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PDF
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Type:
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Journal Article |
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Author:
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Moritz, Mark; Hamilton, Ian M.; Chen, Yu-Jen; Scholte, Paul |
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Journal:
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Current Anthropology |
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Volume:
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55 |
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Page(s):
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115-122 |
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Date:
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2014 |
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URI:
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https://hdl.handle.net/10535/9609
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Sector:
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Grazing |
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Region:
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Africa |
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Subject(s):
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common pool resources
pastoralism
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Abstract:
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"We examined whether mobile pastoralists in the Logone
floodplain of Cameroon distribute themselves according to
the ideal free distribution (IFD), which predicts that the number of individuals in each area is proportional to the quality
and quantity of resources in each area and that all individuals
have access to the same amount of resources. We used the
concept to assess the distribution of grazing pressure over
available common-pool resources as evidence of a complex
adaptive system in which the spatial distribution grazing pressure is adjusted to the distribution of resources through individual decision making and passive coordination of movements among individual pastoralists. We used a combination
of spatial and ethnographic approaches to study the distribution of resources and mobile pastoralists in the Logone
floodplain in 5 successive years and found evidence for an
IFD in 3 years (2008–2009 and 2012) and an approximation
of an IFD in years in which pastoralists were terrorized by
armed bandits (2010) and the government reestablished security (2011). The findings support our hypothesis that there
is a self-organizing management system in which pastoralists
distribute themselves effectively over the available resources."
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