Resource information
No.7 issue of the Rangelands Series goes through experiences of joint village land use agreements and planning.
A participatory, integrated approach to planning is required to build the resilience of dryland communities and the environment in which they live. This involves issues of scale and mobility, “nested” and multi-layered governance and use of land, the inclusion of multiple sets of actors, and the complexity and interconnectedness of dryland ecological and social systems. A starting point for planning is understanding how land is currently used, and this should influence the scale at which planning is carried out. In a context where formal administration works through relatively small political units with power and resources decentralised to them, planning at a scale that reflects the current use of rangelands can be particularly challenging. It will likely demand working across the boundaries of administrative units and will require collaboration between neighbouring authorities – something that is not always easy.