More Cattle, More Trees Landscape dynamics in Adamawa

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More Cattle, More TreesLandscape dynamics in
Adamawa

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Neo-Malthusian Discourse

• An increase of population beyond carrying
  capacity leads to an over-exploitation of
  resources
• The over-exploitation of resources leads to the
  degradation of the resource base (assets)
• This increases over-exploitation
• Vicious circle

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Challenging Malthusian Discourse

• More people, higher productivity (Boserup)
• More people, less erosion (Mortimore)
• More people, more trees (LeachFairhead)
• More cattle, no more degradation (Scoones)
• More cattle, more trees

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Adamawa Plateau

• Plateau above 1000m of altitude
• Relatively free from tsetse flies
• Average of 1500 mm of rain per year
• Very low human population density
• Transhumance slow migration southward
• Cattle herders began to settle in the 1960s

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Signs of unsustainable grazing

• Agro-pastoral conflicts
• Migration southward
• Change of landscape

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• Agro-pastoral conflicts

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Agro-pastoral conflicts

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Migration southward
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Migration southward
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Change of Landscape less grass, more trees

• More cattle more erosion
• More cattle less grass
• More erosion less grass less bush fires
• Less bush fires more trees and shrubs
• More trees more shade less grass less
  bush-fires more trees (vicious circle)

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Important remarks

• Rain/gallery forest gtlt dry/savannah forest
• Shifting cultivation gtlt Savannah cultivation
• Bush fires - Early (protect from later severe
  fires, and hasten the re-growth of grass for
  cattle)
• Late (for hunting, for preparing new fields)
• No bush fire (enrichment of soil - mulching)
• Grazing on the plateau during rainy season, in
  the plain or fields during the dry season
• Fences can keep cattle or protect fields (big
  fences in rainy season, small in dry season)

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Localized erosion
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Temporary erosion
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Ungrazed grass
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Bush fires (ungrazed grass in old fields)
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Equilibrium forest/savanah
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Forest encroachment (1)
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Forest encroachment (2)
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Old grass, old marsh, forest encroachment

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Methods

• Aerial photographs Satellite images GPS
• Participatory mapping
• (Ethno-)botanics
• Biographies, memories, oral history (on hunting,
  roads, landscape, rivers, wars)
• Study of agricultural and pastoral practices

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Participatory mapping
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Ethno-botanics Rainforest in a savannah area
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Feces of civet cat containing seeds of rainforest
trees
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Oral history-biographiesIntroduction of new
species
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Abandoned villages

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Oral history Trenches
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Shifting cultivation
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Dry-season fences and savannah cultivation
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Agro-pastoral management rain-season fences
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Inside and outside fence (1)
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Inside and outside fence (2)
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Living fences
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Contesting nature (1)

• Pastoralists want grass for pastures
• Agriculturalists want forests for cultivation
• Present amount of grazing is not sustainable as
  pastures disappear and forests take over
• It directly benefits shifting cultivators, as it
  improves soil fertility (in the long-run)
• It enhances agro-pastoral conflicts

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Contesting / culturalizing nature (2)

• What is unsustainable for some (degradation)
  can improve the sustainability of others.
• Lower cattle carrying capacity higher human
  carrying capacity.
• Carrying capacity is determined by agro-pastoral
  practices (culture), not just by nature
• Neo-malthusianism is nature-deterministic, and is
  therefore contested by social scientists