The promulgation of the Kenyan Constitution 2010 brought into place concerns about the urgency for land reform. Land reforms hold the key to solving some of Kenya’s greatest challenges such as landlessness, community cohesion, food security and sustainable development. Land reforms lie at the heart of the work of the National Land Commission (NLC) and Kituo cha Sheria and they are also at the heart of many Kenyan communities who live, work and rely on land. Information contained in the book goes a long way in educating these communities about their land rights.

Ill advised, uncoordinated, and badly planned interventions have been blamed for continuing poverty and food insecurity in rangelands. Water interventions in particular have had negative impacts. Not only have these interventions failed to improve the livelihoods of people living there, but in many cases they have served to undermine them and the environment on which they depend. Rangeland development interventions have been sectoral in their approach.

This Issue Paper No.3 is part of the series Making Rangelands Secure, a learning initiative supported by ILC, IFAD, RECONCILE, IUCN-WISP and Procasur. The Making Rangelands Secure Initiative has been established by a group of organisations seeking to improve security of rights to rangelands. The initiative seeks to identify, communicate and build good practice on making rangelands secure for local rangeland users. 

This report highlights some of the human rights challenges which the Indigenous peoples in Tanzania, particularly Maasai pastoralists, are facing. It also proposes some areas of improvement in order to make Tanzania a better place for everyone, including indigenous pastoralists. It should be noted that Tanzania has more than 120 different ethnic groups, which are Bantu-speaking, Nilo-hamitic (including the Maasai) and Cushitic.

The first phase of the “Water for Livestock in Isiolo and Garissa Counties, Kenya — Enhancing water resource and rangeland management community capacity through training and strategic water development” has been implemented in in the arid and semi-arid lands of Kenya by IUCN, the Kenya Red Cross Society, and Adeso, with the support from the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation. The overall objective of the pilot phase of the project was to improve livelihoods and resilience against drought for targeted communities in North Eastern Kenya.

A new way of thinking This study reflects emerging awareness of the need to see disasters as primarily social, rather than natural, phenomena. Individuals and societies can act and take decisions to reduce the likelihood of a disasters occurring or, at the very least, to reduce their impacts and the levels of loss and damage associated with them. Disasters are thus no longer being perceived as ‘acts of God’ but instead as something over which humans exert influence.

Community-Led Rangelands Assessment promotes the use of traditional or indigenous knowledge of pastoralists, as the dominant group utilizing rangelands, to guide planning and management of rangelands resources to support and build resilient pastoral livelihoods. Use of traditional knowledge is considered cheaper, easier to use and replicable. It promotes the respect of local communities’ culture and its integration into scientific methods.

This rangelands management framework is a product of a rapid pastoralist-led rangeland health assessment that was conducted in three sampled districts of Karamoja; Moroto, Napak and Kotido.

This article addresses political rights and identity among Il Chamus of Baringo District, Kenya, a small group of agro-pastoralists related to the Maasai. It discusses an important 2006 judicial ruling from the High Court of Kenya that specified a political constituency and national representation for the community, and shows how the state and its actions undermined its implementation.

Excluding the introductory and concluding chapters, this book has 11 chapters presented in three sections. The first section dwells primarily on conceptual issues, which comprehensively unravels large-scale agricultural investments and their impacts at the theoretical level.

This report consolidates findings from previous activities by FAO and other stakeholders, and identifies in the four focus countries (Ethiopia, Sudan, Djibou

INDEX 3.0 RECENT EVENTS 4.0 CERTIFYING CUSTOMARY OWNERSHIP FOR PASTORALISTS, UGANDA 5.0 MODEL FOR RECOGNISING COMMUNITY LAND RIGHTS IN KENYA 6.0 PARTICIPATORY MAPPING AS TOOL FOR SECURING RIGHTS 7.0 DEVELOPING A LAND USE MASTER PLAN, KITENGELA 8.0 SECURING WOMEN’S RIGHTS TO LAND, GARBA TULA 9.0 UPDATE ON RANGELAND OBSERVATORY 10.0 PROTECTING COMMON PROPERTY RIGHTS IN INDIA THROUGH COMMUNITY MOBILISATION 11.0 PASTORALISTS AND HUNTER GATHERERS SEEK PROTECTION IN TANZANIA’S NEW CONSTITUTION 12.0 ENDNOTES