Observations by local people about their environment often contradict - or frame the problem in a different way from - scientific findings. This difference of opinion can confuse debate over the reasons behind environmental change in Africa's drylands. In a village area under study in Botswana, most scientists observe no long-term change in rainfall, yet villagers insist rainfall has declined. Overstocking rangeland is condemned by scientists as a key factor in soil degradation, yet locals regard it as irrelevant. Can these opposing views both be 'true'? Taking this query seriously may reveal a richly informative interplay of previously disregarded human and ecological factors. It also requires a methodology which encourages a convergence of views rather than one that encourages an unresolved plurality.

Senior residents of Kalakamate village in Botswana were asked to describe and comment on how the area had changed oversome 40 years. These narratives were compared with aerial photosurveys, official rainfall records and other technical or science-based data relating to the same locality and period. The recollected experiences of villagers often appeared to contradict official accounts. Investigations into the reasons behind this divergence established that:

• local and scientific sources both provide narratives but farmers narratives are not told for the same reasons as those told by scientists or officials: both need decoding before just comparisons can be made
• recent literature on the dynamics of change in semi-arid ecosystems has stressed the unpredictable and complex nature of such systems: this re-interpretation agrees strikingly with the notions of local people.

Most local people agreed that the main driving force behind ecosystem change in the area was variation in rainfall, including episodes of drought. Official records, however, showed no hard evidence of rainfall having declined overall. But farmers measure rainfall trends in terms of how available rain is at times they can use it, not in terms of water collected in a rain gauge over time. Additional factors can influence timely availability, including shifts in the location of farming activities when settlements merge for social reasons. Changes in local land use can also be prompted by events and trends at government level, such as permissions to erect fences which cut off access to water and pasture, or official prohibitions on setting brushfires. Growth in income-earning opportunities for local people has also enabled them to farm and graze less, altering dependence on, and attitudes to, the land and common resources such as trees.

Repeatedly characterised in official records as a fast-deteriorating overstocked rangeland under grave threat of ecological crisis, Kalakamate emerges from a reappraisal that includes these new factors, as an area where livestock densities are relatively trivial as factors that might help account for environmental change. Moreover, few (if any) of the observed changes are irreversible or fit prevailing definitions of land degradation. On this basis, it would make sound sense to introduce a flexible strategy of land use and management with an array of options that people can turn to as occasion demands or opportunity permits.

The study concludes that stark differences in perspective can be reconciled not by seeking to prove one or the other right or wrong, but by enquiring into why they differ. A consequent lesson for policymakers or land use planners is that local narratives, besides being informative in their own right, can greatly enrich and complement more technical or science-based ways of measuring and managing environmental change.

Source(s):
An environmental history of a village in Botswana. Can or should "closure" be attempted for contested views on environmental change? Paper presented to the Development Studies Association Annual Conference 11-13 September at the University of East Anglia, A. Dahlberg & P. Blaikie (1997)

Funded by: Swedish Agency for Research Cooperation with Developing Countries, Swedish Society for Anthropology and Geography, Scandinavian Institute of African Studies, C.F. Liljevalch Jr Foundation, 1994-1997

id21 Research Highlight: 1997-Dec-16

Further Information:
P. Blaikie
School of Development Studies
University of East Anglia
Norwich NR4 7TU
UK

Tel: +44 (0) 1603 592323
Fax: +44 (0) 1603 451999
Contact the contributor: p.blaikie@uea.ac.uk

The Overseas Development Group, School of Development Studies, UEA, UK