This document is divided in eight chapters. The first chapter reviews rangelands and rangeland development in Ethiopia. The second chapter is an introduction to the Borana Plateau with ref. to natural resources and pastoral society. It reviews secondary information on geology and sociology, as well as original information on climate, soils, wildlife, plant ecology and water resources for the central Borana Plateau. Chapter three deals with vegetation dynamics and resource use.

This chapter investigates the options for improving the performance of small ruminants interms of their contribution to household incomes. The characteristics of the existing production system are first sketched in order to identify the resource requirements and constraints of the system. Based on this imformation, a steady-state flock model is then developed and used to assess the impact of variation in growth, reproduction and mortality rates production.

The Borana plateau of southern Ethiopia: synthesis of pastoral research, development and change, 1980-91 summarises results from work conducted by 40 people in the southern Ethiopian rangelands between 1980 and 1991. The first chapter reviews rangelands and rangeland development in Ethiopia. The second chapter is an introduction to the Borana plateau: natural resources and pastoral society. The next three chapters deals with vegetation dynamics and resoruce use, Borana household economy, and livestock husbandry and production.

The first chapter gives a brief description of a pastoral production system, as envisaged by the study team and outlines the multi-disciplinary approach of the study, its sampling design and the data collected. Chapters 2 & 3 describe Kenya's biophysical and socio-economic environments, within which the Maasai livestock production system operates. The biophysical environment of the study site is described in detail in Chapter 4. Chapter 5 describes the social organization of the Maasai and how it affects their use of livestock and grazing resources.

Assesses the effect (balance or imbalance) of the present relationships between the natural resource base and human activities; examines the role of some potentially destabilising forces, i.e, international markets, government programmes and socio-economic stratification; and reviews government's role in terms of its contributions to prudent natural resource management and options for the promotion of sustainable rural development.

Grazing reserves in Nigeria are areas set aside for the use of pastoralists and are intended to be the foci of livestock development. The stated purpose of grazing reserves is the settlement of nomadic pastoralists they offer security of tenure as an inducement to sedentarization through the provision of land for grazing and permanent water. This paper reviews problems associated with grazing reserves and offers suggestions to make them more productive and relevant to the needs of the intended beneficiaries.

Reviews the characteristics of African pastoralism. Describes the major technical land institutional interventions along with the reasons why they have proved so difficult.

Discusses the use of forage legumes in the contexts of seasonality of other feeds particularly natural pastures and crop residues, the seasonality in animal movements, the competitiveness for land and labour of forage legumes, and the complementarity of forage legumes with other feeds in smallholder as well as pastoral production systems in sub-Saharan Africa. Ends with research implications & recommendations.