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 Periodical article |
 Leiden University catalogue |
 WorldCat |
| Title: | Pastoralism, Biodiversity, and the Shaping of Savanna Landscapes in East Africa |
| Author: | Little, Peter D. |
| Year: | 1996 |
| Periodical: | Africa: Journal of the International African Institute |
| Volume: | 66 |
| Issue: | 1 |
| Pages: | 37-51 |
| Language: | English |
| Geographic term: | Kenya |
| Subjects: | savannas biodiversity animal husbandry Agriculture, Natural Resources and the Environment Peoples of Africa (Ethnic Groups) |
| External link: | https://www.jstor.org/stable/1161510 |
| Abstract: | This article explores the heterogeneity of savanna landscapes and its effect on local resource use in East Africa. It suggests that fundamental misunderstanding of key resources (in this case, wetlands) and their importance to local social and economic systems has misdirected arguments about land degradation and human mismanagement in pastoral savanna areas. By focusing on a region of northern Kenya - the Lake Baringo basin of Baringo District - where global discourse and concern about biodiversity loss and 'desertification' are both strongly voiced, the article suggests that the causal connection with or relevance of local social practice to either phenomenon has been vastly exaggerated. In the case of Baringo it shows 1) how the value of the basin's swamps is constantly misunderstood by the State and other outside interests, and 2) how the perceived role of African herding in creating environmental degradation contradicts the recent acknowledgement of pastoralism's positive contribution to maintaining biodiversity. Bibliogr., notes, ref., sum. in English and French. |
