Managing Scarcity in the Dryland of the Eastern Sudan: the Role of Pastoralists' Local Knowledge in Rangeland Management

The misconception that seems to be dominant among many academicians and policy makers is that pastoralists are often to be blamed for degrading the resources they rely upon and are indifferent about the ecological consequences of their actions. Melville Herskovits’ theory of the ‘East African cattle complex’ and Hardin’ theory of the ‘tragedy of commons’ has viewed indigenous pastoralists who shared grazing resources communally are ignorant and environmentally destructive. Recent researches on range ecology and social science have found evidence that knowledge is not being the scarce commodity among pastoralists. The Scoones’ new thinking approach has shown that pastoralists are often knowledgeable about their surrounding environments and capable of regulating the use of grazing resources among local groups as well as with outsiders in a sustainable manner. Despite this fact, little has been said about pastoralists' local knowledge and even less is known about the role of this knowledge in securing livelihood of the overwhelming majority of the inhabitants in the dry lands. This paper focuses on the role played by Sudanese pastoralists’ local knowledge in rangeland management and the current constraints that have taken place. The main objective is to investigate how this knowledge is powerfully reflected in pastoral adaption strategies to the ecological marginality of Gedarif state in the eastern Sudan. Filling the existing lack of literature in indigenous knowledge and to highlight its importance in securing livelihood, minimizing risks and conserving the environment are the main contributions of this article.