Akademisk avhandling--Social antropologi--Stockholm, 1979. / Bibliogr. p. 273-280. Index.

In the span of one hundred years, the Borana pastoralist communities of Northern Kenya experienced relative changes and transformation in their social, political and economic life. During their almost seven decades rule (1890-1963), the British introduced a number of policies to facilitate political control and economic exploitation. In the subsequent three decades after independence (1963-1990), the Kenyan government also introduced social and economic policies to enable the integration of the pastoral economy into that of the nation. Although the policies under both regimes affected the life of the Borana, they neither led to a complete end to Borana nomadic pastoralism, nor did they bring the Borana too close to the center. The Borana responded to the policies innovatively neither totally rejecting them nor wholly incorporating them. This dissertation examines the social and economic impact of colonial and postcolonial state polices from the 1890s to the 1990s on the Borana. The study emphasizes how the Borana responded to the strategies through getting formal education, innovation in gender roles, engagaing in modern livestock trade, and migration and settlement in towns to earn cash and pay taxes. Through a critical examination of oral, archival and secondary sources, this dissertation concludes that the Borana were not passive recipients of system imposed on them by both regimes, but they adjusted their social and economic life to new realities that they encountered without totally abandoning their established livelihood. This study concludes that, despite the transformations that have taken place in the last century, pastoralism is still important to the Borana socioeconomic and cultural life. This study's findings suggest that the Borana neither completely rejected changes in their situation nor whole-heartedly incorporated them. They used patterns of accommodation and adaptation to balance their traditional ways of life with that of the new world to deal with internal and external forces of disruption. This has implications for post-colonial scholarship as well as Kenyan policymakers who have been dealing with recent political and social reforms.

" ... a shortened version of Sahlu's MA thesis, presented to the University of Addis Ababa"--P. viii. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 182-183) and index.

This study was conducted in the Borana rangelands, southern Oromia, Ethiopia with the aim of investigating land-use/cover changes, rangeland condition and indentifying major change drivers in the rangelands. Satellite image scenes, ground survey and people’s perceptions were assessed to identify changes on herbaceous and woody species composition. Ordination techniques were used for correlation of grass and woody species into environmental variables. Piospheric effects on vegetation composition around patch resources were also examined. These assessments were designed to bring out both spatial and seasonal variation in vegetation parameters. Rangeland condition was determined using the ecological index (EIM) and the weighted palatability composition (WPC) methods. Grazing capacity assessment was largely based on rain-use efficiency, range condition, density of woody plants. Woody cover in the Borana increased from 11.3% in the 1970s to 49.26% in 2000s, while, grassland cover declined from 58% to 32% during the same period. The cultivated/built up area also increased gradually over the years though the extent of increment was less compared to the woody cover changes. The calculated NDVI values for the 2000s were low relative to the 1970s. Ground survey results demonstrated that herbaceous biomass production and woody plant density varied significantly (P < 0.01) for the different sites in Borana. Nevertheless, herbaceous plant diversity and evenness did not differ significantly (P>0.05) across the different sites and around patch resource areas. This confirms the resilience of the Borana rangeland to the effects of grazing pressure and climatic variability. Overall, the density of woody plants varied from moderate to sever encroachment, which corresponds to the rangeland condition classes from very poor to fair. The results of the present study showed that the nutrient contents of herbaceous plants (CP, NDF, ADF, ADL and ash) were greatly influenced by species, stage of maturity, site and season. Herbaceous species with high crude protein content based on laboratory results were also ranked as the top important species by the pastoralists. Similarly, herbaceous forage species with a high structural fiber were considered inferior. Pastoralists’ knowledge and laboratory results on the nutritive value of key herbaceous species complemented each other. The stocking density of livestock units was higher than the grazing capacity for the Borana rangelands. Stocking density for the Borana rangeland using rain-use efficiency was 1.43 ha/TLU. There was no significant difference in the grazing capacity across the different sites in the study area under the existing management. The majority of pastoralists believed that the rangelands in Borana have been degraded, as consequence of recurrent drought (83%), population pressure (65%), poor management and inappropriate government policy (38%). The majority of the respondents (94%) also asserted that the traditional coping mechanisms of Borana pastoralists have declined. There is therefore a need for designing appropriate pastoral land-use policies that fit the ecological potential of the region to ensure sustainable ecosystem functioning. We suggest a comprehensive and adaptive range management for the implementation of appropriate land-use systems for the different livestock species. There is need to adjust stocking rates based on seasonal availability of forage. This would foster economic feasibility and ecological sustainability of the Borana pastoral production system. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2013. / gm2013 / Plant Production and Soil Science / Unrestricted

Ethiopia is one of the poorest and most populated countries in the world. It is also one of the largest receivers of foreign aid in the world. The Borana Plateau in the Oromia region is one of the poorest regions in southern Ethiopia. The local population in this region has relied on livestock for their livelihood for many generations. The growing number of humans and livestock on the Borana Plateau has caused the rangeland to be degraded. Coupled with more frequent and severe droughts, this growth can cause the loss of a large number of the livestock in this region from time-to-time. Several scientific and social studies have been conducted regarding how to maintain more sustainable livelihoods on the Borana Plateau in the face of all of these challenges. Most of the social science literature has focused on the poor and how to build their resiliency in the face of poverty and drought. Research about poor pastoralists is very important. However, it is likely the wealthy pastoralists of the region have the greatest potential to fuel economic activity by their investment decisions. This thesis focused on an analysis of portfolio diversification and risk management by wealthy pastoralists on the Borana Plateau. The method was to choose 12 important and wealthy pastoralists to survey to obtain data for the analysis. The idea was that wealthy pastoralists have more discretionary income available to invest compared to other local people. They have large-sized cattle herds, which leads to a larger-than-average consumption of the community water and forage resources. Wealthy pastoralists can also provide employment for the local communities for milking and herding activities. Understanding the diversification strategies used by this segment of the pastoralist population also provides some insights about the diversification strategies that are available and the barriers that exist to accessing different forms of investment to allow for diversification. This type of information may help us understand how to aid more general economic development in the Borana Plateau given that investment decisions of the wealthy are relatively important compared to the general population. It is also likely true that the livestock investment decisions by wealthy pastoralists may point to the future configuration of livestock herds on the Borana Plateau. A nonlinear quadratic program was used to estimate five optimal portfolios using a mean-variance (E-V) formulation for minimizing variance. These optimal portfolios were analyzed together with the portfolios actually held by the 12 participants using risk analysis. This included using portfolio analysis, stochastic dominance, and stochastic efficiency, and estimating risk premiums for different investment alternatives. It was found that large investments in camels, savings accounts, and real estate are preferred by very risk-averse producers. A combination of cattle, camels, and savings tended to make up the portfolios of more risk-seeking participants.

Understanding the factors which determine the distributions of species is challenging. In response to recent anthropogenic climate change species’ ranges are already changing, adding to the complexity of describing their ecological boundaries. The threat posed to species by climate change cannot be understated, and our ability to understand the drivers and mechanisms which underlie species’ responses is critical to our strategies to conserve them. The Ethiopian Bush-crow’s Zavattariornis stresemanni distribution was recently described by an envelope of cooler, drier climate than the surrounding area. This finding raised an intriguing possibility; could this abundant, generalist and charismatic species be limited to a tiny corner of the world by its response to climatic variables alone? That the White-tailed Swallow Hirundo megaensis occurs in a near identical area only adds to this curiosity; how can two unrelated species be globally restricted to the same small area? I address the following questions. What are the effects of temperature on the distribution and local density of the Ethiopian Bush-crow and White-tailed Swallow? How is Bush-crow behaviour affected by temperature? What are the effects of temperature on the breeding success of the White-tailed Swallow? What are the consequences of climatic range-restriction for the conservation of the two species? I found that both species’ ranges are neatly described by distribution models, in which the most important variable was maximum temperature of the warmest month. Bush- crow local density declines as temperatures rise, and their foraging behaviour is negatively impacted by high temperatures, compared to two sympatric starling species. The White-tailed Swallow shows similar negative trends in abundance, and displays a reduction in breeding success as ambient temperatures increase during its breeding season. In both cases, wider-ranging sympatric species do not show the same negative responses to temperature. Both the Ethiopian Bush-crow and White-tailed Swallow are projected to lose a significant proportion of their range over the coming century, raising the level of conservation concern for the species.