Abstract
There exist common-pool resource systems where it is difficult to prevent prospective beneficiaries from receiving profits from the use or harvest of shared resources, and they are often subject to continual utilization, leading to resource degradation and economic erosion (a behavior known as the ‘tragedy of the commons’). Nigerian nomadic grazing systems currently undergoing the tragedy of the commons pose a great challenge to agrarian communities, herders and political stability throughout the country due to violent conflicts and property destruction as herders migrate in search of forage resources for livestock. We modeled these dynamics in order to better understand the Nigerian grazing lands, with the objective of identifying potential leverage points capable of reversing overgrazing-induced forage degradation, in order to ensure a sustainable livestock production sector. Model what-if experiments (crop restrictions, crop marketing and increased labor costs) were run, resulting in partial solutions that were effective only in the short-term or limited in geographic-scope. A sustainable solution should include a combination of strategies, as the impact of one strategy alone cannot effectively resolve these Nigerian grazing issues (e.g., collaboration between farmers, herdsmen and government stakeholders to increase market integration via crop market expansion while simultaneously providing forage regeneration time for grazing lands). The resulting model could be used by Nigerian policy-makers to evaluate the long-term effects of decisions which were previously unexplored.
Highlights
Grazing livestock are of central importance to rural livelihoods and economic conditions in developing countries, being assets to smallholders that provide a source of income, employment and family equity while simultaneously providing an important protein source for billions of people [1].Livestock assets fulfill multiple roles for smallholders, including draught power, manure fertilizer, and milk and meat for consumption [2]
We investigate the pressing forage-based common-pool resource (CPR) problem occurring in northern Nigeria due to excessive, long-term overgrazing using a system dynamics (SD) modeling approach to better understand the degradation dynamics occurring in Nigeria, and seek alternative strategies or policies that would assist in curtailing the livestock overgrazing problem
Understanding these dynamics and the underlying system of forage, crops, animals and people illustrates the importance of matching the stocking rate to the carrying capacity, and the potential value that collaboration and cooperation among stakeholders could have in achieving sustainable, equitable outcomes in the region
Summary
Grazing livestock are of central importance to rural livelihoods and economic conditions in developing countries, being assets to smallholders that provide a source of income, employment and family equity while simultaneously providing an important protein source for billions of people [1].Livestock assets fulfill multiple roles for smallholders, including draught power, manure fertilizer, and milk and meat for consumption [2]. Sustainable development requires that livestock numbers be balanced with forage carrying capacity, which means that the short-term economic motivations of smallholder herders to increase herd sizes must be tempered by the long-term ecosystem conservation efforts needed to sustain grazing productivity in the long-term. This poses a major challenge for sub-Saharan grassland-based livestock production, which has traditionally relied on open-access forage available to all smallholders, a form of common-pool resource system. The environmental degradation resulting from TOC has been shown to be independent of social and historical context [7]
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