Assessing Interactions between Agriculture, Livestock Grazing and Wildlife Conservation Land Uses: A Historical Example from East Africa

Kariuki, Rebecca W.; Western, David; Willcock, Simon; Marchant, Robert

doi:10.3390/land10010046

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Assessing Interactions between Agriculture, Livestock Grazing and Wildlife Conservation Land Uses: A Historical Example from East Africa

Rebecca W. Kariuki

^1,2,*

David Western

³,

Simon Willcock

⁴

and

Robert Marchant

Department of Environment and Geography, York Institute for Tropical Ecosystems, University of York, Heslington, York YO10 5NG, UK

School of Life Sciences and Bio-Engineering, Nelson Mandela African Institution of Science and Technology, Arusha P.O. Box 447, Tanzania

African Conservation Centre, Amboseli Conservation Program, Nairobi P.O. Box 15289-00509, Kenya

⁴

School of Natural Sciences, Bangor University, Deiniol Road, Bangor, Gwynedd LL57 2UW, UK

Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.

Land 2021, 10(1), 46; https://doi.org/10.3390/land10010046

Received: 18 November 2020 / Revised: 31 December 2020 / Accepted: 1 January 2021 / Published: 6 January 2021

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Exploring the Relationships between Land Use and Ecosystem Services)

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Abstract

Despite mobile livestock grazing being widely recognized as one of the most viable and sustainable land uses for semi-arid savanna, which can deliver clear wildlife conservation benefits, the levels of pastoral sedentarization and transitions to agricultural livelihoods continue to rise in many pastoral communities across the world. Using questionnaire interviews with community elders, our study assessed changing trends in livestock grazing, wildlife conservation, and sedentarization levels from the 1960s to the present day across three savannas in southern Kenya. Our study identified the drivers of land uses and land subdivision and the implications of land use change on savanna ecology. Over the last half century, there has been a 30% decline in livestock grazing land in southern Kenya due to the expansion of land for agriculture and wildlife conservation. Despite the decline, livestock grazing remains the preferred land use in subdivided and privatized lands. Pastoralist land used for wildlife conservation was perceived to be higher (30%) in southwestern Kenya compared to southeastern Kenya (16%), despite their geographical proximity. These historical insights provide useful lessons for maintaining space for wildlife, diversifying livelihoods, and increasing the resilience of pastoralists in the process of transitioning from traditional subsistence to market economies and the threats of social and ecological dislocation. View Full-Text

Keywords: Amboseli; climate; community perspective; Loita; Mara; sedentarization; savanna

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Kariuki, R.W.; Western, D.; Willcock, S.; Marchant, R. Assessing Interactions between Agriculture, Livestock Grazing and Wildlife Conservation Land Uses: A Historical Example from East Africa. Land 2021, 10, 46. https://doi.org/10.3390/land10010046

AMA Style

Kariuki RW, Western D, Willcock S, Marchant R. Assessing Interactions between Agriculture, Livestock Grazing and Wildlife Conservation Land Uses: A Historical Example from East Africa. Land. 2021; 10(1):46. https://doi.org/10.3390/land10010046

Chicago/Turabian Style

Kariuki, Rebecca W., David Western, Simon Willcock, and Robert Marchant. 2021. "Assessing Interactions between Agriculture, Livestock Grazing and Wildlife Conservation Land Uses: A Historical Example from East Africa" Land 10, no. 1: 46. https://doi.org/10.3390/land10010046

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