Using Geospatial Analysis to Assess the Influence of Land-Use Change and Conservation on Pastoralist Access to Drought Resources.

Drought resource areas (DRAs) maintain natural-resource availability during periods of low rainfall, and are critical for sustaining wildlife, livestock and human communities. This study analysed remote sensing data at two spatial scales in order to assess the distribution of DRAs relative to landus...

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Published in:Nomadic Peoples Vol. 19; no. 1; pp. 120 - 146
Main Author: Miller, Brian W.
Format: Article
Published: White Horse Press 2015
Subjects:
Online Access:View this record in EBSCOhost
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        atl: Using Geospatial Analysis to Assess the Influence of Land-Use Change and Conservation on Pastoralist Access to Drought Resources.
      aug:
        au: Miller, Brian W.
      su:
        East Africa
        Land use
        Droughts
        Pastoral societies
        Geospatial data
        Nature reserves
      sug:
        subj:
          Land use
          Droughts
          Pastoral societies
          East Africa
          Nature Parks and Other Similar Institutions
          Geospatial data
          Nature reserves
      keyword:
        land-use/land-cover change
        Maasai
        protected areas
        remote sensing
        land-use/land-cover change
        Maasai
        protected areas
        remote sensing
      ab: Drought resource areas (DRAs) maintain natural-resource availability during periods of low rainfall, and are critical for sustaining wildlife, livestock and human communities. This study analysed remote sensing data at two spatial scales in order to assess the distribution of DRAs relative to landuse changes and conservation efforts in East Africa. Results suggest that cultivation has exerted an especially strong influence on rangeland DRA availability across the Kenya/Tanzania border region, but conservation areas also contained a disproportionate area of DRAs. For a local scale within the region (the Simanjiro Plains and Tarangire National Park), DRAs were more evenly distributed across land-use zones, but available sites were generally on steeper slopes. Overall, the area of DRAs that were not cultivated or conserved was relatively small, accounting for about two per cent of the landscape. The area of DRAs available to pastoralist households is likely even smaller, considering that there are a variety of other factors affecting resource access (e.g. risks of livestock disease and conflict, forage quality, resource management institutions). These findings highlight the scarcity and significance of available DRAs within this iconic landscape. More broadly, this study, together with previous research on the topic, demonstrates that remote sensing and ethnographic methods can contribute complementary insights into issues of resource access.
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    language: English
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