Community perceptions on spatio-temporal land use changes in the Amboseli ecosystem, southern Kenya

Abstract

Resource changes observed in rangeland ecosystems have triggered a myriad of ecological, social and economic dynamics, often with adverse implications on pastoral livelihoods. This study applied an integrated approach using local knowledge and spatial technologies to assess the long-term changes in pastoral resources and their implications to pastoral livelihoods in the Amboseli ecosystem in southern Kenya. Reduction in grazing land was perceived by the community to be the main change in pastoral resources that has occurred over the 40-year period. The decline was reported to be more pronounced under sedentary (50 %) and semi-nomadic (47 %) land uses than in the nomadic pastoral land use sites (30 %). This trend was attributed to expansion of cultivation and settlements, which increased by 26 and 17 %, respectively, in sedentary and 17 and 12 %, respectively, in semi-nomadic during the period under study, due to land tenure changes. The use of participatory resource mapping provided an entry point for eliciting community perceptions of problems facing them in order to guide sustainable resource planning and action at a local level.