Pastoralists’ Perception and Ecological Knowledge on Savanna Ecosystem Dynamics in Semi-arid Botswana

Abstract

ABSTRACT. We investigated vegetation dynamics in relation to livestock grazing as perceived by pastoral farmers in different regions of Botswana. A structured questionnaire was used to collect farmers' understanding of vegetation changes and causes within three different grazing lands. The pastoral farmers' description of dominant vegetation differed significantly both at the local and district level, which suggests that rangelands consist of patches dominated by different grasses and woody vegetation. Most pastoralists indicated that grass composition has undergone changes, and unpalatable grasses such as Aristida congesta and Megaloprotachne albescens are increasing. The different factors perceived by pastoral farmers to cause changes in vegetation composition included rainfall, overgrazing, and fire. Bush encroachment is considered to be more common in communal grazing land than in ranches. According to pastoral farmers, the ranching system is less degrading to the environment and more sustainable for livestock production than is communal grazing.

Dynamics and Resilience of Rangelands and Pastoral Peoples Around the Globe

“…TEK provides insights into the ecological dynamics of these systems (130,131) and observations of changes over time and space (132), as well as traditional systems of management adapted to the inherent variability of these systems (133). Recent studies of pastoralist TEK have also documented herder observations of climate change (46,47) and knowledge of conservation of plant populations (134) and fire management (132,135).…”

Local indicators of climate change: the potential contribution of local knowledge to climate research

“…Of the remaining documents, some were theoretical discussions and some used secondary data . Many documents described ways in which local people forecast weather, focused on adaptation and coping strategies, or management practices but did not report local indicators of climate change. It is noteworthy that the subset of documents actually containing primary data on local indicators of climate change has grown in parallel with the overall pool of articles initially retrieved in our search (Figure ).…”

Understanding relations between pastoralism and its changing natural environment

“…Our results also show that pastoralists have a common and detailed TEK about the (Gaoue and Ticktin, 2009;Kgosikoma et al, 2012;Oba, 2012), pastoralists know about the nutritional qualities of these forages and even attribute a quality according to a production objective. For instance, quality of leguminous tree forages for milk mentioned by pastoralists was correlated with their content of crude protein as reported in Ouédraogo-Koné et al (2008) in Burkina Faso.…”