The importance of being reliable e Local ecological knowledge and management of forage plants in a dryland pastoral system (Morocco) A. Linstädter a, * ,1 , B. Kemmerling b,1 , G. Baumann a, 2 , H. Kirscht c, 3 a Range Ecology and Range Management Group, Botanical Institute, University of Cologne, Zülpicher Straße 47b, D-50674 Cologne, Germany b Institute of Oriental Studies, University of Leipzig, Schillerstraße 6, D-04109 Leipzig, Germany c Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology, University of Cologne, Albertus-Magnus-Platz, D-50923 Cologne, Germany article info Article history: Received 27 September 2012 Received in revised form 11 February 2013 Accepted 4 March 2013 Available online Keywords: Arid and semi-arid rangelands Cognitive salience index Ecological apparency theory High Atlas Mountains Local ecological knowledge Pastoralism abstract In dryland rangelands with their high environmental variability, local ecological knowledge of forage plants is essential for management decisions. Ecological apparency hypothesis (EAH) predicts plants’ availability and visibility to be important criteria for local valuation. However, EAH has mainly been tested in low-variability systems. We ask whether EAH is valid for forage plants in drylands; which other local criteria exist; and how criteria are connected to management decisions. In a Moroccan pastoral system, we applied a novel ethnobotanical method by calculating the Cognitive Salience Index (CSI) for plants’ valuation (CSI antro ) and availability (CSI eco ). To evaluate explicit criteria, we correlated palatability and nutritive value to CSI anthro . ANCOVAs related CSI anthro to EAH criteria (CSI eco and lifetime) and to plant occurrence on pasture types. We found EAH criteria to better predict CSI antro than explicit criteria. Apparent plants from semi-arid pastures were more valued than those from arid pastures (HSD; p < 0.05). We introduce the criterion of reliability into EAH to explain this, and demonstrate how pastoralists adjust management decisions to resource reliability. Linking resource valuation to management decisions can thus improve our understanding of resilience mechanisms. Our study also confirms the validity of EAH for forage species and dryland environments. Ó 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction In arid and semi-arid environments, a sustainable land man- agement requires a profound local ecological knowledge (LEK) of natural resources and their dynamics (McAllister et al., 2006). For this reason, LEK and its integration in scientific knowledge have received increasing attention in dryland science (e.g. Fernandez- Gimenez, 2000; Thomas et al., 2007; Whitfield and Reed, 2012). In the case of pastoralism, LEK is particularly required on the spatio- temporal variability of forage resources (McAllister et al., 2006; Thomas and Twyman, 2004). Based on their herding experiences, cognitive abilities, and world views, pastoralists gain an extensive body of LEK on forage resources. This includes the environmental conditions in which a plant grows, its palatability depending on livestock species, its phenology and life history, and its availability on local pastures (Fernandez-Gimenez, 2000; Thomas and Twyman, 2004). All parameters may be relevant for the percep- tion of a species’ value as forage plant. However, quality judge- ments are often not explicit, but part of implicit or even tacit knowledge (Fazey et al., 2006), which makes them empirically difficult to extract (Wesuls and Lang, 2010). To explain the valuation and use of plant resources in local communities, the ecological apparency hypothesis (EAH) has been among the most promising approaches (Lucena et al., 2007 , 2012). It was initially proposed for herbivore behaviour and has been later adapted to ethnobotanical research questions (Phillips and Gentry, 1993a,b). The hypothesis claims that apparent plants i.e., the most visible, most dominant, and most frequent plants will have a higher cultural importance than less apparent plants, not because they are necessarily more useful, but simply because they are more available or visible to human communities (Lucena et al., 2007). However, EAH has mainly been tested in tropical systems with a comparatively low spatial and temporal variability, such as humid forests (Albuquerque and Lucena, 2005; Phillips and Gentry, 1993a,b), and * Corresponding author. Tel.: þ49 (0)221 470 7905; fax: þ49 (0)221 470 7908. E-mail addresses: anja.linstaedter@uni-koeln.de (A. Linstädter), birgit.kemmerling@ufz.de (B. Kemmerling), g.baumann@bgbm.org (G. Baumann), h.kirscht@cgiar.org (H. Kirscht). 1 A. Linstädter and B. Kemmerling contributed equally to this study. 2 Present address: Botanic Garden and Botanical Museum Berlin-Dahlem, Freie Universität Berlin, Königin-Luise-Straße 6-8, D-14195 Berlin, Germany. 3 Present address: International Institute of Tropical Agriculture Cameroon, 1 Main Road IRAD, Nkolbisson, P.O. Box 2008, Messa, Yaoundé, Cameroon. Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect Journal of Arid Environments journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jaridenv 0140-1963/$ e see front matter Ó 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jaridenv.2013.03.008 Journal of Arid Environments 95 (2013) 30e40