CAN PASTORALISM SURVIVE THE 21st CENTURY?

By Simon Peter Loput

PASTORALISM – Keeping mobile
Pastoralism makes a major contribution to food security and offers strategies for using harsh environments threatened by climate change. But many policies underestimate the potential of pastoralists, and some governments favor moves to make them sedentary.

In rangelands near Kenya’s Maasai Mara National Reserve, an eco-conservancy scheme is rewarding pastoralists for sound land management. The model, which involves herders agreeing to allow free movement of wild animals on their land, is helping to protect grazing areas and enabling Maasai herders to diversify their income. Payment for Ecosystem Services is one of a range of initiatives being explored to support pastoralism, a time-honored way of life that is facing massive challenges. Pastoralists living on Africa’s rangelands are the environmental stewards of these vast resources, but many of them live on less than US$2 (€1.6) a day. Subject to climate variability, food insecurity, poor markets, animal diseases, under-investment and conflicts over natural resources, pastoralists are among the world’s most vulnerable peoples.

Pastoralism is practiced in all of Africa’s dryland regions. Just how many people are involved is open to debate, since accurate data are lacking. Estimates range from 20 million to 200 million, depending on the precise definition used. For the same reason, figures vary on pastoralists’ contribution to the economy. But according to the Intergovernmental Authority on Development in Eastern Africa, pastoralism provides 90% of the meat consumed in East Africa.

Pastoralism’s mobile production strategies have been identified as a crucial instrument of adaptation to climate change. Research by the International Institute for Environment and Development shows that the nomadic cattle of West Africa, Ethiopia and Kenya produce more and better quality meat and generate more cash per hectare than modern Australian and American ranches. Yet, pastoralists are often mistakenly viewed as backward people, with some governments actively attempting to get them to give up their nomadic lifestyles.

Moving on or settling down
By constantly moving, nomadic herders have learned to exploit areas where no one else could survive. Indigenous communities prosper by harnessing the variable conditions of the drylands. “Perceptions of their archaic life belie the fact that they have completely adapted to their environment,” says Ugandan vet Pascal Pan Vuga, who has worked with the Karamojong, a tribe whose way of life has been changed due to a government decision to ‘sedentarise’ them. Like the Ugandan herders, many pastoralists are now reluctantly moving towards settled farming. But the transition is not always successful. “Now I have to grow maize and vegetables,” said Kenyan herder Orumoi Evans. “But pastoralism is more secure than cultivating. You cannot rely on the weather for growing food, but we do know where to go to find pasture.”

Pastoralism remains relevant to Karamoja

While some governments have a hostile policy to pastoralism, others such as Mali, Mauritania and Niger are more supportive. But here too, herders face difficulties when other policies, such as those on land and water, fail to keep pace. Conflicts over these two key resources are increasing and there is an urgent need to acknowledge herders’ rights to pastoral lands by granting them communal land ownership, as well as compensation when land is expropriated.

Trends towards urbanisation, and the new demand for animal products that it brings, are opening up lucrative new markets for pastoralists. But tapping them requires organisation, communication and education, and a key issue is how to integrate pastoralists into modern value chains. Pastoral Field Schools offer an interactive learning approach, with groups of 30-40 pastoralists who meet regularly to explore difficulties and solutions. Other successful strategies, tested in Ethiopia and Kenya, include collective-action groups to improve literacy and nume-racy, develop microfinance and provide micro-enterprise training.

Offering these and other services to remote and scattered populations is a challenge, but ICTs can play an important role, from distance learning via radio, to market prices and banking services by mobile phone. Other useful ICT applications include geographic information systems and global positioning system devices to help track animal movements and support efforts to provide livestock insurance. A pilot insurance project launched in northern Kenya in 2010 has helped to address the gap in the insurance market and is now being rolled out in Ethiopia.

New markets and policy support
Many experts support diversification, but it appears to work best when some degree of nomadic herding is included in the mix. Various market-based incentives exist for sustainable pastoralism, including niche markets for pastoral products, labelling and certification schemes. In Mauritania, dairy enterprise Tiviski has a network of more than one thousand herders and has moved into processing, producing, among other things, a cheese made from camel’s milk. Hurdles to be overcome include improving market access, tackling livestock trade barriers and non-tariff barriers, enhancing market information systems, achieving standards compliance and developing financing mechanisms.

A range of recent policy initiatives gives some cause for hope. The African Union (AU) Policy Framework for Pastoralism in Africa, adopted in 2011, is the first continent-wide measure aimed at securing, protecting and improving the livelihoods of African pastoralists. The 2011 Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Stock-Rearing Action Plan recognises pastoralists’ right to move stock from one region to another, protects access to water in settled agricultural regions and facilitates cross-border trade.

Interesting innovations include a cut-and-carry feeding system introduced by herders in Ethiopia’s Awash National Park after violent conflicts erupted over moves to take over large areas of prime grazing and water points. Barred from introducing their cattle, some pastoralists have started collecting forage from the park and transporting it for distribution within the community. As a complement to grazing of natural pasture, many pastoralists in Niger are making hay and selling the surplus to animal keepers in towns. Faced with inadequate water supplies and recurrent drought, pastoralists in both Ethiopia and Niger are increasingly replacing cattle with sheep, goats and camels.

In Kenya, a scheme to set up a network of markets closer to herders has proved highly successful. Instead of transporting livestock over long distances, pastoralists can walk in, sell their animals and buy food and other input supplies. The model has spread to more counties and the thriving markets have attracted activities such as hotels, butchers and shops. At Lolkuniani in Samburu County, 10% of the community is actively engaged with livestock trade. An average of 2,000 goats worth €27,500 and cows worth €10,000 are sold on each weekly market day.

This article was generated and shared by LOPUT Simon Peter; A Graduate of Wageningen University and A Member of World Alliance on Mobile Indigenous peoples (WAMIP) and can be viewed at http://spore.cta.int/index.php. Simon Peter Loput is a Disaster Risk Reduction Expert