Biophysical variability and pastoral resource
rights revisited
Leif V. Brottem, Ph.D
Department of Political Science
Global Development Studies Program
Grinnell College
World Bank Conference
on Land and Poverty
March 24, 2014
Livestock mobility and resource access will be essential to climate
resilient development in rural West Africa
Historic
grazing
area for
Sahelian
herds
The Fuladougou
agro-pastoral zone in western Mali
Seasonal well dug in a dry stream bed
±
0
12.5
25
50 Kilometers
Brottem,
March 24, 2014
Pastoral resources at risk
Agricultural expansion in historically
‘vacant’ areas used for grazing
Land cleared for agriculture
between 2000 and 2010.
1. The ‘pastoral paradox’:
herds in drylands need
flexibility and mobility but
also protection from
agricultural encroachment
(Fernandez-Gimenez 2002).
•
Not just in West Africa but
all over the continent
2. Policymakers tended to
emphasize the variability of
resource patches in such
environments but this
has not necessarily done
herders much good.
Moving beyond the paradox: measuring variability in
Mali
1. This project aimed
empirically measure
resource variability at key
times during the pastoral
calendar in order to test
whether there is some
predictability from year to
year.
2. Predictability would
suggest that some
territorial measures could
be implemented to protect
areas containing pastoral
resources.
Study area: Mali’s agro-pastoral zone
Brottem,
March 24, 2014
Critical periods in the West African agro-pastoral calendar:
vegetation green up and brown down (senescence)
1.
A previous stage in the project
had calculated temporal change
in seasonal vegetation patterns
based on MODIS image-derived
normalized difference vegetation
index (NDVI) values.
2.
For this stage, we needed to add
spatial changes in vegetation
during the most critical periods
of the pastoral calendar: green
up and brown down
(senescence).
From: Butt, B., M. D. Turner, A. Singh, and L. Brottem. 2011.
"Use of MODIS NDVI to evaluate changing latitudinal gradients of rangeland phenology
in Sudano-Sahelian West Africa." Remote Sensing of Environment no. 115 (12): 3367-3376
To create a measurement of spatio-temporal change in vegetation,
we used a landscape metric for land cover patch arrangement:
1.
Mean proximity index
(MPI, McGarigal and
Marks 1995) measures the
level of fragmentation of
discrete land covers (e.g.
‘greened up’ areas)
2.
We used MPI to measure
green up and brown down
changes in 4 important
agro-pastoral zones
of Mali
thth
th
June 919
14
2005
2005
24
Pastoral zone green up over
5-day intervals
By calculating changes in MPI for pixels that had ‘greened up’ or ‘browned
down’ at the beginning and end of a given rainy season, respectively, we
established a viable measure of spatio-temporal change in vegetation.
Example: Mopti green up period:
increase in MPI reflects less fragmentation of ‘green’ patches
7000
Mean Proximity Index
6000
5000
4000
3000
2000
1000
0
155
160
165
170
175
180
185
Calendar Julian Date (June 4th to July 9th)
190
Brottem,
March 24, 2014
Inter-annual variability of green up: June 22, 2003 and 2005
2003
2005
Mopti agro-pastoral zone
Brottem,
March 24, 2014
Key question:
Despite some inter-annual variability, do some areas display
longer-term predictability of green up and brown down patterns?
• Calculating longer-term
(2000-2010) green up and
brown down periods for
each of the four zones, we
found that certain places
green up earlier and
senesce later than average.
• We defined these places as
‘key pastoral resources
areas’.
Cattle drinking in an seasonal water source
at the end of the rainy season.
Brottem,
March 24, 2014
Results:
Each of the
four agro-pastoral
zones had places
of early green up
and late brown down.
Two of the sheds—
Mopti and Gourma—
are shown on the right.
Early green up (top)
and brown down
(bottom) areas are
darkened.
This is a serious matter!
1.
Despite efforts to protect
livestock mobility through
measures such as livestock
corridors, pastoral resource
areas are often left out due to
highly contentious land tenure
issues.
2.
Mali’s pastoral code calls on
local governments to identify
and protect such areas but the
country’s land tenure law makes
this difficult by codifying the
customary rights of farmers.
3.
Empirical evidence of pastoral
resources will lend weight to
efforts to provide them with
stronger territorial protection.
Malian citizens deliberating over
livestock corridors in their area
Thank you!
This project was made possible by the generous support of the USAID Mali Livestock
and Pastoral Initiative (Grant #688-A-00-10-00131-00).
Two publications are thus far available from this research:
1.
Brottem, Leif, Matthew D Turner, Bilal Butt, and Aditya Singh. 2014. "Biophysical
Variability and Pastoral Rights to Resources: West African Transhumance Revisited."
Human Ecology: 1-15.
2.
Butt, B., M. D. Turner, A. Singh, and L. Brottem. 2011. "Use of MODIS NDVI to evaluate
changing latitudinal gradients of rangeland phenology in Sudano-Sahelian West Africa."
Remote Sensing of Environment no. 115 (12): 3367-3376.
Other cited works:
•
Fernandez-Gimenez, M. E. 2002. "Spatial and Social Boundaries and the Paradox of Pastoral
Land Tenure: a Case Study from Postsocialist Mongolia." Human Ecology no. 30 (1):49-78.
•
McGarigal, K., and B. J. Marks. 1995. FRAGSTATS: Spatial pattern analysis program for
quantifying landscape structure. In USDA Forest Service General Technical Report.