Participatory Conflict Analysis: The Case of Pastoralist Groups in South Eastern Ethiopia

Pastoral resource management is based on a complex set of temporary or semi-permanent claims on pasture, water and other resources, as well as on the underlying principles of flexibility and reciprocity. The resource bases of pastoralists-land-is therefore not a fixed individually owned capital, but rather a flexible asset with specific uses and access mechanisms. The pastoral resource use pattern is characterized by risk-spreading and flexible mechanisms. A participatory analysis of pastoral resources management issues thus enables to have a deeper understanding of the issues and search for an alternative and effective ways of pastoral resources management that will contribute to peace and development of pastoral neighborhoods. Therefore, this study is intended to identify the mechanisms and issues of key pastoral resources management among the southern and southeastern pastoral groups. This study was undertaken in southern and southeastern pastoral areas of Borena and Liben zone particularly in Negelle, Moyale, Yabello, Arero and Filtu Woredas. Primary data was collected through focus group discussion and key informant interview. The analysis involved historical narratives focusing on the history and dynamics of pastoral resource management through time, with the aim of identifying causes, effects and dynamics of the pastoral resource management and how these vary among different groups. Restore or ensure access to resources is critical to the livelihoods of pastoralists as well as to their neighboring communities: Resource access rights – to pastures, migratory corridors and water - are often interlinked and are vital to pastoral survival. In a conflicts sensitive manner, restore those ‘common resource pools’ drawn upon by communities in times of scarcity or disaster. Strategies for adapting to drought – the main environmental threat to pastoralists-are numerous. Strengthen the institutional ability to respond to environmental stresses. Relevant approaches for crisis response include contingency funds and planning; emergency water, medical and food supplies and their distribution networks; and effective transportation and communication networks. Market-based solutions are also relevant to tackle emergency situations.  It has been found that one important element is building upon ‘local knowledge’ while strengthening formal recognition of pastoral communities’ traditional resource use and access rights. Foster regional approaches and harmonization of treatment across borders. The migratory nature of pastoralism collides with international borders, as rangelands are often frontier lands and herd movements and trade often cross geo-political demarcations

Equity in a pastoral commons : Bayan Mountain, Mongolia : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Philosophy in Development Studies

Common property regimes (CPRs) have been embraced as a means to achieve sustainable use of resources. However, it is also claimed that these and other forms of communal resource management can allow for equitable access to resources, which is of some importance given the heavier reliance of poorer households on common resources. This view however appears to be contradicted by the existence of wealth differentiation among resource users, suggesting that the reality is more complex. This case study of a local pastoral commons used by Kazak herders in western Mongolia explores factors influencing both access to resources and wealth differentiation, which has been considerable since the end of socialism and attempts to evaluate the extent to which resource access in the CPR can be considered equitable. There is differential resource access in the study community, both in terms of rights of access, with some inequities linked to non-wealth-related household characteristics, and in terms of the ability to realise nominal access rights, which is chiefly affected by relative wealth. Although allocation of access rights is not discriminatory, the interrelationship between wealth and resource access thus serves to reinforce wealth differentiation. Wealth differentiation itself however depends on multiple factors including but not limited to resource access, and does not reliably indicate inequitable access to resources. The case study indicates that CPRs cannot be considered inherently equitable, but that instead equity in resource access is affected by social differentiation in the user group. In addition, where factors considered necessary to successful collective action are wanting, equitable outcomes seem less likely. Thus most inequities in access rights date back to privatisation in Mongolia and the resulting institutional breakdown and lack of user participation both in allocation of resources and in devising appropriate resource access rules. Despite this, evidence from both the case study and other pastoral commons suggests that CPRs may still offer more equitable access to resources than do other types of property regime

Empirical Analysis of Resource-Use Conflicts Between Smallholder Farmers and Pastoralists in Semi-Arid Areas: A Case of Mkata Plains, Eastern Tanzania

An empirical study was carried out in Mkata plains, eastern Tanzania in order to establish factors determining resource-use conflicts between smallholder farmers and pastoralists. PRA approaches and questionnaire survey were employed to collected data from two pastoral and two agro – pastoral villages. The main conflict types and their intensities include inter-ethnic conflicts> village vs village,> village vs state agencies> intra-ethnic group conflicts. The perceived causes of conflicts were crop damages by livestock, pastoralists disregarding village boundaries, overcharging compensation for crop damage by farmers, confiscating of livestock by farmers, ineptness of government officials to intervene to prevent conflicts. Key factors significantly enhancing resource-use conflicts were increasing herd size, market integration, and increase in household wealthy differentiation. A key factor likely to significantly minimize the conflicts was strong local leadership. The mechanism employed to resolving resource use-conflicts was formation of “conflict resolution committee” at village level. But, only agropastoral villages have formed full functional committees. It is recommended to build capacity of government officials to analyze and resolve resource-use conflicts; and to enhance capacity of local structures for conflict resolution.Keywords: Semi-arid areas, Mkata plains, pastoralism, resource-use conflicts, conflict resolution

Revisiting the Concept of the Planning Region in Settings with Dynamic Spatial-Temporal Conditions: Lessons from Land Use Planning in Pastoral Areas of Kenya, Ethiopia and Tanzania

Pastoralist rangeland systems often provide prime examples of scale mismatch—the challenge that arises when the scale and geographic extent of decision-making institutions do not correspond to the scale and geographic extent of problems that need to be addressed. Pastoralist resource use and traditional governance systems operate at multiple levels, and are often characterized by multiple, overlapping claims, rights, and management territories. Scholarship on pastoralist systems suggests that their fuzziness, flexibility, and overlap in territories and rights mean that there is no single scale or level that is optimal for effective resource governance. These characteristics stymie attempts to implement conventional land governance systems in pastoralist areas. Land use planning represents an approach to land governance with the potential to address some of the challenges of pastoral systems, but only if the challenge of scale can be addressed. Land use planning is a process that has to be applied over a set of particular—usually clearly-defined—spaces: planning units and regions. An essential step in the land use planning process is interpreting the site to delimit the planning area and determine the appropriate planning units. This paper considers the question of how to apply the concept of a planning region in land use planning in pastoral settings. Land use planning interventions that make use of simplistic delineations of planning units and planning regions run the risk of fragmenting pastoral systems and compounding scale mismatch. The paper describes how frameworks for land use planning in pastoral areas now being rolled out in three different countries in East Africa address this problem. Among the strategies adopted are explicitly planning at multiple levels with cross-level linkages, and planning with multiple, overlapping kinds of planning units

The Shrinking Grazing Fields of the Maasai Land Under the Changing Climate System in Kajiado County, Kenya

The Maasai pastoralists have in the last decade experienced disruptions in their economies and livelihoods following climate shifts. For instance, they have been losing up to 30 % of their herd annually to drought related disasters, yet information on the various land uses is still fragmented. This has been worsened by the shortening famine cycles which has impacted pastoral livelihood system as they highly depend on natural resource. Yet, these key resources have been dwindling over the past 30 years compromising their ability to meet basic need such as food. To address this gap, the study focused on long term evaluation of land use. The study’s objective was to determine land use transformations and their impacts particularly on the pastoral livelihood system. Keywords: Climate change, Arid and Semi-Arid Lands, Natural resources, food insecurity, pastoral livelihood system, socio-ecological system

Projecting Livestock Numbers

The Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry (MAF) undertakes forecasts and projections of livestock numbers as part of the twice yearly contribution to The Treasury’s economic and fiscal updates. MAF’s Pastoral Supply Response Model (PSRM) was recently re-developed and used for the first time in the Budget Economic and Fiscal Update round of 2004. The PSRM projects annual inventory numbers as at 30 June, births and livestock numbers for slaughter. The paper discusses the PSRM, the post-model adjustments process, and the feed through to a simplistic assessment of land use changes within pasture areas.Livestock numbers, forecasting, supply response, Agribusiness, Agricultural and Food Policy, Crop Production/Industries, Environmental Economics and Policy, Farm Management, Land Economics/Use, Livestock Production/Industries, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

Pastoralists do plan! Community-led land use planning in the pastoral areas of Ethiopia

This paper consolidates a set of case studies which document how pastoralists plan land and resource use in pastoral and agro-pastoral areas of Ethiopia. These case studies are drawn from the regional states of Afar, Somali, Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples (SNNP), Oromia, and Gambella. They describe not only why, how, and when pastoralists plan, but also the management and governance structures that control planning processes and the later implementation of the plans. By doing this, the paper provides guidance on how best such planning processes can be supported, and how they can be integrated with and/or built on by other planning processes such as those led by government

Between Tradition and Transformation: A Feminist Investigation of the Role of Pastoral Women within Tanzania\u27s Integrated Environment and Development Landscape

Pastoral women hold pivotal social and environmental roles within their communities. Equally and actively engaging pastoral women in processes to conserve and sustainably use rangeland resources has therefore become an important focus for integrated environment and development intervention. In northern Tanzania, pastoral women find themselves at the center of gender equality efforts, which attempt to translate gender and environment theory into conservation action that elevates pastoral women’s historically unheard voices. Along the way, particular global narratives have positioned pastoral women alternately as passive beneficiaries or as powerful allies in biodiversity conservation and natural resource management. Although the importance of integrating gender considerations into conservation work is now widely acknowledged, there remains a pressing need to examine how pastoral women are understood and meaningfully engaged in a contemporary environment and development landscape. My research attends to this need by investigating how pastoral women are engaged as actors within the integrated environment and development agenda in Tanzania. The first part of the study uses critical discourse analysis to interrupt dominant global narratives and explore local discourse that tells a multifaceted story about pastoral women and their environment. Placed in the broader context of the politics of integrated environment and development, my analysis indicates that local organizations actively resist specific limiting global discourses to create space for pastoral women to define their own identities and roles in natural resource management. In the second part of the study, I draw upon semi-structured, in-depth interviews with leaders and staff of both local and international organizations operating in northern Tanzania’s rangelands to investigate how the voices and knowledge of women pastoralists are invited to influence their environment and development work. The findings suggest that organizations operating in northern Tanzania have embraced the complexity of the role of pastoral women but have yet to match this truth with strategies to engage women across social categories and robustly measure the impacts of their involvement. Jointly, data from this study demonstrates a consistent push and pull between tradition and transformation, ultimately inviting actors to break away from dichotomous world views to design integrated social-ecological projects that more successfully honor today’s pastoral women. I conclude with recommendations for how ‘new’ conservation interventions could also incorporate new frames of work that are more responsive to local perspectives on pathways toward greater sustainability and equity

Whither the Crown’s interest in South Island high country land reform?

The South Island high country has long been the subject of debate over resource use and ecological protection. Since early 2006, the ownership and relative value of property rights in high country pastoral leases have become controversial. This article reviews recent research (chiefly Brower (2006) and Brower, Monks and Meguire (in review)) on the law, politics and economics of land reform in the high country

Review of Derek Brown, On Quakers and Pastors (Barclay Press, 2019)

On Quakers and Pastors delves into the paradox of being a pastor of a Friends church. Quakers from all backgrounds may be interested, but this book is specifically aimed at Evangelical Friends pastors. Derek Brown highlights the balance needed in combining evangelicalism with Quaker beliefs such as equality, simplicity, and silence. Brown weaves history and theology throughout the book, providing context for the struggles many Friends churches have had in supporting pastors and defining pastoral expectations. He succinctly lays out Friends pastoral theology, making On Quakers and Pastors an easy-to-use resource for pastors and other church leaders, both to understand the theology of Friends and develop a set of unified expectations for pastors