Pastoralism is seen as a "backward" way of making a living in many areas of the Horn of Africa, but in a region plagued by extreme weather and climate shocks pastoralists have fared better than most farmers, an expert says.
"Pastoralists are probably the best of all people on the planet to respond to climate change," said Ian Scoones, an agricultural ecologist at the UK-based Institute of Development Studies who has worked on dryland agricultural in eastern and southern Africa.
Movement is a large part of the pastoralists' lifestyle, and an important factor in their ability to adapt to climate variation, he said in a telephone interview. Unlike crop farmers, pastoralists are able to move across large areas of land to find other sources of food and water once they've exhausted the supply in their current location.
The continual movement of herders around the Horn of Africa region amounts to a method of sustainable land use, as it allows time for the land to replenish its resources before the pastoralists and their herds return, Scoones said.
Pastoralists also have a history of employing innovative water capturing techniques - such as the use of plastic sheeting by herders in southern Ethiopia.
With climate variation becoming more extreme and competition for land and water growing, some governments in the region have tried to settle pastoralists and persuade them to become crop farmers. But Scoones' research suggests that promoting pastoralism should be an important focus in government climate adaptation strategies.
Crop farming in drought-hit areas must continue but governments should "complement it with more drought resilient livelihoods," and pastoralists would be great teachers in those efforts, he said.
Unfortunately, the livelihoods of many pastoralists are being hampered as competition for land grows. In Ethiopia and the Tana River delta in Kenya, pastoralists are losing the land they have always used to large-scale agricultural projects, many created as foreign companies or countries buy or lease African agricultural land for their own food or biofuel production.
"Across the Horn this is a growing phenomenon," Scoones said, noting that some land formerly available to pastoralists is also being taken for wildlife parks.
If available land is significantly reduced, pastoralists will have to return to a smaller set of grazing areas more often, which could lead to degradation as the areas have less time to recover between visits.
Land policy is crucial for the future of pastoralism, and governments should draft policy to ensure land is available for herders, he said.
Some African countries in the Sahel have taken steps in this direction by registering land to pastoralists. Ethiopia and Kenya are currently experimenting with such registration, he said.
If land registration becomes more widespread, pastoralists communities will be better equipped to resist land grabs, he said.
Katie Murray is an AlertNet Climate intern.
Comments Post a comment
Katie Murray (the writer) One of the parts of the world that are hard hot by climate change that need adaptation Australia , hence I would suggest to western experts to to give advice their fellow in western countries to abandon settled agricultural or husbandry systems and switch to "pastoralism' . We African do NOT need expatriate advice . We can manage our own affairs by ourselves with our expertise. We truly believe So called 'activists' & 'environmentalist' never had made any genuine assistance or advice for we the peoples in developing countries except trying to derailing our effects to escape out of poverty. Long live Africa!
Kundi: The research Katie writes about is published in a book "Pastoralism and Development in Africa" (Routledge). If you visit the book's website - http://www.routledge.com/books/details/9780415540728/ - you'll see that many of the book's authors are African, and some are pastoralists themselves.
While climate change and droughts are devastating communities in the Horn of Africa, women and children remain the most vulnerable victims. While interventions for climate change adaptation and resilience-building around the livestock industry are noteworthy, they ignore the fact that it is the women and children who are now left behind in the villages, sometimes for as long as six months, as men travel farther and longer in search of grazing terrain and water. With little hope of employment beyond menial labor, like hauling water or gathering firewood, women are forced to beg for credit and rely on humanitarian food aid to survive. In order to build long-term resilience in these communities, long-term strategies must go beyond a focus on men and the vulnerable livestock industry.
I am the founder of The BOMA Project and our focus is on an economic empowerment program for women living in rural drylands. We not only help build sustainable income levels for women so that they can survive drought, feed their families and pay for school fees and medical care. We also focus on the problems of inconsistent cash flow and inadequate financial services so that women can accumulate savings for long-term stability. To date we have launched 925 businesses of 3300 adults (95% women) who support over 17,000 children in Samburu, Laisamis, Loiyanglani and Marsabit Districts of northern Kenya. Our recent Impact Assessment underscores the success of an economic empowerment program that focuses on women: 63% decrease in the number of children going to bed hungry at least once a month; 89% increase in the number of participants eating two meals a day; 67% increase in the number of children attending school and a 41% increase in the number of women attending adult literacy programs. 82% of all participants are actively saving and lending money through their business or BOMA saving groups.
Women play a key role in supporting their households and communities in achieving food and nutrition security, generating income, and improving rural livelihoods. In order to break the cycle of poverty, climate change adaptation strategies for northern Kenya, and for all the rural drylands of Africa, must include a focus on women.