Adapting pastoral breeding to global changes in West and Central tropical Africa: Review of ecological views

Abstract

Pastoral livestock is defined as a reproduction-oriented, grazing-based familial livestock system with community-managed resources. Pastoral breeders differ from one another in the diversity of species and breeds raised, the size and management of herds and the extent of their regional mobility. The social, economic and environmental weight of pastoralist livestock in West and Central sub-Saharan Africa is evoked together with its imputation of environmental degradation. Global changes faced by pastoral livestock are sorted out by domains, climatic and societal, and by time scales, short or long. The incriminated impacts of livestock on ecosystems are assessed in the short and long terms. The functions of pastoral breeding already affected by global changes whether climatic or societal are analyzed. The capacity of two alternative livestock breeding systems, ranching and stall-feeding, to respond to these constraints is reviewed. Finally, pastoral breeding has been recognized as being able to adapt best to long-term climate change and to short- and long-term societal changes, provided that national and international investments are made. Civil security must be restored and pastoralists’ access to water and fodder resources must be secured. Professional organizations and associations should be empowered to negotiate grazing rights, and their skills should be enhanced. There is the need to complete, rehabilitate and manage hydraulic and veterinary infrastructures, but also to invest significantly in adapted health, education and communication infrastructures in long-neglected pastoral areas.

Keywords

• Pastoralism
• adaptation
• climate change
• social change
• ecology
• Africa South of Sahara