Current Social and Rangeland Access Trends among Pastoralists in the Western Algerian Steppe

Slimane Bencherif, Mohamed Boumedienne Dahmani, Daniel Burgas and Pablo Manzano
Additional contact information
Slimane Bencherif: Department of Agronomic and Veterinary Sciences, Faculty of Nature and Life Sciences, University of Djelfa, P.O. Box 3117, Djelfa 17000, Algeria
Mohamed Boumedienne Dahmani: Department of Sociology and Demography, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Djelfa, P.O. Box 3117, Djelfa 17000, Algeria
Daniel Burgas: Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences, University of Jyvaskyla, FI-40014 Jyvaskyla, Finland
Pablo Manzano: Global Change and Conservation Lab, Organismal and Evolutionary Biology Research Programme, Faculty of Biological and Environmental Sciences, University of Helsinki, P.O. Box 65, FI-00014 Helsinki, Finland

Land, 2021, vol. 10, issue 7, 1-14

Abstract: In the western Algerian steppe, the public authorities have carried out actions aimed at rural development (agricultural development programs) and combating desertification (grazing reserves) to counter the significant and rapid loss of vegetation cover of pastures by overgrazing, and the consequent impacts on local livelihoods. In the Rogassa area, these actions have impacted land tenure and the ancestral and collective way of land use and access. These changes have caused transformations in lifestyle and pasture management. This research aims to characterize how such changes are affecting local pastoralists and what their perceptions are about them. A selective sampling of 150 agropastoral households was carried out by interviewing their heads, analyzing socioeconomic, land tenure and government perception variables. Most agropastoralists access land under tribal tenure, conditioned by local social structures. Pastures are prevailingly perceived by pastoralists as insufficient, and the perception of grazing reserves is largely negative. Pastoralists are worried about land degradation and declining grazing lands, and are looking for solutions and alternatives. However, state interventions have been uncoordinated and have not considered their customary land rights. The generalized awareness of environmental deterioration points to the need for better communication and intervention strategies to be developed by authorities in the future that involve the inhabitants of these lands.

Keywords: rangeland access; land degradation; agropastoralists; land tenure; pastoral society; livelihood transformation; development programs (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q15 Q2 Q24 Q28 Q5 R14 R52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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