Community Adaptations to Environmental Changes and Policy Problems

• Coping strategies for extreme events• Adaptation mechanisms for environmental changes• Tragedy of Commons and African farming systems

– South Africa case study• Dryland drought case study - Namibian Case Study

Lecture Learning Outcomes• To recognise some of the problems imposed on

dryland Africa by land tenure reform due to the ‘Tragedy of the Commons’ argument

• The ability to analyse the impacts of land privatisation on dryland societies and environments, through case studies from across Southern Africa

Desertification : The Issue and Controversy• Portrayed as the first big global environmental issue with African famines & link to desertification driving much debate from UNCHD (1972) to WSSD (2002)• Contrasting views that –• “desertification affects 3.6 billion hectares & threatens livelihoods of over 1 billion people” (UN, 1992, 1997; 2002)• “desertification is an institutional myth … one that an institution wanted to believe & served its purposes” (Warren & Agnew, 1988; Binns, 1990; Thomas & Middleton, 1994)

Reasons for ‘Myth / Fact’ Controversy• Uncertainties over definitions of terms – desertification, degradation, desiccation, drought etc.• Problems with subjective nature of expert-led assessments used to portray desertification extent (UNCOD, 1977; UN GAP, 1984; GLASOD, 1990; UNEP, 1992; 1997)• Natural variability of drylands leading to environmental changes & suffering in droughts• Lack of engagement with local people or Government extension staff

Contemporary Drylands Research Messages – Stocking, 2003

• “interventions to reverse declining trends in food security must recognise the variable resilience & sensitivity of major soil types” p. 1356

• “The greatest threat to soil quality and food security is if the security of tenure for smallholders is made even more difficult by changing world conditions” p.1359

• “Science does not always get it right and does not necessarily provide workable or acceptable solutions” p. 1359

• “The ‘tragedy of the commons’ lies more in our simplistic, linear, disciplinary thinking than in reality” p.1359

Mixed Farming Systems• Mixed farming simply implies use of both arable and

pastoral production within household livelihood strategies• The main production system followed by hundreds of

millions of dryland farmers, notably in sub-Saharan Africa• Offers flexibility within dynamic environment – e.g.

opportunistic cropping when wet; sale of cattle when dry – needs access to communal rangeland for grazing

Case Study 1 – Molopo Basin, South Africa / Botswana

Mixed farming region classed by international (e.g. GLASOD) & national surveys (e.g. NBI, 2000) as affected by severe degradation

Interdisciplinary Research Case Study - Thomas and Dougill, 2003

Aim - combine different information sources for simple & applicable land degradation assessment at a field scale

1. Inventory of environmental indicators of soil degradation (fencelines, nebkha dunes, rills) & livelihoods survey identifying farmers concerns

2. Participatory nutrient budget studies - farmer interviews aimed at quantifying nutrient fluxes at field and farm scales

3. Soil chemical analysis (N, P, K, pH and OM)from fields chosen by farmer

4. Soil degradation discussions - two-way discussion of soil degradation constraints on farming practices and crop yields

5. Local and national workshops

Key Study Findings

• Soil fertility assessments in combination with farmer interviews suggest acidification (due to fertiliser inputs) or nutrient depletion (due to reduced manure inputs) are the main processes of land degradation NOT erosion

• Participatory studies highlight constraint as a decline in flow of nutrients from rangeland to arable due to access problems to privatised rangeland & lack of herding labour

• Institutional frameworks need to enable increased availability & use of organic manure inputs as key factor affecting sustainability of arable production on sandy soils

Pastoral Farming Systems• A living and way of life to over 25 million people in dryland Africa

• A production system that continues to make more efficient & sustainable use of drylands than alternatives

• Pastoralists are suffering disproportionately, with many experiencing declining living standards, increased poverty & insecurity

• Difficulties compounded by the best traditional common grazing lands having been privatised or allocated to agricultural schemes

• Settled pastoralists more likely than traditional pastoral groups, to suffer from extreme poverty & social dysfunction– All UNRISD, quoted in Lane, 1998; p. ix-xi

Received Wisdoms & Need for Change

• Conventional wisdoms (that have driven development efforts in Africa) may be deeply misleading (Leach & Mearns, 1996; p.1): eg. -

• ‘desertification affects 3.6 billion hectares’ (UN, 1992; p.92)

• ‘more than half of the world’s pasturelands are overgrazed and subject to erosive degradation’ (Pimentel et al., 1995; p.1117)

• ‘traditional farming & livestock husbandry (&) traditional land tenure arrangements .. Became the major source of degradation of the rural environment’ (Cleaver, 1992; p.67)

• ‘ruin is the destination toward which all men rush, each pursuing his own best interest in a society that believes in the freedom of the commons’ (Hardin, 1968; p.1244)

A dryland landscape - drought coping strategies, land tenure and management options

• For mapped example region, discuss - Likely impacts of spatial variations in

rainfall (local droughts) Available coping strategies for pastoralists

during regional drought Likely threats to traditional coping strategies

Traditional Drought Coping Strategies

Local Drought• • • • Regional Drought• • • •

Threats to Traditional Coping Strategies• Land Management

– – –

• Environmental– – –

• Institutional – – –

Case Study 2 - Omaheke District, Eastern Namibia - Twyman et al., 2001

• Research Aims -– Examine the processes leading to community self-empowerment in form of

community fencing at Okonyoka

– Assess implications of fencing at range of scales (intra-community, household & individual) & on different spheres (social, environmental & political)

• Research Methods – Integrated participatory studies focusing on drought coping strategies, natural

resource changes (spatial and temporal) and social networks

Okonyoka - Route to Community Fencing

• External Pressures:• Govt drought subsidies discourage cattle movements• Establishment of water committees by Govt (Min of Agr & Min of

Water Affiars)

• Internal Issues:• Opening and subsequent settlement of emergency boreholes (Min of

Lands)• Private fencing by neighbouring village resident• Resident trained in livestock management - improved local

knowledge base (Min of Education)• Agreed by water committee - funded and built by community -

enabled by community empowerment encouraged by Government & local NGO (Oxfam)

Social implications

• Unanimous view of fence as ‘good’ thing despite cost• Increased sense of community & control over resources• Key case studies -

– Younger son and wife - ‘break with father’ and bring cattle to Okonyoka - community want them to leave

– Eldest son - moved away, but now returned with large no. of cattle. Dual family rights established

– Female headed households – established subtly next to family kraal

Environmental implications• Large area enclosed reducing grazing across many areas• Mapping shows -

– Ecological heterogeneity in bush cover

– Return of perennial grass cover to marginal areas improving rangeland condition for cattle, providing drought feed

• Positive environmental effects at the expense of neighbouring areas

Policy implications• Many other communities discussing community led fencing

of commons• Current gap in Namibian policy whereby fencing neither

legal or illegal (leading inadvertently to community empowerment) now being redressed by Communal land bill

• Ambiguities remain with further provision for subdivision of communal lands (Lands / Agriculture conflicts)

• As yet, no provision for community land ownership within policy frameworks

Implications to NGO’s• Plans to start community land use planning and extend

community natural resource management• Okonyoka a good case study? But community

empowerment marginalises poorer and more vulnerable households along the way

• Empowerment process dynamic with notable positive impacts at local level at expense of marginalised elsewhere

• Growing number of landless and tensions on traditional drought-coping strategies

Key Reading

• Lane, C.R. (1998) Custodians of the Commons. Pastoral Land tenure in East and West Africa. Earthscan, London. Chapter 1.

• Stocking, M.A. (2003) Tropical Soils and Food Security: The next 50 years. Science, 302, 1356-1359.

• Thomas, A.D. and Dougill, A.J. (2003) Desertification in Southern Africa. Geography Review, 17 (2), 24-27.

• Twyman, C., Dougill, A.J., Sporton, D. and Thomas, D.S.G. (2001) A case of community self empowerment, Okonyoka, Eastern Namibia: environmental and policy implications. Review of African Political Economy, 28 (87), 9-26. Available on Nathan Bodington.