Files
Abstract
Arid shrub-lands in Syria and elsewhere in West Asia and North Africa are
widely thought degraded. Characteristic of these areas is a preponderance of unpalatable
shrubs or a lack of overall ground cover with a rise in the associated risks of soil erosion.
Migrating pastoralists have been the scapegoats for this condition of the range. State
steppe interventions of the last forty years have reflected this with programs to supplant
customary systems with structures and institutions promoting western grazing systems
and technologies. Principal amongst the latter has been shrub technology, particularly
Atriplex species, for use in land rehabilitation and as a fodder reserve. This paper
deconstructs state steppe policy in Syria by examining the overlap and interface of
government and customary legal systems as a factor in the history of shrub technology
transfer in the Syrian steppe. It is argued that the link made between signs of degradation
and perceived moribund customary systems is not at all causal. Indeed, customary
systems are found to be adaptive and resilient, and a strong influence on steppe
management and the fate of technology transfer initiatives. Furthermore, developments
in rangeland ecology raise questions about claims for grazing-induced degradation and
call for a reinterpretation of recent shifts in vegetation on the Syrian steppe. Given the
ineffectiveness of past state interventions, and in view of renewed understanding of
customary systems and rangeland ecology, decentralization and some devolution of
formal management responsibility is likely to be a viable and an attractive option for
policymakers.