Monoscapes - Agri-culture: Reconnecting People, Land and Nature - page 39

with eight forage regimes means that some land is free of people and
animals for long periods, thereby preserving it from overuse. All members
of the community have access to communal land, which is protected by
customary rights and obligations for individuals, clans and local groups.
The Barabaig, like many people who live in harsh environments, have a
tradition of respect for the land on which they rely for their survival. Their
elders say: 'We value and respect the land. We want to preserve it for all time.'
But in order for wheat to be grown on the Basotu Plains, about 40,000
hectares of the most fertile land was taken from the Barabaig. For a few
years, these farms came to supply half of the national demand for wheat.
A narrowly focused project evaluation arrived at a positive cost-benefit
ratio, and the nearly 40 per cent return to invested capital indicated that
it was a 'very profitable investment for the Tanzanian economy' . But if the wider social
and environmental impacts had been counted, then a very different picture
would have emerged. Charles Lane spent several years documenting first
hand the severe impact upon local people. Although the wheat farms
covered only one eighth of their land, this was their best grazing land, and
the loss was crucial. By losing access to the most fertile areas, the whole
rotational grazing system was compromised, resulting in a drastic reduction
of livestock numbers. Many of their sacred graves were ploughed up, and
as the soil was left bare after harvest, so erosion silted up the sacred Lake
Basotu. The problem was that outsiders fundamentally misunderstood the
pastoralists and their strategies for managing common rangeland. Herders
move in response to their assessment of range productivity, and those who
fail to understand this can be misled into thinking that land is vacant or
poorly managed. One study said: 'The project has many of the characteristics of a
frontier development effort. Traditional pastoralists. . . are being displaced and absorbed
into the project as labourers. Previously idle land is being brought under cultivation' . The
project has now closed, but the effects on local people remain. 28
Forest Rights and Protection in India
Concerns about the destruction of nature in India were formalized by
national policy-makers in 1864 with the establishment of the Imperial
Forest Department, and a year later with the first Indian Forest Act. This
marked the steady extension of state control over forests that would
continue unabated until the early 1990s, when the idea of joint forest
management was given policy support. During the 19th century, forests
were under pressure, largely from the imperial power itself. It took control
and added, over time, a narrative about local people's inability to manage
these resources with care. The Forest Act had no provisions for defining