Pastoralism is a livelihood system based on free-grazing animals that is used by communities in marginal areas. The land may be marginal for various reasons, including poor water supply or soil quality, extreme tem - peratures, steep slopes and remote - ness. Pastoralism enables communi - ties to manage their resources in a sustainable, independent and flexible way. It is marked by rights to com - mon resources, customary values and ecosystem services. Some pastoralists combine livstockkeeping with growing crops for food or forage.

The Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests in the Context of National Food Security are a new international instrument that can be used by peasant, fishing and pastoralist organisations, indigenous peoples, the landless, women and youth, and civil society as a whole, to assert their rights.

A study to determine carbon sequestration potentials and soil attributes was conducted in Borana rangelands of southern Ethiopia under communally grazed areas, grazing enclosures (rangelands enclosed for 20 years for dry season grazing) and rangelands managed by prescribed fire for more than five years after fire application. Soil attributes were collected from three soil depths (0–10 cm, 10–20 cm and 20–30 cm) and both aboveground and belowground carbon were estimated in all treatments.

This article addresses political rights and identity among Il Chamus of Baringo District, Kenya, a small group of agro-pastoralists related to the Maasai. It discusses an important 2006 judicial ruling from the High Court of Kenya that specified a political constituency and national representation for the community, and shows how the state and its actions undermined its implementation.

The technical guide on improving the governance of pastoral lands is designed for several audiences including government and non-government actors. It covers specific challenges of pastoral tenure that are unique to pastoralism and considers how these different facets of pastoralist tenure (issues of the commons; free, prior and informed consent (FPIC); gender etc.) can be combined in a coherent approach to securing pastoral lands.

Formal land titles are rare in pastoral communities around the world. In the past, this presented hardly any problems, since pastoral land was seen as of little use by most outsiders. But with growing competition for areas legal uncertainty is becoming an increasing threat to the livelihoods of pastoralists.

Based on new evidence from Darfur, this report presents a scientifc account of the environmental principles of pastoralist livestock mobility, combined with a review of other key infuences on livestock movements throughout the year. Our goal is to provide policy makers and other stakeholders with an objective account of what mobile pastoralists in Darfur can achieve, how they do it, and what they might need to do it better.

Background: Human behavioral factors have been found to be central in the transmission of Rift Valley fever.

Consumption of contaminated meat and milk in particular have been identified as one of the key risk factors for

the transmission of Rift Valley fever in humans. In pastoral communities, livestock is the main source of livelihood

from which many benefits such as food as well as economic and cultural services are derived. Zoonotic diseases

therefore have a great impact on pastoral communities livelihoods. However, lay perceptions regarding the

This film describes the experience of Index-Based Livestock Insurance payouts in Borana, southern Ethiopia, in 2014, with interviews of livestock keepers, providers and partners.

The report explores the evictions of pastoralists and other conflicts over pastoralists’ land in Tanzania, with focus on the past decade. 

Although most of these evictions and land based conflicts have been documented, the associated human and legal rights violations have increasingly lead to concern amongst civil society. A study was therefore commissioned to collate the available information as well as to visit affected pastoralist communities to assess the current situation faced by pastoralists in the country. 

The first phase of the “Water for Livestock in Isiolo and Garissa Counties, Kenya — Enhancing water resource and rangeland management community capacity through training and strategic water development” has been implemented in in the arid and semi-arid lands of Kenya by IUCN, the Kenya Red Cross Society, and Adeso, with the support from the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation. The overall objective of the pilot phase of the project was to improve livelihoods and resilience against drought for targeted communities in North Eastern Kenya.