Participatory assessment of El Hadra rangeland degradation (Rhamna province)

Abstract

The degradation of the El Hadra rangeland was approached by exploring user’s perception and by a technical study which concerned both the vegetation and the substrate. Results show that the users' perception is very rich. The breeders recognize that their rangeland is much degraded. This deterioration is mainly due to their actions and partly to the climatic conditions. The study of the vegetation confirmed the breeders finding. The results show that the plant cover is much degraded. The floristic composition is dominated by annuals. The overall vegetation covert is around 20 to 30% during seasonal growth. The density of vegetation is very high and mainly consists of annuals, explaining the strong seasonality of this rangeland. Dry matter production, composed by a large part of perennials species, is variable depending on the substrate; it is 700 to 1000 kg DM / ha for heavy and less stony soils and 350 to 500 kg DM per hectare for calcareous and stony soils.

Keywords

• rhamna
• dégradation des parcours
• perception des éleveurs
• etude de la végétation