Studies of environmental change and degradation in semi-arid Africa often present contradictory results of the magnitude, severity, causes and effects of observed changes. Central questions are how findings may be generalized and extrapolated, how perceptions of the environment are recognized and analysed, and how value-judgement terms are defined and used. Emerging theories about dryland ecosystem dynamics, and ideas on interdisciplinary research, formed the background for a geographical study of the environmental history of an agropastoral communal area in North East District, Botswana. Here a comprehensive and discursive summary of the main conclusions of this study is presented. Using methods from the social and natural sciences, environmental outcomes were linked to different 'types' of change, such as effects of isolated events, of cyclic variation, and of trends. Keywords: environmental change, diversity ecosystem dynamics, land degradation, overgrazing, degradation indicators, environmental history, perception, geography, interdisciplinary, semi-arid, Botswana, Southern Africa.