article · Ecological Processes
Pastoralist communities in Ethiopia's Afar Region rely on accumulated local knowledge to sustainably manage arid rangelands. An assessment of community perceptions reveals that traditional practices, such as mobility, herd diversification, herd splitting, and seasonal riverside grazing during droughts, are regarded by pastoralists as effective methods for preserving rangeland biodiversity and resources. In contrast, development interventions aimed at modernising the agricultural sector have placed severe pressure on grazing lands without delivering enduring improvements. Households in areas without development interventions maintained higher average livestock holdings than those in intervened districts. Concurrently, livestock productivity faces substantial threats from recurrent droughts, shrinking rangeland capacity, and the spread of the invasive plant Prosopis juliflora. These pressures create severe livestock feed deficits that directly affect pastoral livelihoods, highlighting pastoralists' views that customary management systems are more sustainable than external interventions.
Pastoral systems sustain livelihoods and food production across vast arid regions, yet modern development initiatives frequently disregard local knowledge. Understanding pastoralist perspectives is essential for designing policies that do not undermine resilience. Demonstrating that indigenous management practices can outperform top-down interventions provides valuable insight for planners seeking to balance agricultural modernisation, invasive plant management, and environmental conservation in dryland ecosystems.
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Community perception plays a significant role in rangeland resource management. Traditional rangeland management practices by the pastoral communities are based on accumulated knowledge in connection to their local environment. Pastoralism played a vital role in food production and sustaining its inhabitants in arid environment for millennia. However, national policies and development interventions in East African pastoral systems have often overlooked pastoralism while centered on the modernization of agricultural sector for economic development and poverty reduction. We used household survey, focus group discussion, key informant interview, and individual questionnaire to understand the perceptions and attitude of Afar pastoralists towards rangeland resource use and conservation practices, as well as impacts of development intervention on traditional rangeland resource use and conservation practices. The data were analyzed using index ranking and descriptive statistics. The results showed that livestock holding per household was higher on average (22.90 ± 2.27 Tropical Livestock Unit (TLU)) in the non-intervened woreda than in the intervened woreda (8.30 ± 3.85 TLU). Respondents mentioned that livestock productivity was adversely affected by a number of factors such as invasion of Prosopis juliflora (Dergi Hara), shrinkage in the capacity of rangelands (Beadu and Bebea’), and recurrent droughts. Scarcity of grazing resources attributed to the invasion of Dergi Hara and drought created livestock feed crisis with strong implication on the livelihood of pastoralists. Our results showed that the traditional resource management practices such as mobility, herd splitting, and diversification had a role to contribute to the improvement of rangeland management and conservation of biodiversity. Traditional rules and seasonal-based grazing patterns of riversides during drought were perceived as key elements for rangeland resource management and conservation of rangeland resources in the study area. Communities’ perception showed that the traditional practices of rangeland management systems are effective and environmentally sustainable. In contrast, inappropriate development interventions put rangelands under severe pressure. Although development interventions were aimed at improving the condition of Afar rangeland, they could not bring any enduring solution in terms of improvement of rangeland resources.
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DOI: 10.1186/s13717-016-0062-4
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