Upload
nguyenthu
View
217
Download
0
Embed Size (px)
Citation preview
Global goals, local actions: A framework for integrating indigenous knowledge and ecological methods for rangeland assessment and monitoring in northern Kenya
Hassan G. Roba Doctoral Thesis
Department of International Environment and Development Studies, Noragric Norwegian University of Life Sciences (UMB)
s, June 2008
Thesis no.: 2008:25 ISBN: 978-82-575-0828-9 ISSN: 1503-1667
To Halima and Dirram
ii
Table of Contents
List of Acronyms iv
List of Figures v
List of Papers vi
Acknowledgement vii
Abstract viii
1. Introduction 1 1.1 Background to the study 2 1.2. Organization of the thesis 6 1.3. Study sites 7
2. Integration of global goals and local actions 11 2.1. Definition of terms and concepts 14
3. Theoretical perspectives 19
4. Methodological perspectives 23
5. Framework for integrating local knowledge in the implementation of GECs 27 5.1 Indigenous knowledge 28 5.2 Ecological methods 30 5.3 The selection of indicators 32
6. The implementation mechanisms of the framework 34 6.1. Step I: Interviews 34 6.2. Step II: Joint field assessments 35 6.3. Step III: The workshop 37
7. Results and discussions 37 7.1. Impact of pastoral sedentarization on vegetation 37 7.2. Herder landscape classification, vegetation assessment and monitoring 40 7.3. Herders perceptions of land degradation 41 7.4 Long term environmental dynamics 43
8. Implications for the global goals 45
9. Conclusions and recommendations 46
References 48
Part B 60
iii
List of Acronyms CBD Convention on Biological Diversity
CBO Community Based Organizations
CCD Convention on Combating Desertification
EMC Environmental Management Committees
GEC Global Environmental Conventions
GLM General Linear Model
IEK Indigenous Ecological Knowledge
IPAL Integrated Project on Arid Lands
ITK Indigenous Technical Knowledge
LGP Landscape Grazing Potential
LGS Landscape Grazing Suitability
NAPs National Action Program
NEMA National Environmental Management Authority
NGOs Non Governmental Organizations
PCA Principal Components Analysis
PRA Participatory Rural Appraisal
RRA Rapid Rural Appraisal
SAS Statistical Analysis System
SEEM Socio-Economic and Ecological Model
SPSS Statistical Package for the Social Sciences
TEK Traditional Ecological Knowledge
UNCCD United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification
UNCED United Nations Conference on Environment and Development
UNCOD United Nations Conference on Desertification
UNEP Unite Nations Environmental Programme
iv
List of Figures
Figure 1. Location of study sites on a map of the Marsabit District 8
Figure 2a. Annual rainfall for Marsabit town 9
Figure 2b. Mean monthly rainfall for Marsabit town between 1935 and 2004 9
Figure 2c. Total annual rainfall for the Kargi station 10
Figure 3. Framework for the implementation of Global Environmental Conventions, showing integration of
indigenous knowledge and ecological methods for the assessment and monitoring of environmental change 28
Figure 4. Framework for integrating herder knowledge and ecological methods for assessing and monitoring
rangelands in northern Kenya 35
v
List of Papers Paper I. Roba, H.G. and Oba, G. 2008. Integration of herder knowledge and ecological methods for land
degradation assessment around sedentary settlements in a sub-humid zone in northern Kenya.
International Journal of Sustainable Development & World Ecology 15 (2008) 251264 DOI
10.3843/SusDev.15.3:8
Paper II Roba, H. G and Oba, G. 2008. Community participatory landscape classification and biodiversity
assessment and monitoring of grazing lands in northern Kenya.
Journal of Environmental Management (In press). doi:10.1016/j.jenvman.2007.12.017
Paper III Roba, H. G. and Oba, G. Efficacy of integrating herder knowledge and ecological methods for
monitoring rangeland degradation in Northern Kenya (Submitted to Human Ecology)
Paper IV
Roba, H. G. and Oba, G. Pulling away the Last Tree or Reversing Desertification? Re-assessments
of land cover changes around pastoral settlements in Northern Kenya (Revised, Global
Environmental Change)
vi
Acknowledgement The successful completion of this thesis is as a result of enormous support and encouragement I
received from many people. I sincerely thank my supervisor Professor Gufu Oba for tirelessly
supervising my work from the initial stage of developing research proposal, to the fieldwork and
finally, the write up of this thesis. I benefited a lot from his guidance and scholarly skills for
conducting research. During the fieldwork, I received valuable support from experienced field
technicians of Kenya Agricultural Research Institutes (KARI) in Marsabit, namely, Hussein
Wallaga, Peter Geykuku, and Diiba Guyo. I also thank Mr. Jacob Kimani of the Department of
Resource Survey and Remote Sensing (DRSRS) of Kenya for his support in the interpretation of
satellite imagery.
I am grateful to the staff and colleagues at the Noragric Department for providing a pleasant and
academically stimulating environment. Many thanks to the Librarians Liv Ellingsen and Ingeborg
Brandtzg for being very helpful in availing relevant literature whenever I needed them throughout
my study period. I acknowledge administrative and IT assistance I got from Josie Teurling, Frode
Sundnes, Aslaug Gotehus, Lars imoen, Ann Marte, Anders Dysvik and Joanna Boddens-Hosang.
I thank my colleagues Boku Tache, Zeinabu Khalif and Mohamed Guyo who accorded me a highly
valued company and useful discussions related to my work. I also thank my other colleagues,
Hussein Tadicha, Wario Tadicha, Bule Hallo, Safo Roba, Tari Doti, Philip Ebei, Steve Lesoron,
Hussein Jemma, Charllote Nakakaawa, Ayele Tessema, Bed Mani Dahal, David Mwesigye
Tumusiime for their encouragements. I thank Ali Ibrahim and Adan M. Boru for taking care of my
family in my absence.
I am grateful the Norwegian Research Council who funded the study through the project no.
16139/S30 and to the National Museums of Kenya and in particular the Director Dr. Idle Farah for
giving me paid leave to pursue Phd program.
My special gratitude is due to the Ariaal and Rendille herders of Marsabit who accepted me as their
friend and sacrificed their time to participate in the joint field work and for their willingness to share
with me their knowledge on the environment.
Finally my heartfelt gratitude goes to my wife Halima Ibrahim, for enduring the loneliness and also
for taking care of our daughter Dirram while I was away. Her love and support provided a source of
my inspiration.
vii
Abstract
This thesis is about testing a methodological framework for integrating indigenous knowledge
and ecological methods for promoting local communities participation in the implementation of
Global Environmental Conventions (GECs) such as the Convention on Combating Desertification
(CCD) and the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) at local community levels. The thesis
(divided into Part A and Part B) tackles the integration of indigenous knowledge and ecological
methods for assessing and monitoring human impacts on the environments of northern Kenya around
sedentarized settlements that was associated with land degradation and desertification as well as the
loss of biodiversity. Development of the framework is based on in-depth analysis of theoretical and
methodological analysis of environmental indicator selection. The implementation of the framework
is approached at three levels: the global level related to the articles of the GECs, the national level
concerned with the prioritizing of the action programs and finally, the local community levels where
the actions of implementations of the conventions take place. In implementing the framework, the
thesis focused on the third part which involved local communities in participatory research.
Implementation at the local level involves the consideration of a diversity of ecological, production
and social-cultural factors, and the use of local knowledge for resource assessment and monitoring.
The implementation of the framework was conducted in Marsabit District, Northern Kenya, in two
contrasting environments where two pastoral communities were used as partners. In the sub-humid
(Ariaal) zone, the study sites were represented by the Karare and Lkijiji settlements. This zone
included a National Forest Reserve and Game Reserve that is protected from livestock grazing,
which served as a benchmark for monitoring vegetation change. The arid lowlands (Rendille), were
represented by the Kargi and Korr settlements. In order to implement the framework the research
was aimed at (a) understanding herder knowledge and ecological methods for assessing and
monitoring the impact of pastoral sedentarization on land degradation; (b) applying herders
knowledge of landscape classification by asking participatory questions for monitoring changes in
biodiversity; (c) using herder and ecological indicators for assessing and monitoring land
degradation; and (d) understanding long-term changes in vegetation cover using herder monitoring
and ecological monitoring methods.
For addressing the goals in implementing the framework, herders knowledge and ecological
methods were integrated in three sequential steps. Semi-structured interviews and group discussions
viii
with key informants were used to generate information on livestock management, changes in
vegetation indicators and historical changes in land use patterns. Joint transect walks were conducted
with knowledgeable herders to assess environmental change using ecological indicators (vegetation
and soil) and herder anthropogenic indicators (i.e. landscape grazing potential and landscape grazing
suitability). Monitoring of marked transects, satellite images taken at different times, and herders
knowledge were used to evaluate long-term changes in vegetation cover around permanent
settlements in the arid lowlands that were previously mapped as desertified sites. Finally, a workshop
was organized with herders and Environmental Management Committees (EMCs) in which they
participated in informal discussions on issues addressed by the joint research project.
The analyses showed that the rangelands both the sub-humid (Ariaal) and the arid lowlands
(Rendille) had shrunk during the previous three to four decades. Mobility had however remained as
the main strategies for land use for grazing through splitting of the herds between the mobile (fora)
managed in the remote rangelands, and home-based rangelands. Although it had been earlier
hypothesized that pastoral sedentarization contributed to degradation of vegetation around
settlements, the present research found no evidence of permanent degradation. In the sub-humid zone
an increase in bush cover, a decline in herbaceous species, or an increase in unpalatable as opposed
to palatable plant species was found according to herder assessments. For making comparisons, the
herders separated the biodiversity into those species that are desirable for livestock grazing and those
that are undesirable. For the herders, the qualitative changes in vegetation indicators were associated
with continuous grazing, banning the use of fire for range management, and episodic rainfall.
Ecologists on the other hand, considered the total species pool, which showed no variability across
land use gradients from the settlements compared to the benchmark.
In the arid lowlands, vegetation recovery around the Kargi and Korr settlements was observed.
Around the Korr settlement that was mapped some 25 years ago as being desertified, key fodder
species now dominate the areas around the settlement, which also has higher herbaceous and shrub
cover. In these arid lowlands herders have been actively involved in environmental management.
The home herds are located in pastoral camps outside the settlements, and due to protection, the
rangelands within a 4 km radius of the settlements show recovery of both herbaceous and woody
vegetation. Monitoring of the communal grazing areas did not show significant variations in species
composition over the 24 year period, although the herders reported changes in land use patterns from
seasonal to year round grazing. The changes in species composition were confirmed by ecological
ix
methods, which linked the changes to seasonal variability, as opposed to permanent loss in species
composition. Around the permanent settlements of Kargi and Korr, satellite imagery showed an
increase in vegetation cover between1986 and 2000. The evidence shows that conservation methods
practiced by local communities have reversed land degradation reported earlier in the 1970s. The
evidence further shows that the arid ecosystems of northern Kenya exhibited resilience with a
capacity for recovery, when appropriate management measures were taken. The research found no
evidence of permanent degradation leading to desertification. Herders monitored land degradation
using multiple indicators including livestock productivity, landscape grazing potential, landscape
grazing suitability and changes in vegetation and soil characteristics. Herders perceptions of land
degradation were influenced by livestock production performance, from which they inferred other
qualitative indicators, in addition to biophysical and anthropogenic indicators. From the observations
made, there is no evidence of permanent land degradation around the settlements in either the sub-
humid or the arid lowlands, which could be attributed to pastoral sedentarization. On the contrary,
even the areas reported as desertified some 25 years ago have shown recovery. The findings also
support the recent greening of the sahel which has been marked by vegetation recovery after the
return of normal rains. In this study, both stochastic rainfall and management practices contributed to
the reversal of desertification. From the results we may conclude that local community participation
in assessment and monitoring of environment change in the grazing lands of northern Kenya would
contribute to the successful implementation of GECs at community levels. The thesis showed that
integrated methods would improve local communities participation in the implementation of GECs.
The most important contribution of this thesis is the evidence about the ability of herders to assess
and monitor environmental change, and the use of herder knowledge for selecting sensitive
indicators that meet the criteria defined in the articles of GECs, particularly those related to the CCD
and the CBD. The thesis makes specific recommendations for achieving the global goals through
local actions that are linked to traditional pastoral production in northern Kenya.
Key words: Biodiversity; global environmental conventions; herder indicators; ecological indicators; land degradation; local participation
x
1. Introduction
This thesis aims to develop a methodological framework for achieving local participation in the
implementation of global environmental conventions such as the Convention on Combating
Desertification (CCD) and the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). The study involved
assessment and monitoring of land degradation, desertification and biodiversity loss in the grazing
lands of northern Kenya. The rationale of the thesis is that participatory environmental assessment
and monitoring in arid zones in Sub-Saharan Africa in general, and northern Kenya in particular,
have been constrained by the lack of involvement of local communities. Instead, assessment and
monitoring of environmental problems have relied exclusively on conventional ecological methods
and indicators selected by scientists. This happens in spite of the global environmental conventions
(GECs) such as CCD and CBD placing strong emphasis on the need for participation by local
communities (UNCED, 1992). Among the factors that have impeded local participation in the
implementation of the GECs is a lack of integration of indigenous knowledge and ecological
methods (Seely and Moser, 2004; Oba et al., 2008). An integrated methodological approach is
therefore needed to address environmental degradation, particularly that associated with changes in
land use intensification and desertification around sedentary nomadic settlements (Lusigi, 1981).
Sedentarization of pastoral populations is either voluntary, as an adaptation to changes in
economic and environmental conditions, or through forceful settlements by states for purposes of
development or economic rehabilitation (Salzman, 1980). Whatever the cause, pastoral
sedentarization has environmental consequences. In Sahelian Africa, over-exploitation of vegetation
resources around settlements is reported to be responsible for inducing desertification (Swift 1975;
Mabbutt 1984; Mabbutt 1985; Thomas et al., 2000). Pastures are said to be depleted, showing
dramatic declines along gradients of land use pressure by livestock grazing. Depletion of woody
species around settlements is reported to be associated with over-exploitation of woody plants for
the construction of livestock night enclosures (Lamprey and Yussuf 1981), the collection of wood
for fuel (Benjaminsen, 1993), cultivation (Lamprey, 1976), and over-browsing by livestock (Oba,
1998; Oba et al., 2000a). The changes are pertinent to the principal goals of the GECs, which are
concerned with reversing such problems through better ecological understanding and improved land
management.
In northern Kenya, pastoral sedentarization has been associated with land degradation and
desertification (Lamprey and Yussuf, 1981; Lusigi 1984). The problem has been captured within the
1
global debate of environmental degradation and desertification. Many of the scholarly research
conducted during the 1970s emphasized environmental degradation, both in the sub-humid zones
and the arid lowlands, where land use associated with pastoralists sedentarization was blamed.
However, previous attempts to assess and monitor land degradation induced by pastoralists
sedentarization in northern Kenya used scientific methods alone (Lusigi et al., 1986, Hary et al.,
1996, Keya, 1997; Oba et al., 2003). In the earlier attempts, local community knowledge on
environmental change was ignored and, no effort was made to integrate local peoples knowledge
with ecological assessments. However, the local communities were usually blamed for contributing
to the process of environmental degradation around sedentary settlements (Field, 1981). Due to the
exclusion of local people, the findings from environmental assessments, including those of northern
Kenya, have remained contradictory and the implementation of the GECs has been poorly addressed
(see section 2.0 of this thesis). This thesis aims to close the gaps by proposing an effective method
for integrating the indigenous knowledge of pastoral herders with ecological methods used by
trained scientists. The thesis attempts this task by developing participatory methods, testing the
efficacy of the methods and complementing indigenous knowledge with conventional ecological
methods, as a process that will finally be aimed at meeting the global goals using local actions. The
research is conceptualized within the wider global goals related to the implementation of the GECs
at local community levels.
1.1 Background to the study
During the previous four decades, the Ariaal and Rendille pastoralists systems of livestock
management in northern Kenya have been transformed from mobile to sedentary systems (Oba,
1994). The process of settlement by nomads was accelerated as a result of drought disasters that
impoverished many herders in the 1970s, forcing them into famine relief camps. In the sub-humid
zone, the settlements in Karare, in the Marsabit District, were initially developed to rehabilitate
destitute nomads by means of crop cultivation, while in the arid lowlands, the Rendille settled
around the main towns of Kargi and Korr to receive food relief (Fig. 1). Later, the government and
missionaries initiated development programs that encouraged pastoralists to settle around these
towns, which had grown into administrative, educational and security centers that provided watering
facilities for humans and livestock. Despite the changed patterns of land use, the Ariaal and Rendille
2
pastoralists maintained mobility of their herds, while the greater proportion of the human population
remained in the sedentary settlements. The main concerns for the scholarly discussions in the 1970s
were the impact of sedentary land use on the scarce vegetation resources. The scientists of the
UNESCO-Integrated Project on Arid Lands (IPAL), who conducted much of the earlier work, were
concerned about the accelerating land degradation and loss of vegetation cover, due to the over-
exploitation of woody vegetation for the construction of night enclosures (boma), as well as
overgrazing associated with high livestock stocking densities around the settlements. One estimate
suggests that within the settlement rangelands, livestock stocking densities exceeded 25 Tropical
Livestock Units per km, whereas in the remote rangelands the stocking densities were much lower.
The heavy stocking was linked to the lack of woody plant regeneration (Lamprey, 1976).
The research goals of the UNESCO-IPAL project were to understand the state of land
degradation and livestock production within 18,000 km2 of the home range of the Rendille and the
Ariaal pastoralists. Using vegetation maps, the grazing lands were delineated according to
vegetation units (hereafter referred to as range units) that corresponded with grazing landscapes
used for seasonal grazing by the multi-species livestock comprising sheep, goats, cattle and camels.
During the initial surveys conducted throughout the grazing home range of the Ariaal and the
Rendille pastoralists, the conclusion was that the conditions of the rangelands varied from fair to
poor, except for a few vegetation types in the sub-humid zone of Marsabit mountain that were
rated as good (Lusigi, 1984). Around the settlements, increased extraction of woody vegetation
for building human shelters and livestock enclosures resulted in reduced woody cover, while
livestock grazing pressure was reported to have had negative impacts on the herbaceous vegetation
and woody species regeneration (Walther and Herlocker, 1980; Lamprey and Yussuf, 1981). In the
lowlands, vegetation around settlements was over-utilized and the vegetation communities were
mapped as man-made deserts, which in the arid lowlands, extended up to a distance of 8 km from
the settlements (Lusigi, 1984). The general scientific perception at the time was that the man-made
deserts around the settlements were expanding and threatening the surrounding grazing lands. The
perception was influenced by discourses at the time on the topic of Sahelian desertification
(Lamprey, 1983).
Although an interdisciplinary team of researchers conducted the investigations aimed at
placing the people central to the problem, there was little evidence that the ecological research
3
included the local herders in conducting environmental assessments.1 Despite this lack, the
anthropological research uncovered explicitly the wealth of knowledge that the pastoralists had in
managing their arid environments (OLeary, 1985). However, mostly the scientific empirical
ecological research findings were used to influence the recommendations proposed by the
management plan (Lusigi, 1984).
The management plan considered policy recommendations for the development of the Ariaal
and Rendille rangelands, emphasizing the need for considering development according to local
socio-economic needs and priorities set by the local people. However, it gave little weight to the
role of indigenous knowledge in resource management, by recommending that range areas should
be developed, conserved, and managed in accordance with the ecological principles of proper land
use (Lusigi, 1984:484). At the time, the thinking of the IPAL research team was influenced by the
equilibrium ecological theory that readily blamed the pastoralists for causing desertification due to
high livestock stocking densities around settlements resulting in over-exploitation of vegetation
resources (Field, 1981). Interestingly enough, whereas the ecological component of the project
concluded that the environmental changes were permanent, leading to desertification, the social
scientists in the team placed the problem within the wider socio-economic and political discourses
(e.g. OLeary, 1984).
By comparison, the assessment and monitoring of the status of the rangelands in northern
Kenya conducted by UNEP and the Government of Kenya a few years after the IPAL project
(Ottichilo, 1990), was more conservative concerning environmental degradation. The UNEP study
used remote sensing and ground surveys of indicators of degradation, including physical (climate
and soil), biological (vegetation) and socio-economic indicators, to model different processes
influencing environmental change. It was concluded that the rangelands of northern Kenya,
including those of the Marsabit District, had not suffered adverse changes over the monitoring
periods. Another study by Herlocker and Walther (1991) reported that less than 1% of the district
was in poor environmental condition. The discrepancies between the IPAL results of the 1970s
and 1980s, and those of 1990s imply that there was inconsistency in the evaluations of land
degradation. The present study therefore used the IPAL work as a baseline for monitoring and
assessing vegetation changes around four main settlements, using multiplicities of methods that
1 Much of the environmental awareness was, however, conducted by means of training local herders (see Oba, 1985a, 1985b; Lusigi, 1984).
4
fully integrated herder indigenous knowledge with ecological methods, in order to understand the
dynamics of land degradation.
This thesis is aimed at improving the understanding of environmental changes in the sub-
humid and the arid lowland systems of northern Kenya since the UNESCO-IPAL research was
conducted in the early 1980s. The sub-humid zone and the arid lowlands were selected to represent
the two dominant production systems used by the Ariaal (cattle) pastoralists and the Rendille
(camel) pastoralists, respectively. According to the assessments of UNESCO-IPAL, the sub-humid
zone suffered less environmental degradation, while the arid lowlands experienced localized
desertification. This thesis explores the state of degradation processes across the two systems in the
time period since the previous studies.
The individual studies in the thesis were guided by the general hypothesis that, due to their
ecological dispositions, the two systems have experienced different environmental changes under
the influence of local land use in terms of livestock management. Throughout the thesis, the two
systems were, however, not directly compared for the following reasons. Firstly, the impact of
stocking density in both systems was unknown due to a lack of reliable livestock census data, and
frequent livestock movements between the two systems. Secondly, the most important variable in
measuring environmental change was vegetation characteristics. The two systems, due to
differences in the levels of rainfall, altitude and topography, display differences in vegetation
characteristics in terms of species composition and cover, regardless of levels of use. Thirdly, the
study used local knowledge of the Ariaal and Rendille pastoralists. Since the two groups use
different ecosystems, it was assumed that their knowledge of environmental change would differ;
thus preference was given to using the knowledge of the two pastoral groups to understand
environmental changes in their local land use contexts. Nonetheless, the selection of the sub-humid
(equilibrium) and the arid zones (non-equilibrium) was useful in understanding the characteristics of
vegetation changes that might be explained in terms of existing ecological theories. Furthermore,
the use of different ecosystems was useful in investigating whether concepts such as land
degradation and desertification might be relative to (a) use consistent with indigenous knowledge
and (b) who is assessing and monitoring the herders or the ecologists.
5
1.2. Organization of the thesis
This thesis is divided into two parts. Part A is the synthesis of a framework for the integration of
indigenous knowledge and ecological methods for assessment and monitoring of environmental
change at the local level (see section 2.0). The nine sections in this part of the thesis present the
theoretical framework necessary for linking the implementation of the GECs and local
communities actions to ecological principles. In section two of Part A, a brief description of the
participatory research is presented and the frequently used terms in the thesis are defined in the
context of their use. In section three, the theoretical perspectives for integrating indigenous
knowledge and scientific methods are discussed. In section four, the methodological perspectives
for achieving the integration of indigenous knowledge and ecological methods are described. In
section five, the mechanisms for developing integration are given, using a schematic framework that
links global and local goals. In section six, the steps followed in the implementation of the
framework at local community levels in northern Kenya are described. In the seventh section, the
synthesis of the key findings of the four case studies is provided. The eighth section provides
discussions on the implications for the global goals. The final section of Part A provides conclusions
and recommendations. In Part B of the thesis, four papers from the individual studies are presented.
The general objectives of the thesis were as follows:
(1) To develop a methodological framework for integrating indigenous knowledge and ecological
methods for achieving the implementation of GECs at local community levels. The theoretical and
methodological considerations for integrating indigenous knowledge and ecological methods were
reviewed.
(2) To understand the impact of sedentarization on the vegetation in the sub-humid and the arid
lowlands. Key questions for addressing this objective included: How did herders livestock
management strategies affect livestock distribution in the rangelands around settlements? What
were the impacts of sedentarization on the vegetation around settlements?
6
(3) To understand herders knowledge of biodiversity assessment and monitoring at landscape level.
The key questions were: What were the herders landscape classification criteria; What indicators
did the herders use for floral biodiversity assessment and monitoring; and what roles did the
herders biodiversity assessment and monitoring play in the decision making process for livestock
management?
(4) To understand herders perceptions of land degradation and the influence it had on herd
management strategies. The questions posed were: What were herders perceptions of good or
bad environments? What indicators did the herders use for assessment and monitoring change in
environments from good to bad, for purposes of livestock management?
(5) To evaluate the efficacy of herders and ecological assessment and monitoring of long-term
environmental changes in arid rangelands. The research questions were: What were the changes in
vegetation characteristics in the communal grazing area over a period of 24 years (1982/1983-
2005/2006)? What were the changes in vegetation cover around the Kargi and Korr settlements over
a period of 14 years (1986-2000)? What factors contributed to vegetation cover changes in the
communal rangelands and around the settlements of Kargi and Korr?
1.3. Study sites
The study sites were located in the sub-humid zone (Karare and Lkijiji) and the arid low lands (Korr
and Kargi) of the Marsabit District (Fig. 1).
7
Figure 1. Location of study sites on a map of the Marsabit District
8
The Karare and Lkijiji sites receive a mean annual rainfall of about 600 mm per year (Fig. 2a). The
rainfall is bimodal, divided into the long rains (March to June) and the short rains (October and
November) (Fig. 2b). The vegetation of the sub-humid zone is classified as
Pennisetum/Bothriochloa (Perennial grassland) (Awere-Gyekye, 1984). The Ariaal herders, who
manage cattle and small stock, also conduct limited cultivation (the later system of land use is not
discussed in this thesis). For about 30 years, the area has experienced continuous livestock grazing,
mainly by cattle and small stock around the permanent settlements clusters of Karare and Lkijiji.
0200400600800
100012001400160018002000
19
35
19
40
19
45
19
50
19
55
19
60
19
65
19
70
19
75
19
80
19
85
19
90
19
95
20
00
Rai
nfal
l (m
m)
Year
Figure 2a. Annual rainfall for Marsabit town
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
Mea
n ra
inaf
all (
mm
)
Months
Figure 2b. Mean monthly rainfall for Marsabit town between 1935 and 2004
9
050
100150200250300350400
1980
1982
1984
1986
1988
1990
2000
2002
2004
2006
Years
Rai
nfal
l (m
m)
Figure 2c. Total annual rainfall for the Kargi station The arid lower lands of Korr and Kargi (Fig.1) receive less than 200 mm of annual rainfall, which is
highly variable both temporally (Fig. 2c), and spatially (Pratt and Gwynne, 1977). Droughts are
frequent in the area (Bake, 1983). The vegetation is mainly dwarf shrubs dominated by Indigofera
spinosa and I. cliffodiana, and bushland dominated by Acacia sp. (Lusigi et al., 1986). The major
land use type is grazing by multi-species livestock managed from pastoral camps (gob).
In the sub-humid system, cattle and small stock herds are split into the home and the fora
herds (Fratkin, 1986; Fratkin, 1987). During the wet season, the fora cattle are moved to the
lowlands to exploit available fresh grasses and surface water. During the dry season, the mobile fora
camps return to the home rangelands and the livestock are watered at the wells in the Marsabit
Forest Reserve. The small stock remains close to the permanent settlements in the sub-humid zone.
At the settlements, fewer animals (cattle and small stock) are managed for milking. But generally
there is a circulation of livestock (milk vs. dry herds) between the settlements and the fora systems.
The milk animals are brought back to the settlements and the dry animals are sent to the fora.
Besides the sub-humid zones around Mt. Marsabit, the Ariaal pastoralists are also found
around Logo Logo (approximately 40 km to the south of Marsabit), Merrile (approximately 100 km
to the south of Marsabit) and around the Ndoto and Mathews mountain ranges bordering the
Samburu District in the south. The Ariaal residing around the Ndoto Mountains and Mathews Range
use the surrounding lowlands, in a similar way to their counterparts on the slopes of the Marsabit
Mountain. According to Fratkin (1987), the Ariaal have remained nomadic, with some sub-clans
occupying highland areas subsisting on cattle, while others living in the lowland areas manage
10
camels. The livestock species managed by the Ariaal clans have different grazing requirements and
are therefore herded as a separate group, resulting in high labour demands (Fratkin, 1987). The
Ariaal living in the lowlands have adopted the Rendille cultural lifestyle, while the Rendille in the
sub-humid zones have become bilingual in Maa and Rendille. The practice of intermarriage has
created shifting identities between the two communities.
In the arid lowlands, the Rendille pastoralists also practice herd splitting into mobile satellite
camps (fora) and home herds (gob) (Fratkin and Smith, 1994). The camel mobile camps are located
far from settlements and water points. The home settlements are positioned near permanent water
points, as cattle and small stock need to be watered more frequently (Fratkin, 1986). Each Rendille
clan resides in separate pastoral camps where the elders meet in the evening at a gathering in the
centre of the camp called naabo, to discuss matters such as the state of grazing, livestock
management and other matters of importance to the community. Aerial surveys of the camps done
by IPAL in 1982/1983 show that the camps had 17-23 houses on average and 47% were located
around the major settlements centers of Kargi, Korr, Logo Logo and Laisamis (OLeary, 1985).
Unlike the Ariaal settlements, the Rendille pastoral camps are frequently moved and each time
the moves are made, sometimes just a short distance away, new thorny trees are cut to build night
livestock enclosures. Once a year the Rendille bring all their livestock and people to the main camps
for the almado and sorio ritual ceremonies (OLeary, 1984; Fratkin 1986, 1987; Schlee 1991). The
greatest threat to the environment is therefore over-harvesting of woody plants for the construction
of night livestock enclosures (boma) and the greater frequencies of camp movements that require
fresh tree materials each time. Consequently, the areas around the camps have been over-exploited
and supplies of fencing materials have become scarce. In the settlements, where people previously
transported fencing materials, the Rendille now use camels to ferry in the same materials from long
distances. The environmental impact has important implications for the implementation of GECs at
local community levels.
2. Integration of global goals and local actions Participatory research and development is rooted in the shift in theories from modernization theory
associated with top-down technological transfer, to neo-populist theory that advocates for local
people participation which uses bottom-up approaches in research and development (Sillitoe,
1998). The proponents of bottom-up or local participation approaches, present convincing
11
arguments that local people have accumulated a wealth of knowledge over time, based on long-term
experiences, that can complement scientific knowledge in environmental conservation (Richards,
1980; Knight, 1980). Major emphasis is placed on the roles indigenous knowledge and local
management play in conservation (Warren, 1992; Berkes et al., 2000), and protection of the land
from degradation (see below for definitions). Additionally, there is growing interest on how
indigenous knowledge and management practices can be used in collaboration with standard
scientific methods for improving understanding of the environment (Dahlberg, 2000; Reed et al.,
2007). Global environmental problems and the need for local participation were discussed during
international conferences related to UNCOD and UNCED, where participating nations agreed on
joint action plans. Since environmental changes are attributed to a multitude of factors (Geist,
2005), appropriate methods and sensitive indicators are needed for assessment and monitoring.
For the above reasons, Agenda 21 of the Rio Conference recognizes the role local
communities play in environmental assessment and management (UNCED, 1992). According to
Agenda 21, partnerships with local communities aim to achieve the global goals for the sustainable
use of natural resources. For example, the role of indigenous knowledge in combating
desertification and droughts is contained in Agenda 21, Chapter 12 part 18 (d), which states that the
United Nations seeks to promote participatory management of natural resources, including
rangeland, to meet both the needs of rural populations and conservation purposes, based on
innovative or adapted indigenous technologies. Further, Agenda 21, Chapter 12, subsection 23 (a),
states that government should integrate indigenous knowledge related to forests, forest lands,
rangeland and natural vegetation into research activities on desertification and drought. In relation
to the conservation of biological diversity, Agenda 21, Chapter 15, part 4 (g) states that global
partners should recognize and foster the traditional methods and the knowledge of indigenous
people ...relevant to the conservation of biological diversity and the sustainable use of biological
resources.
Various nations are signatories to the global conventions through the ratification of the
different articles. The national goals are to implement the conventions by means of National Action
Programs (NAPs), which in turn, comprise strategies and methods for implementing the global
goals. Considering the broad geographical, and ecological variability, and the socio-economic
factors linked to the process of environmental change, there is no single indicator that may be used
for the assessment and monitoring thereof. The goals at the national level therefore include linking
12
scientific assessment and monitoring activities with the environmental management practices of
local communities. For example, according to Article 10 (f) of UNCCD (1994), parties to the
convention should: provide for effective participation of local, national and regional levels of non-
governmental organization and local population, ..particularly resource users including farmers
and pastoralists and their respective organization in policy planning, decision making and review of
national programs.
Additionally, according to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), each member state party
to the convention is obliged to promote local participation in the management of biological
diversity. Article 8j of the CDB states:
Subject to its national legislation, respect, preserve and maintain knowledge, innovations and practices of indigenous and local communities embodying traditional lifestyles relevant for the conservation and
sustainable use of biological diversity and promote their wider application with the approval and involvement
of the holders of such knowledge, innovations and practices and encourage the equitable sharing of the benefits
arising from the utilization of such knowledge, innovations and practices.
The NAPs can benefit from global mechanisms (such as the Global Environmental Facility) that
make technology and funds available for initiating implementation activities by means of local
participation. By tapping into local knowledge systems, environmental assessment and monitoring
in response to anthropogenic and natural ecosystem drivers at local levels can be achieved
(Krugman, 1996). Previously, the use of indigenous knowledge for promoting local participatory
assessment and monitoring of environmental change was constrained by the lack of integration of
local knowledge systems with scientific methods. Conducting evaluations and monitoring human
impacts on the environment are pre-requisites for accomplishing the implementation of the GECs.
The purpose of this study is therefore to shift the approach to enable local communities, such
as herders, and ecologists to be partners in the assessment and monitoring of the implementation of
the GECs at community levels, using traditional systems of land use. Rather than discussing the
actual implementation of the GECs, the main purpose of the thesis is to discuss the potential
application of integrated methods for implementing the goals of NAPs at local community levels.
The success of the integration of local knowledge in environmental assessment and monitoring is
influenced by shifts in theoretical viewpoints on environmental discourses. Such discourses in turn
13
determine the type of research methods that can be used to link management objectives of local
communities and conservation goals. Participatory methods face challenges in terms of questions
relating to how local knowledge can be used how to collaborate with conventional scientific
methods and understand the perspectives of indigenous knowledge, particularly how it functions in
relation to environmental change. Whereas the need for integrating participatory knowledge with
conventional scientific methods is often demanded as a prerequisite for achieving global
participation, any frameworks for achieving such integration are poorly documented (for a recent
attempt, see Dougill and Reed 2006; Oba et al., 2008).
A schematic framework for understanding how the objectives of the GECs could be used to
guide national and local actions to achieve global and local goals is proposed in this study.
Integrated methods (see Fig. 3, section 5) based on local environmental knowledge and ecological
methods were tested to show how the broader global objectives for the implementations of GECs
such as the CCD and CBD could be tackled at local community levels. Before discussing the
approaches used for achieving these goals at community levels, it is necessary for the reader to be
familiar with how some of the terminologies and concepts were applied in this thesis.
2.1. Definition of terms and concepts
In this thesis different terms are used in relation to the assessment and monitoring of land
degradation and biodiversity loss. The terms are explained within the context of their use, and
therefore universal agreement is not presumed. For example, the knowledge held by the local
communities has been described using different terms including: indigenous knowledge, local
knowledge, folk knowledge, indigenous technical knowledge (ITK), traditional ecological
knowledge (TEK) and indigenous ecological knowledge (IEK), among others. Each of the terms
has a different connotation in terms of importance and the application of knowledge by different
communities. In this thesis, some of the terms are used interchangeably to describe the knowledge
held by local communities. These knowledge systems are used by individuals but represent the sum
total of knowledge used by particular local communities (Roba and Oba, 2008). However, reference
is made to the most popular terms, such as indigenous knowledge/local knowledge and
traditional ecological knowledge to describe the roles local communities play in environmental
management. According to Warren (1991), the term indigenous knowledge describes the
14
knowledge developed by a given community, which is different from scientific knowledge systems
generated through universities or at government research stations. Indigenous ecological knowledge
refers to experiences acquired over a lifetime through observations and in relation to social norms
and institutions that shape human interaction with the environment (Berkes et al., 2000; Fernandez-
Gimenez, 2000). Such knowledge is useful, for example, in describing concepts such as land
degradation.
Land degradation is a composite term and the definition depends on the context used by
both scientists (Stocking and Murnaghan, 2001; Warren 2002) and local communities (Oba and
Kotile, 2001). In general, land degradation is defined as the loss of utility or potential in relation to
biological organisms as well as changes in the physical environment that would alter the functions
of natural systems (Abel and Blaikie, 1989; Barrow, 1991). According to Dodd (1994), degradation
may refer to a decrease in plant productivity or unfavorable changes in species composition, but
does not imply that changes are permanent. In the rangelands, Abel and Blaikie (1989), defined land
degradation as a permanent decline in land for the yielding of livestock products under a given
system of production. This means that in terms of pastoral production, where milk and meat are
major products, land degradation leads to a downward spiral in livestock productivity. In pastoral
systems where multiple livestock species are managed, better insight about the processes of
environmental change can be gained by considering herders perceptions. Herders define land
degradation in relation to livestock productivity. A degraded environment, according to herders,
does not support livestock productivity at optimal levels due to the loss of important fodder species.
Accordingly, a landscape that is degraded for one species of livestock e.g. grazers, may not be so for
browsers. Throughout this thesis, a broader approach to understanding land degradation is adopted,
rather than narrow ecological definitions alone. In all cases, land degradation will be considered to
be reversible under improved systems of management.
Ecologists also use other terms such as desertification when referring to extreme levels of
land degradation. The concept of desertification implies both temporal and spatial perspectives.
Internationally, desertification is defined as land degradation in arid, semi-arid and dry sub-humid
areas resulting from various factors, including climatic variations and human activities (UNCCD,
1994). The nature, extent and reversibility of the changes associated with desertification have been
at the center of scholarly debates (e.g. Stiles, 1995; Thomas and Middleton, 1994; Helldn, 1988).
In this thesis, the terms desertification and land degradation are used concurrently, but often
15
desertification implies permanent and irreversible changes in vegetation and soil conditions,
whereas land degradation is used to describe changes which are reversible with management or
when the anthropogenic pressures are removed. Given that the classification of both degradation and
desertification might rely on similar indicators (see section 5), the issue is at what levels changes
would be described as simple degradation or as desertification. One of the important indicators for
evaluating land degradation and desertification is changes in floral biodiversity.
Biodiversity, or biological diversity, is a broad concept that describes the variety of all
living life forms encompassing species, genetics and ecosystems. In this thesis, the focus of
biodiversity is mainly on the diversity of plant species. In the assessment and monitoring of changes
in plant species diversity, conservation interests are based on the assumption that loss of species
diversity (number of different species) and species richness (number of species per unit area) are
important criteria for assessing ecosystem degradation. In the grazing lands, herders are concerned
with satisfactory livestock production. Therefore the concept of the total species pool, which is
important from the conservation viewpoint, does not adequately capture herders requirements.
According to herders, changes in biodiversity in the grazing lands refers to changes in plant species
composition in relation to livestock fodder requirements (Mapinduzi et al., 2003; Roba and Oba,
2008). By focusing on key forage species, the herders use utilitarian definitions of biodiversity. The
concept of invasive species is well known to ecologists, while herders refer to bad or good
biodiversity in terms of the extent of unpalatable plant species, such as those that might be
associated with bush encroachment. In this thesis, the use of the term biodiversity refers to both
the conservation and utilitarian values in terms of how it is assessed and monitored.
Assessment and monitoring of vegetation are relative terms used for understanding
environmental dynamics. Assessment refers to observation of the status of various indicators that
influence environmental health. It involves evaluation at one point in time to generate baseline data
on vegetation and soil physical characteristics. For herders, assessment is done more frequently
across the grazing landscape to ensure an acceptable quality and quantity of fodder for multiple
livestock species. Ecological assessment of grazing ecosystems is less frequent and on limited
spatial scales. Observations are usually made at a series of sampling transects and plots in order to
generate data that are used to generalize the status of grazing resources. By comparison,
monitoring is an evaluation process conducted several times over long periods to determine
responses to management and other environmental factors such as rainfall (Holecheck et al., 1995).
16
Monitoring of important environmental variables, such as change in species composition, is
conducted using similar methods, for the same objectives and over a long period of time. The
observed trends in the variables monitored can then be related to different drivers. Herders
assessment and monitoring of environmental change is not limited to environmental indicators, but
includes livestock production performances such as volume of milk and animal body condition. In
this thesis, assessment and monitoring describe activities conducted by herders and ecologists to
determine the suitability of the grazing environment on short-term and long-term basis. Assessment
and monitoring must be conducted by range managers to understand how management has
influenced the condition of the rangelands (short term) and trends (long term changes) in
environmental indicators.
Vegetation condition and trends are terms commonly used to describe the state of
range health (NRC, 1994). Range condition is scaled in terms of the climax vegetation. The use
of the concept is limited due to difficulties in establishing a climax vegetation composition for
determining change in arid zones. The idea of using climax vegetation for determining healthy
range condition shows that the term is closely related to the equilibrium ecological theory. In this
thesis the concept is used in relation to the range status which the herders consider as being
optimal for livestock production, while ecologists use the term to mean a departure from the
assumed climax vegetation status. Thus in this thesis, the term condition is used in relation to
utilization. Trend refers to the direction of change of range condition, which can be rated as
upward, downward or stable (Holecheck et al., 1995). To describe trend, an observation of change
in species composition is required. In pastoral systems, herders have accumulated knowledge of the
direction of vegetation change more so than ecologists.
Another term that appears often in the thesis is integration which, as used here, implies the
combined use of local knowledge and scientific methods to understand environmental change.
Integration of assessment and monitoring of environmental change is achieved by the simultaneous
use of multiple indicators used by local people and ecologists. The local communities use
indigenous knowledge and composite indicators (hereafter also referred to as anthropogenic
indicators), while ecologists use ecological methods and ecological indicators. The integration of
local knowledge and ecological methods improves understanding of environmental change, as the
two systems complement each other. Thus, could integration be achieved by asking the local
informants questions about the environment and using ecological methods to measure required
17
variables? Or does integration involve a whole range of processes of environmental assessment and
monitoring and decision-making? In this thesis integration is taken as a process that finally leads to
rational decisions. Creating a situation for sharing information and understanding different
viewpoints by local communities as well as by scientifically trained technicians, resulted in a
common forum for discussing the problems of the environment. This approach has been the goal of
this thesis. By jointly using the different methods it was possible to understand the perceptions
about the reversibility of land degradation, which is related to the concept of resilience.
The concept of ecological resilience was described by Holling (1973) to describe changes in
ecosystems when subjected to perturbation. Resilience is defined as the capacity of a system to
buffer or resist change in response to a given magnitude of disturbance, before losing the capacity to
respond (Gunderson, 2000; Perrings and Walker 1995). The level of resilience can be defined in
terms of systems potential. In grazing lands, for example, different landscapes disclose varied
potential in relation to soils and vegetation. The potential of the resource system describes the
capacity of the system to resist degradation. In this thesis, the concept of ecological resilience is
used to understand change in species composition and vegetation structure. Long-term fluctuations
in vegetation variables were examined to see if they present a characteristic of resilience under
unpredictable rainfall regimes, or if they portray a more linear change as presented by the
equilibrium ecological model. In addition, variables such as species inventory, change species
frequency, and species cover over long periods of time are important for understanding the
resilience of an ecosystem after years of droughts and sustained grazing pressure. The capacity of
the system to spring back is what allows land degradation in arid ecosystems to be reversible; the
lack of resilience would cause desertification (Binns, 1990; Oba et al., 2008). Herders are aware of
the resilient property of arid ecosystems, based on several years of observation. In arid ecosystems,
the concept of resilience has helped herders to develop adaptive management strategies that enable
them to modify their management strategy according to prevailing environmental conditions. Using
their knowledge of individual landscapes and their capacity to cope with grazing pressures, herders
regulate grazing movements allowing the land to regenerate, even after heavy use. This shows that
management strategies have an influence on the resilience of an ecosystem (e.g. Perrings and
Walker, 1997).
Each of the concepts or terms discussed here elicits different discourses in terms of
environmental change. It is important to mention that no single theoretical viewpoint can adequately
18
address the different discourses, necessitating the application of an interdisciplinary approach for
understanding the process of environmental change. The terms discussed above are used in this
thesis for discussing different theoretical and methodological perspectives related to local
community participation in the implementations of the GECs related to the CCD and the CBD. The
concepts are important for understanding continuous shifts in paradigms of environmental change
from deterministic cause-effect views to multi-directional approaches that acknowledge the
influence of environmental variability and the importance of indigenous knowledge.
3. Theoretical perspectives
Major environmental discourses have played a central role in shaping how environmental problems
are perceived. The dominant environmental discourses such as desertification and biodiversity loss
have attempted to portray a crisis scenario, especially in marginal environments (Lamprey, 1983).
Increases in human and livestock populations have been associated with adverse effects on the
environment. The crisis narratives are rooted in different environmental theories, which predict the
relationships between biotic and abiotic, social-ecological and economic components of an
ecosystem. For example, different viewpoints of land degradation in arid ecosystems have been
influenced by different scientific theories. The ecological theories reflect a priori environmental
functions in terms of processes, explained in terms of deductive relationships between causes and
effects of land degradation. Management is often not part of the theory, although the impact of
management on the environment uses the theory to analyze the effects. This implies that local
knowledge in environmental assessment and monitoring is usually not part of the theory description
and verification. This was until recently, when ecologists re-evaluated existing ecological theories
for guiding management decisions, particularly in arid lands (Behnke and Scoones, 1993), for the
following reasons. Firstly, ecological theories do not explain all the outcomes of environmental
change, particularly where management or human decisions in land use are involved. Secondly, for
ecosystems such as arid lands, earlier ecological theories had assumed stability, while the system
behavior is better described by variability. Empirical evidence in support of spatial and temporal
variability questioned the value of using ecological theories that prescribed stability and
predictability (Ellis and Swift 1988). The stable and predictable systems failed to acknowledge the
management systems of local resource users, while the variable systems considered the rationale of
19
local resource use. These developments therefore became the impetus for the integration of
indigenous knowledge and ecological methods.
Various viewpoints from the perspective of the dynamics of vegetation in arid ecosystems in
response to land use by local pastoralists are reviewed here. Since the early days of range
management as a science (e.g. Clements 1916), ecologists considered proper management in terms
of the equilibrium between grazer populations and allowable forage utilization (Heady 1975). This
theory holds that range managers should maintain the numbers of grazers on a given range
commensurate with its potential carrying capacity which is defined as the maximum stock carried
per unit of land in a given time (Pratt and Gwynne, 1977; Bartels et al., 1993). The theory presumes
that it is the grazers that drive the changes in plant composition and therefore by regulating stocking
levels, the dynamics of vegetation can be maintained at desirable levels of plant composition to
promote environmental sustainability.
The equilibrium theory, which is described above in a simplified version, is deterministic and
uni-directional, since it does not take into consideration environmental drivers, such as rainfall
variability, as the principal control agents for driving range production. Indeed, the theory, which
was designed under humid conditions, might work adequately in ecosystems with predictable
rainfall, but problems arose in arid environments (Ellis and Swift, 1988). Using the responses of
vegetation parameters to herbivore populations, the theory would predict negative changes when the
population exceeds the carrying capacity or the stocking potential (Lamprey and Yussuf, 1981;
Lamprey, 1983; Sinclair and Fryxell, 1985). Therefore, based on the equilibrium theory, land
degradation that occurs in arid lands, would be blamed on management systems that ignore the
equilibrial relationships between natures functions and use.
The equilibrium model influenced early pastoral development throughout sub-Saharan Africa
in a significant manner, with adverse consequences for the environment and production systems
(Sandford, 1983). One such adverse consequence was sedentarization of former nomads that
resulted in the breakdown of traditional systems of land use, causing precisely those environmental
problems which the theory was meant to guard against (Sinclair and Fryxel, 1985). The proponents
of the theory excluded local indigenous knowledge and purposely focused on the use of ecological
indicators (see below) for environmental assessment and monitoring. There are, however, critical
similarities between the equilibrium theory and its explanation of vegetation changes in relation to
grazing pressures, and local knowledge of herders on how vegetation indicators respond to sustained
20
grazing. The equilibrium theory postulates that sustained grazing pressure induces shifts in plant
species composition, where some species that are more sensitive decrease, while others, that are
unpalatable or more resistant to grazing pressure, increase or remain stable. Careful analysis of
indigenous knowledge shows that herders have comparable understanding about the species that
would decrease, and others that would increase or remain stable. The qualifying difference is that
according to the local herders, the shifts in plant species vary with the type of livestock. The
implication is that land degradation cannot be a universal problem in grazing lands. The land
degraded for grazing livestock would still be sustainable for browsing stock and vice versa.
Ecologists rarely took such views into account.
Shifts in ecological thinking (e.g. Ellis and Swift 1988) propose that vegetation changes in
highly variable environments, such as in arid lands, are more sensitive to environmental drivers
including rainfall variability, than they are to grazer populations. The non-equilibrium theory
proposes that in environments with high coefficients of variation, the spatial-temporal dynamics of
vegetation resources cannot be accounted for by grazing alone (Fernandez-Gimenez and Allen-Diaz
1999; Oba et al., 2000b; Sullivan and Rhode, 2002). Rather, the rhythms of range production are
closely related to spatial and temporal rainfall variability. This means that the same environment
might experience a boom at one time, and burst production at another, in response to varied
rainfall regimes. Rainfall varies from season to season, resulting in substantial differences in range
production according to seasons (temporally) and spatially by sites or geographical distribution of
plant production. The non-equilibrium model of rangeland dynamics therefore puts emphasis on the
unpredictable nature of ecosystems and the inability on the part of management to develop practical
plans based on prior knowledge for manipulating stocking rates. Pastoral production, which
involves livestock mobility, is adapted to variability (Fernandez-Gimenez and Allen-Diaz 1999;
Oba et al., 2000b). Pastoral land use systems track the variable resources opportunistically (Behnke
and Scoones, 1993).
Herders are aware that plant species composition and cover change with variation in rainfall
and across heterogeneous landscapes. Herders use this knowledge of seasonal and spatial variability
of grazing resources to promote mobility. Local knowledge of resource management could therefore
potentially contribute to the assessment and monitoring of the vegetation dynamics aimed at
understanding the mechanisms described by different ecological models. The role of local
21
knowledge is deemed to be even more relevant when the dynamics of arid ecosystems are described
using social-ecological resilience viewpoints.
According to the social-ecological resilience viewpoint, ecological processes are closely
linked to social activities, including decisions on land use and livestock management (Berkes et al.,
1998; Oba et al., 2008). In the social-ecological resilience model, adaptive management is central to
pursuing livestock production goals. Pastoral adaptive management involves making adjustments to
production variability by means of mobility. Thus, the explanation offered by the non-equilibrium
theory about the dynamics of arid lands has closer parallels with the socio-ecological resilience
theory. By means of the latter, the functions of indigenous knowledge in the management of
variable environments can be justified. Based on their detailed knowledge of seasonal variations in
species composition, herders might suggest that a particular plant species is not present at the time
of assessment (e.g. in dry season), but will be seen again in the wet season. Thus, herders believe
that arid ecosystems are highly resilient and in their view degradation occurs only when livestock
mobility is curtailed and heavy grazing is sustained over a long period that would result in loss of
key forage species.
The importance of local knowledge in addressing complex environmental problems has been
supported further by interdisciplinary studies that used the principles of political ecology. Political
ecology underscores the importance of environmental narratives and discourses for addressing
desertification and biodiversity loss (Leach and Mearns, 1996; Batterbury et al., 1997; Laris, 2004).
Studies in human-environment relationships have shown that many of the environmental crises
debated at global level are exaggerated (Bassett and Zuli, 2000). The narratives advanced at global
levels on the status of environment should be related to the counter narratives of local people (e.g.
Bassett and Crummey, 2003). Political ecology and environmental history therefore provide
important links for analyzing human-environmental interactions (Benjaminsen and Lund, 2001).
Local communities narratives on causes and trajectories of environmental change are important for
the implementation of the GECs, as well as in mitigating processes such as desertification and
biodiversity loss.
Based on the above discussion, it is evident that processes of environmental change involve
more than ecological changes and are influenced by social factors, including decision making by
local land users (Blaikie and Brookfield, 1987; Oba et al., 2008). In the light of the recognition of
the close interaction between social and ecological systems, there is a need to adopt a more holistic
22
approach that goes beyond the disciplinary divides, and in addition co-opts local knowledge and
practices using assessment and monitoring of environmental changes at local levels. To achieve this
objective, indigenous knowledge and conventional scientific methods should not be portrayed as
competing binary opposites, but rather, as complementary sets of research and management tools
for addressing environmental problems (Agrawal, 1995; Nygren, 1999).
Advances in interdisciplinary methods have transformed environmental research from purely
ecological perspectives to incorporate wider social, political and economic aspects (Blaikie and
Brookfield, 1987). This knowledge interplay underscores the role of local communities in studies on
environmental change. A conceptual socio-economic and ecological model (SEEM) suggests the
practicalities of such an approach (Oba et al., 2008). The SEEM model proposes that analysis of
environmental change should consider local socio-economic and ecological drivers that may inform
decision makers on the relationship between land use and environmental change. Land use decisions
are influenced by socio-economic as well as ecological drivers. In the SEEM model, appropriate
anthropogenic and ecological indicators are used to describe environmental changes. Details on the
process of indicator selection and decision-making have been described in SEEM model by Oba et
al. (2008). This thesis utilizes the SEEM approach for integrating indigenous and ecological
methods by conducting environmental assessment and monitoring jointly with herders in the arid
region of northern Kenya. The integration process demands the development of efficient methods to
accommodate indigenous knowledge variables and ecological methods for environmental
assessment and monitoring.
4. Methodological perspectives
The integration of indigenous knowledge in research and development faces some methodological
challenges (Scoones and Thompson, 1993). An important methodological issue is the selection of
knowledgeable members of the community. It has been argued that indigenous knowledge is not
homogenous among the local people due to stratification into gender, age, social classes and other
disparities in power relations (Sillitoe, 2002). Therefore, researchers are obliged to find a balance
between participation by highly heterogeneous groups, while at the same time maintaining rigor
demanded by standard scientific methods, such as random selection of informants. Another problem
of integration arises because of epistemological differences between indigenous and standard
scientific methods (Purcell and Onjoro, 2002). In scientific research, the focus is on cause and effect
23
relationships and developing predictive models about future outcomes in relation to propositions
made by different scientific theories (Freeman, 1992). The scientific method is deductive as well as
reductive and may be deterministic in predicting processes of environmental change. By
comparison, by its very nature, indigenous knowledge is rooted in local contexts, practices and
beliefs (Woodley, 2005). It is better understood using cognitive anthropology, focusing on the
relationships between human culture and human thoughts and beliefs. Unlike the traditional
ethnographic approach, where an outsider uses his/her worldviews to study certain cultures,
cognitive anthropology stresses how people make sense of reality according to their own indigenous
cognitive categories. The cognitive anthropology approach aims at understanding the local peoples
worldviews using the emic perspective, as opposed to traditional ethnographic outsiders etic views.
The cognitive anthropological approach of eliciting local knowledge uses formal
questionnaires. However, the questionnaires are developed with literate informants in mind and are
often inappropriate in rural settings where research is conducted with local people (Antweiler,
2004). Most researchers using questionnaires are not comfortable with the responses elicited,
because they are void of capturing real experiences, and there is the added disadvantage of the time
it takes (Kumar, 2002). Although questionnaires are prepared based on presumed problems and sets
of objectives that may not address the goals of local people, they may be useful for soliciting
generalized information, to be followed up by more participatory approaches. The time drawback
has led to the adoption of more pragmatic, rapid participatory methods. Quick and popular methods
such as Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) and Rapid Rural Appraisal (RRA) have been used to
bring together local people and researchers/development agents to address local issues (Chambers,
1999). These participatory approaches use visual learning such as drawings and maps so that non-
literate and less articulate members of the local community can participate in exercise-oriented
discussions (Kumar, 2002). RRA focuses on the use of observation and verbal interactions including
semi-structured interviews, transect walks, and group discussions (Chambers, 1999). By
comparison, PRA stresses the use of shared visual representation by local people. RRA and PRA
methods allow local people to share knowledge and practice with external development and
research agents to implement locally relevant development objectives (Chambers, 1994). Rapid
participatory methods are, however, disadvantageous because of the lack of empirical and
theoretical grounding (Antweiler, 2004).
24
The data collected through rapid participatory methods represent mostly the local contexts in
which they are generated, with limited wider application. The most appropriate forum for using
participatory methods is organized workshops involving both local and technical groups, for one-to-
one discussions concerning pertinent environmental or social issues. For example, in herding
communities, information on the local environment is held in both the public domain and also by
some key knowledgeable members of the society, including the elders and herder scouts. Due to
their long-term experience, the elders have more detailed information on historical environmental
changes including land use patterns, levels of livestock productivity and the extent and composition
of vegetation in the grazing rangelands. The elders knowledge is continuously updated during daily
assessment and monitoring of the status of grazing resources. Individuals rely on accumulated
knowledge within the community, suggesting that there is uniformity of information, regardless of
whether individuals or groups were involved in environmental assessments. The indigenous
knowledge has two sides the knowledge related to the production systems, such as livestock, that
is often used as a barometer of environmental change, and the knowledge of the environment itself
in terms of grazing landscapes, soils, vegetation types and the history of land use. Thus, the herders
have accumulated knowledge of the interaction of livestock production systems with biophysical
resources. This knowledge is put into everyday practical use to regulate livestock-environment
interactions.
When selecting research methods, it is therefore important that collaborating researchers
adequately understand the knowledge and practice aspects of indigenous knowledge systems. The
basic resource management units are landscapes. Assessment and monitoring of environmental
change is based on the knowledge of a landscape that has been accumulated over the long term and
enriched by continuous observations using different environmental indicators. For the herders, the
process has utilitarian value, which is aimed at maximizing livestock productivity through
appropriate and timely management decisions (Oba et al., 2008). The knowledge of the local
environment is therefore part of daily practice embedded in the local cultures and influenced by the
requirements of the production systems.
The scale of assessment and monitoring and the indicators used all have relevance to local
production systems. Previously, different approaches have been used to elicit participation,
including questionnaires, semi-structured interviews, workshops and collaborative fieldwork
(Dougill et al., 2006; Huntington, 2000; Stringer et al., 2006). These methods have different levels
25
of flexibility in accessing indigenous knowledge in different local contexts. Structured
questionnaires are useful when quantification is desired and the interviewer has a clear
understanding of the information required. For example, in pastoral environments, data on the
number of livestock managed by different households in different management systems (e.g. fora
and home herds) can be addressed adequately using a structured questionnaire. Semi-structured
interviews are less restrictive and may use sketch guidelines, while the participants and the
interviewer engage in open-ended discussions. Semi-structured discussions with individuals or
groups help the interviewer to strike a rapport with principal participants in more informal settings,
thereby allowing a free exchange of information. Similarly, workshops on specific environmental
issues involving researchers and participants can result in fruitful discussions. In workshops,
different issues raised earlier during interviews could be deliberated further to generate new insights
on the topics under discussion. Interview methods are important for eliciting knowledge engrained
in local land use practices. The approach requires developing personal relationships to promote
dialogue and the exchange of ideas as part of participatory research.
Scientific methods (hereafter referred to as ecological methods) are standardized and
strongly empirical. In vegetation assessments, ecological methods include the use of transects to
measure the density and composition of vegetation occurring along a line or belt transect, or a road
may be used as a transect. Additionally quadrants or plots are used to sample vegetation in
circumscribed areas (Sorrells and Glenn, 1991). There are, however, some important requirements
in ecological sampling, including having representative samples by randomizing sampling units,
including transects and quadrants/plots. The sampling units must also be of the right size in order to
capture the diversity of plant life forms such as herbs, shrubs and trees. The selection of sampling
strategies needs to consider variability along ecological or anthropogenic gradients. Another factor
central to ecological monitoring is the use of the right scales for measuring the vegetation variables
from landscapes to larger regional levels. Ecological methods linked to different scales of vegetation
change are useful for testing hypotheses. Sampling designs must incorporate spatial and temporal
factors that may influence vegetation changes. Spatial limitations of quadrant and transect methods
in the assessment and monitoring of vegetation have been solved using remote sensing technology
which has a wider spatial coverage. Satellite imagery can be used to compare vegetation covers at
different times in order to analyze the temporal dynamics.
26
The integration of indigenous knowledge and ecological methods for the implementation of
GECs should harmonize the various methodological orientations. Before discussing the actual
integration of the two methods for addressing local environmental problems, it is imperative to
situate participatory actions at the local level within the context of the broader plans for the
implementations of GECs.
5. Framework for integrating local knowledge in the implementation of GECs
The implementation of GECs is linked to the activities at global, national and local levels. At the
global level, conventions are negotiated as part of collective global responsibilities as mentioned
earlier. At the national level, each country implements the conventions according to the articles, by
setting priorities according to national goals and implementation strategies. Implementation at the
local level necessitates consideration of the diversity of ecological, production and social-cultural
systems, and the use of local knowledge for resource assessment and monitoring. Local
participation as recommended at the global level, and implementation plans through national and
local levels are described using a conceptual framework (Fig. 3). The framework has three
interrelated components (hereafter referred to as stages). In Stage I, global environmental
problems such as desertification, land degradation and biodiversity loss are described. Stage II of
the conceptual framework is concerned with the implementations of NAPs (Fig. 3).
The activities described in Stages I and II are beyond the scope of this thesis. The thesis
addresses the activities described under Stage III, which forms the core of local participation in the
implementation of GECs (Fig. 3). In this thesis it is assumed that national action programs (NAPs)
may be concerned with reversing land degradation and desertification, while at the same time
conserving biodiversity using both conventional methods and local knowledge (Stage III). This may
be done by working through technical departments that are represented at the local level. Thus t