This report on harnessing pastoralists’ indigenous knowledge of rangeland management in three countries in East and the Horn of Africa is presented in two parts. The first part presents a review of the literature. The second presents the findings from the Orma in Tana River District of Kenya, the Afar in Amibara and Gawane Districts of the Afar Regional State in Ethiopia and the Karamojong in the Moroto District of Uganda.

It is important for land managers and technical assistance specialists to be able to assess the health of rangelands in order to know where to focus management efforts. The complexity of ecological processes, and the inherent expense of directly measuring site integrity, suggests a need for an evaluation process that focuses instead on biological and physical attributes. In a collaborative effort, the USGS, ARS, BLM, and NRCS have jointly developed a system in which 17 indicators are used to gauge three attributes of rangeland health.

Garba Tula district in Isiolo County of Northern Kenya, is a region covering approximately 10,000km and home to around 40,000 predominantly Boran Pastoralists. The region is characterised by arid and semi-arid conditions and is rich in biodiversity and wildlife resources. Despite being surrounded by protected areas such as Meru National Park and Bisan Adi Game Reserve the full potential for conservation is not being met, and instead communities are often threatened and restricted by wildlife populations.

As part of the Global Call to Action in Indigenous and Community Land Rights, this brief puts the spotlight on the need to secure land rights for the world's pastoralists, as pastoralism is practised by an estimated 200-500 million people. Pastoralists manage rangelands that cover a quarter of the world's land surface but have few advocates.

"Pastoralists have been widely accused of being economically inefficient and turning their ‘over-grazed’ pastures into deserts. But these presumptions are not based on evidence and are usually very wide of the mark."

Pastoralists have a unique relationship of mutual dependency with their livestock and their environment; the uniqueness of this relationship distinguishes them from other livestock keepers. They depend highly on the environment where they develop their livelihood, that they make productive through highly adapted animals, but at the same time the quality of this environment depends on how well they take care of it, which in turns depends on complex social regulations and on large-scale mobility. The way they keep their animals forms part of their daily life and of a complex culture.

 Annoncés depuis un semestre, les ETP 2 ont été lancés le 3 juillet 2017 à Niamey, au Niger sous présidence effective du Ministre Délégué en charge de l’Elevage du Niger, M. Mohamed Boucha en présence du Représentant résident de la Banque mondiale, M. Siaka Bakayoko, du Charge du PRAPS NE, à la Banque mondiale, M/ Souleymane Fofana, l’ Administrateur Intérimaire du Centre Régional Agrhymet, Samba Souleymane Ly.

INDEX 2.0 RECENT EVENTS 3.0 PROTECTING LIVESTOCK MOBILITY ROUTES: LESSONS LEARNED 4.0 KENYA’S CONSTITUTION 2010 What will it mean for tenure security in rangelands? ‘Equal rights for women’ say Maasai elders 5.0 CAN VILLAGE LAND USE PLANNING WORK FOR RANGELANDS? 6.0 PROTECTING RIGHTS OF HUNTER-GATHERERS IN TANZANIA 7.0 OTHER NEWS FROM THE REGION Improving rangeland quality through land use planning Developing policies in Uganda 8.0 LAUNCH OF RANGELAND OBSERVATORY

This report is an extended analytical essay, on the perverse outcomes of statist interventions into customary land management practices over a huge area that has been managed sustainably and productively by Tibetan pastoralists for 9000 years. Building on the many reports on sedentarisation, and removal of pastoral nomads from their pastures, this report takes a wider perspective, seeking to understand how the current collapse of the pastoral mode of production came about, and what the future prospects are for the depopulating pastoral landscapes of the Tibetan Plateau.

Pastoralists are one of the most poverty stricken and underdeveloped existing human groups in the world. Until now, having remained practically invisible in the eyes of international law, it is desirable to open a debate concerning the recognition of their rights. The ideal situation would be to create a specific category of rights dedicated expressly to these pastoralist peoples. Therefore, one can surmise that there are two laws that constitute its essential content: the law protecting their way of life and their access rights to the land

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.

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.

Date : août 2017

Source : UNECA