Publication:
Drivers and trajectories of land cover change in East Africa: Human and environmental interactions from 6000 years ago to present

Issued Date

2018-03-01

Resource Type

Review

ISSN

00128252

DOI

10.1016/j.earscirev.2017.12.010

Other identifier(s)

2-s2.0-85042399743

Rights

Mahidol University

Rights Holder(s)

SCOPUS

Bibliographic Citation

Earth-Science Reviews. Vol.178, (2018), 322-378

Suggested Citation

Rob Marchant, Suzi Richer, Oliver Boles, Claudia Capitani, Colin J. Courtney-Mustaphi, Paul Lane, Mary E. Prendergast, Daryl Stump, Gijs De Cort, Jed O. Kaplan, Leanne Phelps, Andrea Kay, Dan Olago, Nik Petek, Philip J. Platts, Paramita Punwong, Mats Widgren, Stephanie Wynne-Jones, Cruz Ferro-Vázquez, Jacquiline Benard, Nicole Boivin, Alison Crowther, Aida Cuní-Sanchez, Nicolas J. Deere, Anneli Ekblom, Jennifer Farmer, Jemma Finch, Dorian Fuller, Marie José Gaillard-Lemdahl, Lindsey Gillson, Esther Githumbi, Tabitha Kabora, Rebecca Kariuki, Rahab Kinyanjui, Elizabeth Kyazike, Carol Lang, Julius Lejju, Kathleen D. Morrison, Veronica Muiruri, Cassian Mumbi, Rebecca Muthoni, Alfred Muzuka, Emmanuel Ndiema, Chantal Kabonyi Nzabandora, Isaya Onjala, Annemiek Pas Schrijver, Stephen Rucina, Anna Shoemaker, Senna Thornton-Barnett, Geert van der Plas, Elizabeth E. Watson, David Williamson, David Wright Drivers and trajectories of land cover change in East Africa: Human and environmental interactions from 6000 years ago to present. Earth-Science Reviews. Vol.178, (2018), 322-378. doi:10.1016/j.earscirev.2017.12.010 Retrieved from: https://repository.li.mahidol.ac.th/handle/20.500.14594/45746

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Title

Drivers and trajectories of land cover change in East Africa: Human and environmental interactions from 6000 years ago to present

Author(s)

Rob Marchant
 Suzi Richer
 Oliver Boles
 Claudia Capitani
 Colin J. Courtney-Mustaphi
 Paul Lane
 Mary E. Prendergast
 Daryl Stump
 Gijs De Cort
 Jed O. Kaplan
 Leanne Phelps
 Andrea Kay
 Dan Olago
 Nik Petek
 Philip J. Platts
 Paramita Punwong
 Mats Widgren
 Stephanie Wynne-Jones
 Cruz Ferro-Vázquez
 Jacquiline Benard
 Nicole Boivin
 Alison Crowther
 Aida Cuní-Sanchez
 Nicolas J. Deere
 Anneli Ekblom
 Jennifer Farmer
 Jemma Finch
 Dorian Fuller
 Marie José Gaillard-Lemdahl
 Lindsey Gillson
 Esther Githumbi
 Tabitha Kabora
 Rebecca Kariuki
 Rahab Kinyanjui
 Elizabeth Kyazike
 Carol Lang
 Julius Lejju
 Kathleen D. Morrison
 Veronica Muiruri
 Cassian Mumbi
 Rebecca Muthoni
 Alfred Muzuka
 Emmanuel Ndiema
 Chantal Kabonyi Nzabandora
 Isaya Onjala
 Annemiek Pas Schrijver
 Stephen Rucina
 Anna Shoemaker
 Senna Thornton-Barnett
 Geert van der Plas
 Elizabeth E. Watson
 David Williamson
 David Wright

Other Contributor(s)

Kyambogo University
 Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History
 Linnaeus University, Växjö
 Faculty of Environment and Resource Studies, Mahidol University
 Mbarara University of Science and Technology
 Tanzania Wildlife Research Institute
 Royal Museum for Central Africa
 Kenya Wildlife Service
 University of Nairobi
 National Museums of Kenya
 Universiteit Gent
 University of Cambridge
 University of Queensland
 St. Louis University
 Stockholms universitet
 UCL
 University of York
 University of Witwatersrand
 University of Aberdeen
 Seoul National University
 University of Kent
 University of KwaZulu-Natal
 University of Pennsylvania
 Uppsala Universitet
 University of South Africa
 University of Cape Town
 Université de Lausanne (UNIL)
 L'Université Officielle de Bukavu
 Institut de recherche pour le développement (IRD)
 ARVE Research SARL
 Nelson Mandela African Institution of Science and Technology
 Carbon Foundation of East Africa

Abstract

© 2018 Elsevier B.V. East African landscapes today are the result of the cumulative effects of climate and land-use change over millennial timescales. In this review, we compile archaeological and palaeoenvironmental data from East Africa to document land-cover change, and environmental, subsistence and land-use transitions, over the past 6000 years. Throughout East Africa there have been a series of relatively rapid and high-magnitude environmental shifts characterised by changing hydrological budgets during the mid- to late Holocene. For example, pronounced environmental shifts that manifested as a marked change in the rainfall amount or seasonality and subsequent hydrological budget throughout East Africa occurred around 4000, 800 and 300 radiocarbon years before present (yr BP). The past 6000 years have also seen numerous shifts in human interactions with East African ecologies. From the mid-Holocene, land use has both diversified and increased exponentially, this has been associated with the arrival of new subsistence systems, crops, migrants and technologies, all giving rise to a sequence of significant phases of land-cover change. The first large-scale human influences began to occur around 4000 yr BP, associated with the introduction of domesticated livestock and the expansion of pastoral communities. The first widespread and intensive forest clearances were associated with the arrival of iron-using early farming communities around 2500 yr BP, particularly in productive and easily-cleared mid-altitudinal areas. Extensive and pervasive land-cover change has been associated with population growth, immigration and movement of people. The expansion of trading routes between the interior and the coast, starting around 1300 years ago and intensifying in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries CE, was one such process. These caravan routes possibly acted as conduits for spreading New World crops such as maize (Zea mays), tobacco (Nicotiana spp.) and tomatoes (Solanum lycopersicum), although the processes and timings of their introductions remains poorly documented. The introduction of southeast Asian domesticates, especially banana (Musa spp.), rice (Oryza spp.), taro (Colocasia esculenta), and chicken (Gallus gallus), via transoceanic biological transfers around and across the Indian Ocean, from at least around 1300 yr BP, and potentially significantly earlier, also had profound social and ecological consequences across parts of the region. Through an interdisciplinary synthesis of information and metadatasets, we explore the different drivers and directions of changes in land-cover, and the associated environmental histories and interactions with various cultures, technologies, and subsistence strategies through time and across space in East Africa. This review suggests topics for targeted future research that focus on areas and/or time periods where our understanding of the interactions between people, the environment and land-cover change are most contentious and/or poorly resolved. The review also offers a perspective on how knowledge of regional land-use change can be used to inform and provide perspectives on contemporary issues such as climate and ecosystem change models, conservation strategies, and the achievement of nature-based solutions for development purposes.

Keyword(s)

Earth and Planetary Sciences

Availability

URI

https://repository.li.mahidol.ac.th/handle/20.500.14594/45746

Collections

Scopus 2018