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Conservation in the Age of Climate Change: Saving the Cows—and Grasslands—of Rural Zimbabwe (PS Mag)
Conservation in the Age of Climate Change: Saving the Cows—and Grasslands—of Rural Zimbabwe
Inside a seven-year effort to restore a landscape beset by desertification and drought.
By Judith D. Schwartz
Sianyanga is a small community far from any paved road in Matabeleland North, Zimbabwe’s poorest province. The village, part of the Hwange Communal Lands, comprises about 150 households — one household being six or seven family members living in a group of small, thatched huts. From the 1990s until about 2010, along with problems endemic to the region, including hunger and lack of clean water, the people of Sianyanga bore an added affliction: biting ants, or izinyebe, that thrive on bare soil.
These weren’t just annoying bugs that nipped a little. Balbina Nyoni, a single mother who has spent her whole life in the area, told me that being rushed on by izinyebe is like having boiling water poured on the skin; the onslaught has sent men to the hospital. The ants were known to gouge out the eyes of baby goats, killing them in minutes. People who lacked shoes, as Nyoni did, wrapped their feet in plastic to avoid getting stung. Being bitten could mean losing toenails, so open shoes were of no use. Plus, the ants ravaged low-growing staple crops such as groundnuts and cowpeas.
In September 2014, I toured Sianyanga with a group of community leaders. I was there to see the results of a seven-year effort to restore a landscape beset by desertification and drought. An older man paused in a grassy meadow and said, “This used to be so bare you could pick up a needle from the land.”
(snip)
The model that was applied in Sianyanga is called Holistic Planned Grazing, and it was developed by Allan Savory, co-founder of the Africa Centre for Holistic Management in Zimbabwe. As a wildlife biologist working in Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia) in the 1950s, he observed that, when parkland was safeguarded from roving animal herds, the land deteriorated. He concluded that grasslands and grazing animals evolved together, so that the land needs the animals just as the animals need the land.
more at the link
Inside a seven-year effort to restore a landscape beset by desertification and drought.
By Judith D. Schwartz
Sianyanga is a small community far from any paved road in Matabeleland North, Zimbabwe’s poorest province. The village, part of the Hwange Communal Lands, comprises about 150 households — one household being six or seven family members living in a group of small, thatched huts. From the 1990s until about 2010, along with problems endemic to the region, including hunger and lack of clean water, the people of Sianyanga bore an added affliction: biting ants, or izinyebe, that thrive on bare soil.
These weren’t just annoying bugs that nipped a little. Balbina Nyoni, a single mother who has spent her whole life in the area, told me that being rushed on by izinyebe is like having boiling water poured on the skin; the onslaught has sent men to the hospital. The ants were known to gouge out the eyes of baby goats, killing them in minutes. People who lacked shoes, as Nyoni did, wrapped their feet in plastic to avoid getting stung. Being bitten could mean losing toenails, so open shoes were of no use. Plus, the ants ravaged low-growing staple crops such as groundnuts and cowpeas.
In September 2014, I toured Sianyanga with a group of community leaders. I was there to see the results of a seven-year effort to restore a landscape beset by desertification and drought. An older man paused in a grassy meadow and said, “This used to be so bare you could pick up a needle from the land.”
(snip)
The model that was applied in Sianyanga is called Holistic Planned Grazing, and it was developed by Allan Savory, co-founder of the Africa Centre for Holistic Management in Zimbabwe. As a wildlife biologist working in Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia) in the 1950s, he observed that, when parkland was safeguarded from roving animal herds, the land deteriorated. He concluded that grasslands and grazing animals evolved together, so that the land needs the animals just as the animals need the land.
more at the link
Fantastic article, and more evidence of how effective proper rotation/management of cattle (and/or other ungulates) can restore lands and help reverse the effects of desertification/climate change (and beyond). These animals aren't simply in the environment, they - as an essential part of keeping it healthy and thriving - are the environment. This sort of grazing is a form of biomimicry, where the movement of the grazing animals is modeled after the way natural predators (who kickstart a process called "trophic cascade"
would keep them from staying in one place for too long - allowing for the grasses/lands to be fertilized and rebound until their next pass through.
Wrote further in-depth about this method of grazing in a couple old OPs:
Fighting the growing deserts, with livestock: Allan Savory at TED2013 (*STUNNING RESULTS*)
To Kick Climate Change, Replace Corn With Pastured Beef
And about trophic cascades here:
THE COMPLEX NATURE OF GMOS CALLS FOR A NEW CONVERSATION
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