Changes in Natural Resource Use among Owambo Agro- Pastoralists of North-Central Namibia Resulting From The Enclosure of Local Frontiers

Abstract

Agro-pastoralists living in arid lands of Africa tend to have highly mobile lifestyles and to use natural resources widely and sparsely. Thus, they require frontiers with low population densities and sufficient natural resources. However, this study found that the enclosure of the local frontier has prompted social changes, such as the setting of conservation areas and the construction of new villages. The aim of this study was to clarify how Owambo agro-pastoralists living in north-central Namibia have changed their use of natural resources in response to transformations to the local frontiers they inhabit. The Owambo group consists of a number of subgroups. Some of these groups formed small kingdoms; most group members live at the kingdom's center surrounded by the frontier at the periphery. Since the 1970s, other people have migrated into these frontier areas and altered the local conditions, forcing inhabitants to change their use of natural resources. Local inhabitants have coped with this situation in three main ways: (1) wealthy people have established private cattle posts in the frontier where they graze their livestock and gather natural resources, (2) some (especially non-wealthy people) have started to use indigenous fruit trees in multiple and intensified ways, not only for their fruit but also as building materials and wood for fuel, and (3) older villagers have established social networks with newer villagers on the frontier to exchange goods that are available only from their respective areas. The progress of people who can access the natural resources in the frontier has been limited by the enclosure of the local frontier. However, local customs involving the reciprocal exchange of surplus natural resources among neighbors and neighboring areas remain and have been adapted in response to the new situation.