| This dissertation examines the spatial aspects of pastoral herding among Sukuma agropastoralists living in the Rukwa Valley, Tanzania. The first chapter develops a central-place model for the analysis of pastoral herding. Using this model, the factors affecting households' herding are examined and the extent to which variation in herding practices affects herd productivity is explored. Water availability strongly affected the distances herds traveled and the distribution of grazing around pastoral settlements. Herd productivity was highest for small herds and those staying closer to home.; Chapter two uses the central-place model to analyze and model the landscape-scale distribution of grazing intensity by pastoral livestock and compares its utility to “unconstrained” models traditionally applied to grazing systems. The central-place approach was analytically more useful that the traditional approach and was a more flexible and accurate tool for modeling the landscape-scale distribution of grazing intensity. The prospects for applying; similar central-place models to other types of resource use are also discussed.; The final chapter examines current critiques of community-based conservation (CBC) in order to help define a more appropriate role for CBC in the future. In general, many critiques and inappropriate applications of CBC unnecessarily assume a negative relationship between the degree of centralization and consumptive use of wildlife in conservation projects. Relaxing this assumption reveals a broader set of options for conservation strategies, particularly in the developing world. Using Tanzania as a case study, examining the variety of protected areas and the levels at which each is administered reveals a wealth of opportunities for applying the full range of conservation strategies. It is argued that divergent conservation strategies can be spatially and strategically complimentary, enhancing the effectiveness of both. |
