- By Brittany Bunce
This project examines how different epistemic communities construct evidence and interpret pastoralism’s role in rangeland degradation in Namaqualand’s Succulent Karoo- a declared biodiversity hotspot. Given that approximately 80% of South Africa’s land area consists of rangelands, much of it under communal tenure, debates about degradation have significant implications for pastoralist land rights, livelihoods, and justice in conservation policy. The region’s name references the indigenous Nama-speaking Khoekhoe pastoralists, who have played a critical role in the expansion of pastoralism in Southern Africa for over two millennia.
In these highly variable arid rangelands, pastoralists have developed sophisticated ethno-ecological knowledge and social institutions to navigate shifting grazing resources and manage uncertainty. Yet the “desertification debate” in South Africa has often attributed degradation to pastoralism without adequately acknowledging data uncertainties or the historical processes- colonial dispossession, apartheid-era spatial fragmentation, enforced sedentarisation, and restricted mobility- that created many of the conditions now labelled as “degraded.” Scientific debate between equilibrium and non-equilibrium models of dryland ecology further shapes how degradation is understood and whose knowledge counts in determining appropriate management, including interventions such as grazing restrictions, conservation zoning, or land reform.
Using social network analysis, the project maps the communities producing research on this topic and examines how distinct epistemic cultures shape problem definitions and proposed solutions. Drawing on theories of epistemic justice, it investigates how some forms of expertise become authoritative while others -particularly pastoralist knowledge- are marginalised. The research also highlights promising interdisciplinary approaches that centre herders’ ecological knowledge, contextualise degradation within complex environmental and social histories, and make uncertainties in data and interpretation explicit.
Key questions guiding the project include:
• Whose knowledge is privileged in rangeland degradation assessments?
• Are uncertainties and limitations in the data clearly articulated?
• What scientific disagreements and misunderstandings exist about grazing’s role in degradation?
• What interventions arise from dominant data narratives, and who benefits or loses from these decisions?
Ultimately, the project asks whether applying an epistemic justice lens offers new insights into longstanding debates about rangeland degradation in Namaqualand. It aims to encourage greater interdisciplinarity within and between epistemic communities and to promote more inclusive approaches to rangeland science and conservation- approaches that recognise pastoralists as knowledge-holders and embrace diverse ways of knowing dryland ecological dynamics.