Natural Resource Management in Pastoral Africa

Current research on rangeland ecology suggests that we have less to fear from pastoral land stewardship than was previously thought. On the one hand, the natural environments exploited by pastoralists are generally robust and resilient. And on the other hand, pastoral techniques of land management are not as dysfunctional as was once widely assumed. While regulation of pastoral activity may be necessary in specific circumstances, there no longer exists a broad scientific mandate to control or modify almost every aspect of pastoral land use in order to preserve the environment.