The goal of the Rangelands Initiative is increased tenure security of local rangeland users through improved implementation of enabling policy and legislation. By connecting, mobilising and influencing, the Initiative strengthens ILC members’ activities in-country and across its continental platforms.

This report presents grassroots women’s approaches to access justice with focus on land and property rights in Africa. This community empowerment-based research undertaken by the Huairou Commission and its partner groups across seven African countries – Cameroon, Ghana, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe – showcases women’s rights challenges and effective strategies to improve women’s access to justice.

Extensive grazing is the predominant form of land use on at least a quarter of the world’s land surface, in which livestock are raised on food that comes mainly from rangelands. The term livestock includes both domesticated animals such as cattle, sheep, goats, camels, horses, llamas and alpacas, and a broad range of wild animals kept for meat or game viewing. It is estimated that tropical grasslands alone cover 18 million square kilometres, where the natural vegetation is used by mobile animals requiring forage and water throughout the year.

Participatory digital mapping using satellite imagery and digital earth and other open source Geographic Information Systems (GIS) is a practical tool bridging the knowledge and communication gap between pastoral communities and county government planners. It is offering an effective option for participatory planning and decision-making in support of climate change adaptation in the drylands of Kenya.

‘This study is in-depth, up-to-date and the first of its kind on a massive infrastructure development project in the region, examining its history, politics, evolution, the emergence of actors and interests and effects on the poor and marginalized. It presents the ambitions and ambiguities of a megaproject never seen in the development history of the region. The report is a comprehensive analysis of the hopes and fears emanating from a megaproject in the region and provides invaluable data on which future studies will certainly have to rely.’

Introduction: Water as a range management tool The pastoral system - the inter-relationship between livestock, natural resources and people / institutions - has evolved to function effectively and efficiently in areas of low and unpredictable rainfall, using mobility as one of the key adaptation strategies. Although having undergone changes over the years, the pastoralist system comprises fundamental elements which have allowed it to persist for millennia.

This Practitioners’ Guide provides the step-by-step instructions and checklists that will guide a mapping team through a mapping exercise.

Mwongozo wa Uwandani wa kusaidia Kupanga Mpango na Usimamizi wa Nyanda za Malisho ikiwemo kupanga Mpango wa Matumizi Bora ya Ardhi ya Kijiji

This issue paper No. 6 of the Rangelands Series consolidates a set of case studies which document how pastoralists plan land and resource use in pastoral and agro-pastoral areas of Ethiopia. 

No.7 issue of the Rangelands Series goes through experiences of joint village land use agreements and planning.

The adoption and adaptation of enclosures in the arid and semi-arid rangelands of sub-Saharan Africa is driven and sustained by a combination of factors. However, reviews indicate that these factors cannot be generalized, as they tend to be case specific. A study was therefore conducted to explore the history and reasons for enclosure establishment in Chepareria, a formerly degraded communal rangeland in north-western Kenya.

Pastoral and agro-pastoral areas in eastern Africa and elsewhere have long been regarded as peripheries in economic terms and in terms of social and cultural accomplishments. Although biased perceptions of the ‘unproductive’ uses of pastoralism have become outdated, government policies still do little to formally recognise or integrate pastoral lands as critical parts of rural livelihood systems and economic development models.