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Periodical article | Leiden University catalogue | WorldCat |
Title: | Land Resources in Darfur Region, Sudan: Prisoners' Dilemma or Coase Outcome? |
Author: | Morton, J.F. |
Year: | 1996 |
Periodical: | Journal of Development Studies |
Volume: | 33 |
Issue: | 1 |
Period: | October |
Pages: | 63-80 |
Language: | English |
Geographic term: | Sudan |
Subjects: | soil fertility land use agricultural land animal husbandry Agriculture, Natural Resources and the Environment Development and Technology |
External link: | https://doi.org/10.1080/00220389608422453 |
Abstract: | This article tests institutional models of environmental pressure, for example, the Tragedy of the Commons, against evidence from Darfur Region, Sudan. It considers rangeland degradation, rangeland enclosure and the implicit rent gained from range destocking. A methodology to estimate the last is presented. The conclusion is that the institutional model of environmental pressure is not valid for Darfur. The circumstantial evidence of increasing pressure on both the cropland and the rangeland is misleading and has diverted attention from the need to establish three facts: that the traditional support for communal access to rangeland prevents enclosure for destocking or other reasons; that the rangeland actually is overstocked; that more careful range management would result in higher production. As far as the first is concerned, farmers can and do enclose rangeland, if it is worth it. For the second, efforts to count cattle numbers and estimate carrying capacities have failed to show that the range is overstocked. For the third, livestock research has barely got off the ground. The cause of the unhappy situation in Darfur must be sought in the inability of the Sudanese State to provide the minimal public functions needed to support a civil society. Bibliogr., notes, ref., sum. |