Pastoralism As a Conservation Strategy

PASTORALISM AS A CONSERVATION STRATEGY UGANDA COUNTY PAPER Prepared for IUCN Study By Margaret A. Rugadya Associates for Development Kampala CONTENTS LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES ....................................................................................... iii EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ........................................................................................................ iv 1 BACKGROUND .................................................................................................................... 1 1.1 Introduction ..................................................................................................................... 1 1.1.1 Indigenous versus Modern ........................................................................................... 1 1.1.2 The Review ................................................................................................................ 3 1.2 Country Context: Uganda .............................................................................................. 5 1.2.1 Pastoral Lands and Zones ......................................................................................... 6 1.2.2 Vegetation and Land Use .......................................................................................... 9 2. NATURAL RESOURCE MANAGEMENT .................................................................. 12 2.1 Introduction ................................................................................................................... 12 2.2 Strategies for Resource Management ......................................................................... 13 2.2.1 Diversity of Habitats and Livestock Species ............................................................. 13 2.2.2 Mobility ................................................................................................................... 15 2.2.3 Opportunistic Use of Grazing Reserves ..................................................................... 17 2.2.4 Flexibility ................................................................................................................ 18 2.2.5 Reciprocity ............................................................................................................... 19 2.3 Conservation in Resource Management .................................................................... 20 3. INSTITUTIONS FOR MANAGING NATURAL RESOURCES ............................. 22 3.1 Introduction ................................................................................................................... 22 3.2 Social Structures and Relations .................................................................................... 23 3.3 Territorial Management ................................................................................................ 24 3.4 Grazing Management .................................................................................................... 25 3.5 Environmental Protection ............................................................................................ 27 4. MANAGING RISK AND ENHANCING RESILIENCE .......................................... 28 4.1 Introduction ................................................................................................................... 28 4.2 Strategies for Risk Management and Resilience ........................................................ 29 4.2.1 Indigenous Ecological Knowledge ............................................................................... 30 4.2.2 Bio–Diversity Conservation ...................................................................................... 31 4.2.3 Ethno Veterinary Knowledge ................................................................................... 33 4.2.4 Abiotic Knowledge ................................................................................................... 34 4.3 Strategies for Supporting Conservation ..................................................................... 35 5. LAND USE ............................................................................................................................ 36 5.1 Introduction ................................................................................................................... 36 5.2 Compatibility with Other Land Uses .......................................................................... 37 5.2.1 Wildlife and Forestry ............................................................................................... 38 5.2.2 Settlements ............................................................................................................... 39 5.2.3 Ranching ................................................................................................................. 40 5.2.4 Cultivation .............................................................................................................. 40 5.2.5 Minning .................................................................................................................. 41 5.3 Land Use and Conservation: ........................................................................................ 41 6. ENABLING POLICY FOR PASTORALISM ................................................................ 44 Pastoralism as Conservation Strategy Uganda Country Paper 1st Draft Not to be Cited___________________________________________________________________Page i of 56 6.1 Introduction ................................................................................................................... 44 6.2 Current Policy Framework ........................................................................................... 45 6.3 Actions Needed for Positive Policy ............................................................................ 47 7. CONCLUSIONS .................................................................................................................. 48 Pastoralism as Conservation Strategy Uganda Country Paper 1st Draft Not to be Cited___________________________________________________________________Page ii of 56 LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES Map 1: The Cattle Corridor of Uganda...................................................................................................... 7 Table 1: Types of Vegetation in the Dry lands of Uganda ................................................................... 10 Table 2: Ecology of major cattle rearing areas of Uganda .................................................................... 11 Table 3: Pastoralist Resource and Management Strategies ................................................................... 13 Table 4: Selection Criteria for Breeding Bulls among the Bahima ...................................................... 15 Table 5: Territorial Groups and Resources among the Karamojong .................................................. 25 Pastoralism as Conservation Strategy Uganda Country Paper 1st Draft Not to be Cited___________________________________________________________________Page iii of 56 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Pastoralism is the finely honed symbiotic relationship between local ecology, domesticated livestock, and people in resource-scarce and highly variable regions, often at the threshold of human survival. It represents a complex form of natural resource management, involving the direct interaction between three systems in which pastoral people operate, i.e. the natural resource system, the resource users system and the larger geo-political system. It is most often an adaptation to semi-arid climatic conditions in which farming cannot be easily sustained, making the best use of biodiversity in harsh conditions through exploiting different ecological and landscape niches in different seasons with different species of livestock. In Uganda, pastoralists range from agro- pastoralists, who are largely sedentary, combining livestock and crop production to transhumants who maintain and a home base and a satellite herd in search for water and pasture depending on the harshness of the environment and as need arises. Recent work in the “new” rangeland ecology suggests that the remarkable long-term success of pastoral systems is predicated less on the establishment of an equilibrium with nature through the imposition of systemic behavioural and cultural constraints that the conservationist model seems to imply than on the interaction of a highly dynamic process of animal production and husbandry with a highly resilient dry land ecosystem that is capable of absorbing periodic, short-term grazing pressure when rainfall is low because of its remarkable powers of recuperation when rains return. This has discerned theories such as the “Cattle Complex” by Hertovitz’s and “Tragedy of the Commons” by Garret Hardin, the former perceived pastoralism to be a social problem, whereas the latter considered it to be an ecological problem, raising the inevitable question as to whether the concept of the pastoralist being conservationists is a myth or reality. It is often argued that indigenous peoples live in balance with their environment and, more generally, in harmony with nature. Considerable ecological knowledge and wisdom is held by pastoralists emphasizing food self-sufficiency and local resource conservation. Lacking the myth of superabundance, these communities traditionally see themselves as part of the community of nature, realizing that persistent violation of its ecological roles will inevitably reverberate and destroy their own culture.

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