Controlling Land Degradation on Village Grazing Land

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Controlling Land Degradation on Village Grazing
Land
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Village Grazing Forming a Definition

• Is it rangeland?
• Is it communal land?
• Is it any land on which village livestock are
  herded?
• Is it land directly adjacent to the village or
  land within a prescribed distance from the
  village?
• Who are the users?
• What are its uses?

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Definition

• Grazing land adjacent or in close proximity to a
  village settlement that offers all village
  livestock owners
• a degree of access to grazing.

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Land Degradation and Overgrazing The Issues

• Overgrazing a definition
• grazing too many livestock for too long a
  period on land unable to recover its vegetation
  or of grazing animals on land unsuitable due to
  physical parameters such as slope. FAO 2002
• Carrying capacity/environmental constraints
• Situation specific e.g. West Africa, East
  African Highlands, Eastern Europe.
• Dynamic not fixed

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Overgrazing The symptoms

• Pasture degradation
• loss of vegetation as a result of selective
  grazing or browsing.
• decrease in palatable perennial grasses and
  increase in annual grasses.
• species rarity
• bush encroachment (fire ban)
• weed invasion
• Overall decline in nutritional value of pasture.

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Overgrazing The Symptoms Continued

• Land degradation
• reduced ground cover results in accelerated or
  increased erosion by wind or runoff.
• areas are compacted by trampling and heavy use
  resulting in reduced infiltration and increased
  runoff leading to erosion

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The Causes Behind the Symptoms Overpopulation

• Overpopulation leading to increased cultivation
  of grazing land and reduction in grazing land.
• Unsuitability of much grazing land for
  cultivation.(Marginal land protected from erosion
  by vegetative cover)
• Crop cultivation and deforestation as major
  agents of land degradation.
• Fuel shortage leading to use of manure as fuel.

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The Causes Behind the Symptoms Land Insecurity

• The tragedy of the commons
• The tragedy of the individual (Bakema ed 1994)
• Land tenure
• Government policy
• Indigenous management
• Private ownership
• Conflicts between users

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Solutions Technical

• Quotas/destocking
• Restricted access
• Intensification(fencing)
• Reseeding
• Fertilization(mineral)
• Fodder banks and fodder conservation
• Chemical treatment of crop residues
• Controlled burning/weed control
• Erosion control measures litter lines, stone
  lines, tree planting, fodder belts etc.

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Possible Solutions Socio-economic

• Redistribution of property rights
• Limited ownership?
• Improved marketing facilities (destocking)
• Multidisciplinary approach, inclusion of all
  stakeholders
• Pilot projects building on indigenous knowledge
  vs. blanket solutions
• Dispute and negotiation management (land tenure)
• Engineering government policy to enable local
  level solutions.
• Alternative non agri employment?

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Barriers to Success

• 1.The Need for Consensus at
• Government level
• Community level
• Between government and community
• Cohesion between levels and in policy.
• The need for long term security and stability to
  make SC investment worthwhile. (Involves
  addressing non agri employment alternative
  employment, out migration, inheritance etc.)
• The beneficiaries of interventions.
• The importance of short term results.
• Labour inputs.

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North Gonder Ethiopia A Case Study
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Table 1 Soil Degradation in the Ethiopian
Highlands  
Adapted from Stone Ed 1992.  
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Bibliography

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