A paper that I recently published in the journal Landscape Ecology lays out an approach for integration of social science concepts into analyses of vegetation change in rangelands of Kenya. I intended this paper to open up a reflexive dialogue between social scientists and ecologists working in rangelands. I suggest that by focusing on the different social, political, and economic factors that mediate access to land, landscape ecology could produce more nuanced understandings of ecological change.
I emphasize how people practising pastoralism “live off” ecologically variable land but have also been affected by different constraints that limit the way they relate to land. I argue that by being more attentive to different types of social and political power that have influenced conservation interventions, ecologists working in rangelands in Kenya would also produce better science.
This article is from PASTRES, a research programme that aims to learn from pastoralists about responding to uncertainty and resilience, with lessons for global challenges. PASTRES is co-hosted by IDS.
