Abstract
In order to investigate spatial and temporal characteristics of the purely grazing-based livestock husbandry system in southwestern Madagascar, individual animals from 12 cattle and 12 goat herds that were equally distributed across four villages were fitted with GPS tracking collars and their behaviour during pasturing was directly observed to identify seasonal variations in land use and movement patterns along the regional altitude and vegetation gradient. Monitoring occurred at regular intervals of two months over a two-year period to capture inter-annual variability. Herds of both species from the inland limestone plateau covered longer distances and were found further away from their home corrals than those from the coastal plain. Patterns of feeding behaviour and utilization of grazing areas mostly reflected the spatial occurrence of specific land cover classes around the villages and differed significantly between seasons and sites. Seasonal water shortage was one of the key factors affecting dry season livestock movements on the plateau but played a minor role in the coastal plain where livestock keeping proved to be more limited by feed availability. While on transhumance, mobile cattle herds were vulnerable to disadvantages such as limited access to pastureland and water sources nearby their temporary homesteads. The recent problem of armed cattle raids along with emerging land use conflicts compel livestock owners to utilize fewer grazing areas, which threatens to destabilize the region’s animal husbandry system.
Highlights
In many pastoral dryland systems, mobility is the key approach to cope with seasonal environmental variation (Adriansen 2008; Niamir-Fuller 1999a; Turner et al 2014)
The adverse relationship between decreasing security and declining livestock mobility was the framework against which this study aimed to evaluate herd management and spatio-temporal patterns of livestock movement and grazing activity, as well as the resulting utilization of pasture areas and water resources in the Mahafaly region of southwestern Madagascar
While on the limestone plateau, this small-scale herd displacement mostly occurred during the rainy season, and single herds of both species were almost permanently kept outside the residential area in the coastal zone
Summary
In many pastoral dryland systems, mobility is the key approach to cope with seasonal environmental variation (Adriansen 2008; Niamir-Fuller 1999a; Turner et al 2014). Goats and sheep are less common across the country because of local taboos on respective meat consumption and are mainly concentrated in the dry south and southwest (FAO and AGAL 2005). This region is still renowned for its big herds of extensively farmed zebu cattle and small ruminants even though the numbers have been declining recently due to general increases in violent crime and acts of cattle raids in the countryside (Rasambainarivo and Ranaivoarivelo 2006). Local pastoralists developed appropriate measures to deal with these ecological uncertainties, their traditional herding practices are threatened to an increasing degree by access restrictions to potential pasture resources due to expanding private land ownership and the designation of protected areas, which are turning traditional grazing land and migration corridors into no-go areas for livestock (Toutain et al 2004)
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