Land degradation is not a necessary outcome of communal pastoralism in arid Namibia

In Otjimbingwe, a region of arid south-central Namibia, human population de nsities are high and these communal pastoralists own large numbers of lives tock. Such situations are commonly perceived to lead to the 'tragedy of the commons'. This region lends itself to a comparison of the effects of commu nal and commercial farming (with private land ownership) because the commun al area is completely surrounded by commercial farms. In spite of far highe r stocking densities on the communal areas and the absence of an overall gr azing strategy, we found no evidence of the 'tragedy of the commons' on Otj imbingwe. Indeed, the communal areas did not differ in a number of soil and vegetation parameters from the commercial farms. These results point both to the resilience of arid environments to high stocking levels and the over -riding influence of abiotic variables on. environmental quality. (C) 1998 Academic Press.