Participatory rangeland resource mapping as a valuable tool for village land use planning in Tanzania

The Sustainable Rangeland Management Project (SRMP) aims at securing land and resource
rights of pastoralists, agro-pastoralists and crop farmers, while improving land management
by supporting village and district land use planning and rangeland management in Kiteto,
Bahi, Chamwino and Kondoa Districts in Tanzania. More broadly, it aims at influencing policy
formulation and implementation on these issues. An important part of this endeavour is to introduce new ideas and suggest improvements to the village land use planning (VLUP) process in order to better contribute to sustainable rangeland management. A key challenge, for example, is ensuring the maintenance of livestock movements for optimising pastoral production systems across village boundaries. Participatory rangeland mapping proved to be a useful tool for documenting and gaining a better understanding of methods for facilitating such movements into the VLUP mapping process. In response, CARE Tanzania and the ILC technical advisor organised a five-day training and pilot process mapping in two neighbouring villages – Ng’abolo and Ndedo villages in Kiteto District.