This paper makes a case for increased policy attention to pastoralists in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). The paper presents:estimates of the numbers of agro-/pastoral populations globallytheir livestock and their contribution to national economiesthe incidence of poverty among agro-/pastoral populations.The author examines the causes and dynamics of poverty among pastoral populations in Africa drawing on the sustainable livelihoods framework and focusing on vulnerability to shocks.

Governments and scientists have long regarded the pastoralists’ way of life as a cause of environmental degradation. This belief is rooted in a misunderstanding of the pastoralist way of life and is reflected in national policies on land tenure and resource access in Kenya. The area of land controlled by pastoralists has been steadily reduced, and pastoralists have been encouraged to give up their nomadic way of life and settle, leading to conflict between pastoralist groups and other land users and damage to the environment.

This paper explores the extent of Chinese resettlement policies in Tibet. It focuses on the impact of these policies on Tibetan herders from a human rights perspective and based on its findings puts together a number of recommendations to international donors, the United Nations (UN) and the Peoples republic of China. Since 2000, the Chinese government has been implementing resettlement, land confiscation, and fencing policies in pastoral areas inhabited primarily by Tibetans, drastically curtailing their livelihood.

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 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 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.