161
7
More recently, Rasmussen et al. (2018) also investigated the impact of grazing around
boreholes in the Ferlo region in Senegal using satellite images. These authors found
‘inverse grazing gradients’ in terms of decreasing biomass production with distance
from the wells. This can be explained by the effect of livestock fertilization of soils at
higher livestock densities closer to the wells. ◄
These results are similar to those obtained by a team of geographers from the
University of Lund studying an area in Sudan. They concluded: ‘There was no
trend in the creation or possible growth of desert patches around 103 examined villages and water holes over the period 1961–1983’ (Helldén 1991, p. 379). Other studies using satellite images have demonstrated the resilience of the vegetation cover in
the Sahel. Tucker et al. (1991) and Tucker and Nicholson (1999) showed for example that what they defined as the desert boundary was in fact dynamic and fluctuated along a north-south axis from year to year in response to the annual rainfall.
The flexibility discourse is presently generally accepted by scholars with regard
to African savannas, although the modernization discourse still dominates among
many decision-makers, in Africa and internationally. Among scientists there is,
however, a debate about to what extent other regions and ecosystems in the world
with pastoralism also behave as unstable systems that are mainly controlled by
climatic factors.
Livestock Keeping and Ecological Change in South Africa
In South Africa, there has been a debate in particular about ecological change and
management of the Karoo region in the Northern Cape province (Illius and O’Connor
1999; Todd and Hoffman 1999; Sullivan and Rohde 2002; Riginos and Hoffman 2003;
Benjaminsen et al. 2006; Allsopp et al. 2007). This is a dry area, but with relatively
stable winter rainfall. The area is dominated by succulent plants, and will generally
have a very different ecological dynamic than for example the grass- covered savannas
in the Sahel. The Karoo is highly valued by conservationists because of its many
endemic species. Of the 4849 recorded plant species in the succulent Karoo, 1940 are
endemic and subject to a rapid loss of habitat, according to Myers et al. (2000).
The debate about the ecological change on farmland in South Africa is indeed
also a political debate involving differing views about what the landscape should look
like, what is appropriate land use, and which priorities are most important. South
Africa is one of the countries in the world with the most unequal land distribution.
The white minority, which today constitutes about 10% of the population, still owns
about 70% of agricultural land, despite land reform. A large part of the black majority lives in communal areas (formerly called Homelands and Bantustans, and
Coloured Reserves in the Western and Northern Cape Provinces). These areas constitute approximately 13% of agricultural land. The communal areas are remnants from
the colonial and apartheid era and are still owned by the state. In these reserves,
people were kept in poverty through land scarcity in order to serve as a reserve of
cheap labour for the mining industry and the white farmers (see also 7 Chap. 4).
7.1 · Debates About Overgrazing
7
More recently, Rasmussen et al. (2018) also investigated the impact of grazing around
boreholes in the Ferlo region in Senegal using satellite images. These authors found
‘inverse grazing gradients’ in terms of decreasing biomass production with distance
from the wells. This can be explained by the effect of livestock fertilization of soils at
higher livestock densities closer to the wells. ◄
These results are similar to those obtained by a team of geographers from the
University of Lund studying an area in Sudan. They concluded: ‘There was no
trend in the creation or possible growth of desert patches around 103 examined villages and water holes over the period 1961–1983’ (Helldén 1991, p. 379). Other studies using satellite images have demonstrated the resilience of the vegetation cover in
the Sahel. Tucker et al. (1991) and Tucker and Nicholson (1999) showed for example that what they defined as the desert boundary was in fact dynamic and fluctuated along a north-south axis from year to year in response to the annual rainfall.
The flexibility discourse is presently generally accepted by scholars with regard
to African savannas, although the modernization discourse still dominates among
many decision-makers, in Africa and internationally. Among scientists there is,
however, a debate about to what extent other regions and ecosystems in the world
with pastoralism also behave as unstable systems that are mainly controlled by
climatic factors.
Livestock Keeping and Ecological Change in South Africa
In South Africa, there has been a debate in particular about ecological change and
management of the Karoo region in the Northern Cape province (Illius and O’Connor
1999; Todd and Hoffman 1999; Sullivan and Rohde 2002; Riginos and Hoffman 2003;
Benjaminsen et al. 2006; Allsopp et al. 2007). This is a dry area, but with relatively
stable winter rainfall. The area is dominated by succulent plants, and will generally
have a very different ecological dynamic than for example the grass- covered savannas
in the Sahel. The Karoo is highly valued by conservationists because of its many
endemic species. Of the 4849 recorded plant species in the succulent Karoo, 1940 are
endemic and subject to a rapid loss of habitat, according to Myers et al. (2000).
The debate about the ecological change on farmland in South Africa is indeed
also a political debate involving differing views about what the landscape should look
like, what is appropriate land use, and which priorities are most important. South
Africa is one of the countries in the world with the most unequal land distribution.
The white minority, which today constitutes about 10% of the population, still owns
about 70% of agricultural land, despite land reform. A large part of the black majority lives in communal areas (formerly called Homelands and Bantustans, and
Coloured Reserves in the Western and Northern Cape Provinces). These areas constitute approximately 13% of agricultural land. The communal areas are remnants from
the colonial and apartheid era and are still owned by the state. In these reserves,
people were kept in poverty through land scarcity in order to serve as a reserve of
cheap labour for the mining industry and the white farmers (see also 7 Chap. 4).
7.1 · Debates About Overgrazing