania

Assessing the impacts of livestock production on biodiversity in rangeland ecosystems

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