Pastoralism and conservation

Traditional subsistence pastoralists are often seen as causing environmental degradation through overgrazing, and are also seen as responsible for a decline in wildlife numbers through resource competition and habitat change. This paper investigates recent ideas on the interaction of pastoralism and conservation that question the validity of the concepts of overstocking and overgrazing as applied to arid and semiarid rangelands. The Ngorongoro Conservation Area, a Maasai pastoralist/wildlife conservation joint land use area in northern Tanzania, shows no clear signs of pastoralist-induced environmental degradation despite a preoccupation with this possibility by successive administrations. Ecological studies together with other considerations suggest that joint land use works to the long-term benefit of both pastoralism and conservation in this and other areas.