This article explores the breakdown of complementarity between agriculture and livestock in the Kishi Beiga area in the north of Burkina Faso. The article suggests that the the two systems now compete for land and local management systems have broken down.This article discusses a joint GTZ and Government of Burkina Faso initiative to improve natural resource management and people's livelihoods.

This document reports on a meeting of a group of pastoralists from throughout Iran. Over recent decades Iran’s pastoralists have been experiencing changes that have totally altered the social, political and economic landscapes through which they must navigate. This meeting intended to discover the impact of these changes on local breeds.The dialogue was facilitated by Taghi Farvar and Maryam Rahmanian of Iran’s Centre for Sustainable Development (CENESTA)

This article examines the complexity of demarcating the Kenya-Sudan-Ethiopia tri-junctional point known as the Ilemi Triangle. By analysing why, until recently, the Ilemi has been ‘unwanted’ and hence not economically developed by any regional government, the article aims to historically elucidate differences of perception and significance of the area between the authorities and the local herders.

Pastoralism is a global phenomenon. In Africa, where 66 per cent of is used for pastoral production, it is recognised as part of the continent’s cultural heritage. More than just a means of production, it is a way of life intrinsically linked to the identity of the individuals and communities that practise it. Given their traditionally nomadic lifestyle, the fact that pastoralists can become internally displaced is often overlooked. Some even question whether it can happen at all.

This paper initially highlights the general characteristics of rangelands and pastoral production systems of the Tibetan Plateau.The article finds that:given the realities of life in a heterogeneous and marginal environment, the issue of secure resource tenure, both customary and legal, is fundamental for effective rangeland managementa simple shift in tenure from the communal (traditional and subsistence) to individual household level (ranching and commercial) will not be enough to facilitate a change in behaviour toward "rational" livestock operationsmany institutional mechanisms must be

Built on earlier quantitative assessment of the socio-economic drivers of the above changes, this paper focuses on the role of national level policies implemented in the area over the past decades, and how these have affected the traditional institutional setting that determines land use, property rights and pathways of livestock development.The paper uses a literature review combined with in-depth key informant and group interviews to identify key policies and interventions, assess their impacts and explore the responses and strategies adopted at both individual and community levels to cop

Donors have flocked to support Tanzania’s pastoralist land rights movement. However, well-intentioned desires to promote democracy, indigenous rights, participatory development and community conservation have had perverse consequences. Leaders of pastoral non-governmental organisations (NGOs) have become less and less accountable to their communities. The pastoralist movement has lost momentum as its energies have been diverted into activities to please donors.

Since the early 1970s, the position of pastoralists in West Africa's Sahel zone has become ever more precarious. Their plight is evidenced by rural-urban migration movements as well as the results of field surveys. The last major drought of 1983-1985 delivered a major blow to communities which derive most of their food and revenues from herding. In many rangeland areas there is civil unrest - even building to armed conflict in places - owing to mounting tensions between various pastoral groups.

Guinea, Mauritania, Mali, and Burkina Faso have all passed specific legislation in support of pastoralism. This paper reports that while some of these laws provide an improved framework for the management of rangelands and greater tenure security for pastoralists, they contain conceptual and practical problems which may ultimately further marginalise pastoral people.Crucially, the new legislation seeks to manage access to resources through complicated procedures controlled by various levels of government.

For over a hundred years the zone of Kisha Beiga, in Burkina Faso, was plagued by ethnic conflicts, revolution and political anarchy. Local rivalries and administrative chaos put paid to any efforts to manage natural resources efficiently. Then, in 1991, the Burkinabe Sahel Programme (PSB) set out to quell factional rivalry and establish sustainable resource-management in the area. A fragile consensus has been achieved, but it has not been easy. Leadership conflicts, land tenure issues and administrative anomalies have threatened to derail the project.

This article discusses the transhumant pastoralists of the Abruzzo highlands of central Italy. The article indicates that this system of production depended, and still depends, on the availability of communal grazing areas where access is open to all local residents and management is joint. The article discusses the relationship between herders, common property regimes and the State.The article concludes that:as a pastoral system increases in complexity, from being a self contained CPR to an outward-looking one, with moveable assets and flocks, transaction costs increase.

Land policies in Africa have often overlooked the interests of certain social groups. In some areas, traditional access and ownership rights for women, migrants and pastoralists have been ignored or reduced.  The rise of HIV/AIDS in the region has created new social groups who are vulnerable to discrimination by land policies. As new policies are formed in the region, it is important to consider why these groups have been excluded. This will help to ensure that future policies represent these groups more fairly.