Roundup: Scientists say pastoralism surest way out of poverty in Africa's drylands

Research has shown that pastoral livestock production systems among communities living in Africa's arid and semi-arid lands still provide the surest means out of poverty.

Research undertaken among the Masai in Kenya and Tanzania has revealed that the poorest pastoral families and those most vulnerable to droughts are those that have been dispossessed of communal lands and livestock through the on-going large-scale privatization of rangelands in favor of conservation and commercial crop farming.

Dr. Ernestina Coast of the London School of Economics Thursday told a policy research conference in Nairobi that despite widespread diversification into non-livestock activities, livestock production remains key to the well being of pastoral communities in Eastern Africa.

"Livestock remains absolutely vital for pastoral livelihoods in both Kenya and Tanzania, while incomes from conservation activities are performing poorly," Dr Coast told participants of the meeting on Pastoralism and Poverty Reduction in East Africa organized by the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI).

Rangelands in sub-Saharan Africa have undergone dramatic changes in ownership and utilization that have greatly restricted nomadic pastoralists' access to key pastures, water sources and even migration routes. This has increased pastoralists' vulnerability to drought, threatening families and entire communities with poverty.

"What is most distressing," says Patti Kristjanson, an ILRI agricultural economist and one of the conference organizers, "is that inequalities within these pastoral communities appear to be increasing, with a few elites doing well, while many are sliding into a poverty trap."

Researchers are calling for mainstream policy support for pastoral production systems that goes beyond the traditional reactionary disaster mitigation and recovery approaches. "We need to recognize that pastoralism is not a uniform livelihood enterprise. We need different strategies for different groups of pastoralists," Kristjanson said.

"Pastoralism is a very rational livelihood decision. If not supported through imaginative policy solutions, we will see a downward spiral in the quality of lives and livelihoods of rangeland communities, from which it is very difficult to recover, " Dr Coast said.

A number of initiatives have been promoted as alternative livelihood strategies, amongst them conservation and ecotourism projects.

However, the research is challenging the value of these livelihood options saying they have not added value to pastoralists.

"Our findings show that incomes derived from conservation activities in pastoral communities perform very poorly, leading us to challenge the assumption that such alternatives are at all pro- poor", Dr Coast said.

He said the few benefits conservation activities are bringing to communities are being captured by the elites and are not reaching poorer pastoralists.

He said both Kenya and Tanzania have witnessed extensive reallocation of rangelands from open, communally owned areas accessible for free-range livestock production, to conservation through gazettement of protected areas as well as for commercial agriculture.

"In Kenya, the remaining rangelands have been sub-divided and individual titles issued, while in Tanzania allocation of exclusive rights for ranching, farming or wildlife enterprise is common," the researchers said.

"These trends are not only threatening the pastoral way of life but also pushing ill-adapted pastoral communities progressively into poverty."

According to researchers, poor pastoral families have as a result been forced to diversify into unskilled, low-paying jobs such as being watchmen and casual laborers, or gathering honey, brewing and selling illicit brews, and selling firewood and charcoal.

The two-day conference, which brought policy-makers and scientists together and closed Thursday, recommended "big policy changes" that increase pastoralists' connectivity to central political processes.

What will help provide that connectivity, said ILRI's Kristjanson, is bigger investments in infrastructure, markets and education, particularly for girls.

Source: Xinhua