“The new generations get educated, and they live in the towns,” an Ababda man of the Haranab clan explained. “The school education is not like the Arab traditional education. Elders who teach and give the first lessons on the desert are gone. “An Ababda of the Blalab clan added

that the educated children that live in the town “cannot live in the desert any more.” Most of our informants concur that once their kinsmen have settled down and adopted these new knowledge systems they do not return to desert life. It is remarkable that JNJ-64619178 supplier in recent years, many central Saharan nomads have chosen to remain in the desert explicitly because they have seen those who settle lose their desert knowledge, become poor, and find themselves unable to fall back on to the security provided by traditional knowledge and skills. Jeremy Keenan writes that “’the

failure of modernization to deliver find more on its promises’ is leading to a degree of nomadic cultural revivalism across much of the central Sahara” (Keenan 2006 p. 705). For our study area, we have only speculated whether abundant rains, the decline of tourism, political events or other variables might lead to a similar resurgence or restoration of desert-rooted livelihoods. Well informed decision making about desert development could also play a role. Conclusion Our research in a large area of the RSH reveals that tribal pastoral nomadic peoples with different ethnic and cultural roots have developed analogous ecological knowledge about how to manage their vital acacia resources with optimal efficiency. Through the generations they have passed that learning down as what we recognize as traditional ecological knowledge. This TEK has helped them to develop sustainable Vitamin B12 indigenous resource management strategies and tactics protecting the vital services of this ecological keystone species and thereby enabling their life in the desert. These peoples have a rich body of cultural associations with acacias that also generally help to safeguard the trees. The acacia

is a cultural keystone whose attributes draw from and contribute to the social, spiritual and moral characteristics of people who value the tree. Acacia management has long played a central role in moulding and maintaining the cultural landscapes of the RSH. These landscapes represent an enduring and S63845 datasheet largely successful human relationship with nature. Ongoing detrimental changes affecting acacia populations in the study area correlate more strongly with social impacts than with climatic factors. Social and economic pressures on cultural and natural resources are severing the intimate bonds between nature and nomadic culture. Ongoing social and economic changes and sedentarization among nomads may have strong and lasting environmental costs. Understanding and addressing these linkages are critical challenges for social and natural scientists and policy makers.