Abstract
Pastoralism is an ancient form of self-provisioning that is still in wide use today throughout the world. While many pastoral regions are the focus of current desertification studies, the long history of sustainability evidenced by these cultures is of great interest. Numerous studies suggesting a general trend of desertification intimate degradation is a recent phenomenon principally attributable to changes in land tenure, management, and treatment. This paper explores the suggested causes of land degradation and identifies the land management and grazing treatments shared by many pastoral cultures. The singular commonality found in nearly all studies of degradation is the prevalence of partial or total rest. While historical observations rightly suggest that desertification is the result of both climatic and anthropic factors, recent focus has been placed upon the effect of sedentarisation. This paper attempts to coalesce these two streams of thinking with particular focus upon inclusive planning processes which may improve arid and semiarid rangeland ecosystems using livestock as a solution to the problem of land degradation.
Highlights
The idea that people can affect tremendous changes on the landscapes initiated a review of the commonalities and differences among the many societies and cultures inhabiting the arid and semiarid regions of the world
To discuss and appreciate the study of land degradation in arid and semiarid ecosystems, one must begin with an understanding of pastoralism as this has historically been the principal land use known across these regions
In terms of land management, the effective difference between the former examples of punctuated sedentarism and nomadism is the amount of time spent grazing one area before moving to another along with the amount of time allowed for plant recovery (Voisin 1988)
Summary
The idea that people can affect tremendous changes on the landscapes initiated a review of the commonalities and differences among the many societies and cultures inhabiting the arid and semiarid regions of the world. Numerous studies support these observations and demonstrate that (1) partial and total rest have remarkably similar affects on arid and semiarid grassland environments (Gomez-Ibanez 1975; Cummins 2009; Weber et al 2009a; Weber et al 2009b; Weber and Gokhale 2011) and (2) few tangible differences can be identified among the common rotational grazing schemes in practice today (Jahnke 1982; Sandford 1983; Behnke 1999; Quirk 2002; Coughenour 2008; Homewood 2008; Briske et al 2008).
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