13 Policy Matters.qxp

range reserves usually comprise:

areas closed during the wet season to

ensure the availability of good forage dur-

ing the dry season;

areas protected during normal times for

use during droughts (drought reserves);

areas protected to allow degraded zones

to regenerate.

Reserves associated

with sacred or ceremo-

nial sites are of partic-

ular importance for bio-

diversity conservation.

Overall, cultural rules

have major conse-

quences for natural

resources. The Gabbra

holy places include sin-

gle groves of trees,

unique tree species,

special hills and hill

tops (e.g., the mountain of Forole), areas

around water points and unusual land-

scapes. In the Gabbra territory alone

there are over 100 such sacred sites!

These sites are protected and preserved

by each sub-tribe and their use is allowed

only during ceremonies. It is also remark-

able that, while attending the frequent

ceremonies and rituals, few animals

accompany Gabbra households.

Forole is an important cultural site of

Galbo— a sub-tribe of the Gabbra, and

tradition demands extremely strict envi-

ronmental conservation measures for such

sacred areas. It is customarily forbidden

to hunt in Forole, and no plants or parts

of plants may be removed from the holy

sites. Even a fibrous twig used as a tooth-

brush has to be left behind before one

leaves the area. No herding sticks or tradi-

tional twigs are cut there. These restric-

tions are instituted in order to ensure sur-

vival of flora and fauna of this geographi-

cally small area that is periodically (every

7 years or so) subjected to visits by large

groups of people and their livestock for

religious/ceremonial purpose (“the peo-

ple’s pilgrimage”). In the absence of such

wise rules, this area would have been

degraded long ago and, likely, its unique

flora and fauna would have been lost.

Ritual and sacred places thus act as in situ

gene banks and conservation sites for

many species of flora and fauna. Although

these areas are small compared to total

landscape, the cumulative area of numer-

ous such reserves is very significant.

Despite changing times, these places

remain sacred today.

Use rules and biodiversity conser-

vation

For some pastoral communities depend-

ence on specific tree and shrub species

can be extremely high. In some cases,

species are so valued that they are “pro-

tected” in order to sustain their production

for valuable religious, socio-cultural or

economic uses. The Gabbra ensure this by

setting use limits (quantity) and devising

rules on the manner of useof many

grasses, shrubs and trees in their territory.

For example, they have taboos against

killing some trees, in particular those that

History, cculture aand cconservation

The GGabbra hholy
places iinclude ssingle
groves oof ttrees, uunique
tree sspecies, sspecial
hills aand hhill ttops
(e.g., tthe mmountain oof
Forole), aareas aaround
water ppoints aand
unusual llandscapes.
In tthe GGabbra tterritory
alone tthere aare oover
100 ssuch ssacred ssites!

Figure 5.Different ecosystem niches are prefer-

entially used by diverse livestock species.

(Courtesy Boku Tache)