Dr. Mark Moritz

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Research Projects

I have worked with different groups of FulBe pastoralists in northern Cameroon in 1993, 1994, 1996, 1999, 2000-1, and 2008 and pursued several interrelated research interests.

Pastoral Management of Open Access - I have recently begun a new multi-disciplinary project that will examine how mobile pastoralists in the Logone Floodplain of Cameroon coordinate their movements to avoid conflict and avoid overgrazing in a land tenure system that is best described as open access. My hypothesis is that this management system is best understood as a case of emerging complexity. I will test this hypothesis using spatial and ethnographic analyses as well as multi-agent simulations and analytical modeling. 

Political Ecology of Pastoral Mobility in West Africa - examines the political ecology of pastoral mobility in West Africa, focusing on the organization of pastoral mobility and how regional processes of agriculture expansion, nature conservation, development projects, and insecurity threaten pastoral mobility and sustainable pastoral exploitation of savanna resources in West Africa. 

Transformations of African Pastoral Systems - examines how African pastoral systems are affected by the commoditization of the means of production, in particular how changes in the production system shape and are shaped by changes in household organization and institutions. 

Local Knowledge Systems of Rangeland Ecology - examines rangeland ecology and degradation from a pastoralist perspective and aims at contributing to a greater understanding of the use and dynamics of rangeland ecosystems. 

Dissertation

In my dissertation – Commoditization and the Pursuit of Piety: The Transformation of an African Pastoral System – I examine the nature and the causes of recent changes in the pastoral production system of FulBe pastoralists in Cameroon. In response to pressures on rangelands, Fulbe pastoralists have intensified their production system by supplementing natural forage with costly cottonseed cakes. Simultaneously, a process of Islamic renewal has led to a number of changes in the economic organization of the household, including increased seclusion of women and expanded obligations on household heads to provide for the household. I document how this combination of changes has led to individualization of livestock ownership and management in Fulbe family herds. My analysis focuses particularly on economic behavior and property relations inside the household and family herd, and considers both economic and cultural factors. I demonstrate how intra-household institutions have a direct impact on the process and outcome of intensification not predicted by theories that assume people to be rational actors and households to be single decision units. In addition, my evaluation of the performance of intensive pastoral systems suggests that intensification is only sustainable for wealthy individuals with non-pastoral income and will most likely lead to greater economic differentiation.