- Conservation Biology, International Development, Community Engagement & Participation, Environmental Policy and Governance, Natural Resources, Resilience, and 5 moreCommunity Based Natural Resources Management, Pastoralism in Africa, Human Values, Protected areas, and Ecosystem based management(Community Based Natural Resources Management, Pastoralism in Africa, Human Values, Protected areas, and Ecosystem based management)edit
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Multi-level, networked participation is a vital component in building social-ecological resilience and the capacity to adapt to environmental change. This paper outlines the ways in which multi-level participation contributes to adaptive... more
Multi-level, networked participation is a vital component in building social-ecological resilience and the capacity to adapt to environmental change. This paper outlines the ways in which multi-level participation contributes to adaptive capacity and, in so doing, takes a step toward articulating a theory of participation based on resilience thinking. We use a case study of Gabra pastoralist communities of northern Kenya to illustrate how multi-level participation may lead to increasing adaptive capacity, above and beyond existing pastoralist adaptations. The findings suggest that adaptive capacity is systemic—that is to say, it is a property of the social-ecological system, including especially the network of institutional linkages that characterizes that system, as much as it is a property of particular actors within the system. We argue that there are three key elements of meaningful multi-level participation: an institutional environment in which the various levels of institutions are linked, inclusivity in decision-making at these various levels, and deliberation. These three features can work together to create meaningful multi-level participation to facilitate the co-production of knowledge and to build adaptive capacity.
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The purpose of our paper is to consider the vision for public participation in water resources management embedded in Kenya's 2002 Water Act, as it relates to pastoralists. The Act envisions that responsibility for management of water... more
The purpose of our paper is to consider the vision for public participation in water resources management embedded in Kenya's 2002 Water Act, as it relates to pastoralists. The Act envisions that responsibility for management of water resources at the local level will be devolved to community-level bodies. Our approach was qualitative and included interviews with government officials and Gabra pastoralists, observation of and participation in traditional Gabra korra meetings and focus group discussions. We conclude that the "institutional model" of participation being pursued through the creation of Water Resource User Associations is particularly problematic for mobile pastoralists such as the Gabra and we suggest an alternative strategy that would focus on the fostering of deliberation processes.
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Environmental governance research has paid insufficient attention to scholarship on values even though environmental values is a well-studied field. This paper begins to unpack the relationship between values and governance with a... more
Environmental governance research has paid insufficient attention to scholarship on values even though environmental values is a well-studied field. This paper begins to unpack the relationship between values and governance with a particular focus on protected areas governance and in light of ideas such as the distinction between held values and assigned values. We report on
research from four case studies in Canada, Ghana and
Tanzania, each of which investigated the values, interests
and objectives of people in a rural community and ways in
which these are reflected, or not, in governance arrangements for an adjacent protected area. Despite very diverse contexts, two held values that were encountered in each of the four case studies could be described as responsibility toward future generations and respect for and appreciation of nature. The existence of what may be universal values does not negate the importance of culture and place: similar held values are translated, through the particular circumstances of different individuals, communities and cultures, into a diversity of assigned values, interests and positions. The attention that governance processes have given to local people’s fundamental held values in three of the cases, and the ignoring of such values in the fourth, have had important implications for the relationship between community members and the adjacent protected area. We argue that systems for governance would do well to explicitly engage with values by supporting local articulation of values and by facilitating dialogue and deliberation amongst diverse stakeholders around their values.
research from four case studies in Canada, Ghana and
Tanzania, each of which investigated the values, interests
and objectives of people in a rural community and ways in
which these are reflected, or not, in governance arrangements for an adjacent protected area. Despite very diverse contexts, two held values that were encountered in each of the four case studies could be described as responsibility toward future generations and respect for and appreciation of nature. The existence of what may be universal values does not negate the importance of culture and place: similar held values are translated, through the particular circumstances of different individuals, communities and cultures, into a diversity of assigned values, interests and positions. The attention that governance processes have given to local people’s fundamental held values in three of the cases, and the ignoring of such values in the fourth, have had important implications for the relationship between community members and the adjacent protected area. We argue that systems for governance would do well to explicitly engage with values by supporting local articulation of values and by facilitating dialogue and deliberation amongst diverse stakeholders around their values.
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In this paper we demonstrate the importance of non-economic values to community-based conservation by presenting findings from research into Kunlog Community Resource Management Area (CREMA) in northern Ghana. One of the central... more
In this paper we demonstrate the importance of non-economic values to community-based conservation by presenting findings from research into Kunlog Community Resource Management Area (CREMA) in northern Ghana. One of the central motivations for creating the CREMA was to reinforce a traditional taboo on bushbuck, and while some respondents mentioned the possibility of eventually attracting tourists, the primary desire behind the CREMA is to protect bushbuck and other wildlife for future generations. Several respondents emphasised wanting children and grandchildren to be able to grow up seeing the wildlife. Material benefits should not be the sole focus of those involved in promoting and legislating frameworks for community-based conservation – frameworks such as Ghana’s CREMA policy. Government frameworks for the creation, registration and regulation of conservation initiatives should be flexible and able to accommodate diverse community-based conservation initiatives driven from a variety of mixes of motivations, including motivations deriving from non-material values.
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Research Interests: Decision Making, Pastoralism in Africa, Political Science, Governance, Participation, and 15 moreGlobal Environmental Change, Kenya, Community Participation, Capacity Building, Environmental Change, Multidisciplinary, Coping capacity and Adaptive capacity, Deliberation, Institutions, Case Study, Pastoralism, Institutional Environment, Pastoralists, Institution building, and Adaptive capacity
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Research Interests: Business, Decision Making, Pastoralism in Africa, Participation, Deliberative Democracy, and 15 moreKenya, Community Participation, Multidisciplinary, Water Management, Deliberation, Public Participation, Focus Group, Pastoralism, Water resource management, ENVIRONMENTAL PLANNING AND MANAGEMENT, Decision making process, Pastoralists, Water Resource, Focus Group Discussion, and Environmental
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Research Interests: Business, Decision Making, Ecosystem Services, Policy, Environmental Health, and 15 moreComplexity, Environmental Policy and Governance, Negotiation, Ecosystem health, Natural Resource Economics, Reductionism, Ecosystem Approach, Information Flow, Deliberation, Livelihood, Policy making, Environmental Sciences, Environmental Resource Management, Decision making process, and Ecosystem(Complexity, Environmental Policy and Governance, Negotiation, Ecosystem health, Natural Resource Economics, Reductionism, Ecosystem Approach, Information Flow, Deliberation, Livelihood, Policy making, Environmental Sciences, Environmental Resource Management, Decision making process, and Ecosystem)
(Complexity, Environmental Policy and Governance, Negotiation, Ecosystem health, Natural Resource Economics, Reductionism, Ecosystem Approach, Information Flow, Deliberation, Livelihood, Policy making, Environmental Sciences, Environmental Resource Management, Decision making process, and Ecosystem)
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Legal frameworks for communal land rights in Ethiopia, Kenya, and Tanzania are now gaining momentum. Questions can be raised as to whether, how, and to what extent these frameworks take into account the disadvantages of formalising tenure... more
Legal frameworks for communal land rights in Ethiopia, Kenya, and Tanzania are now gaining momentum. Questions can be raised as to whether, how, and to what extent these frameworks take into account the disadvantages of formalising tenure and the complexities of pastoral resources. In this paper, we consider the impact of these challenges on the formalisation of communal ownership, beginning with an overview of how commons theory has influenced land governance policies and how it is applied to pastoral systems. We identify the main challenges that land policy interventions in East Africa face and ways in which the conceptual models of shared property rights embodied in current land tenure regimes are not well adapted to the socio-ecological characteristics of some rangeland landscapes. We argue that policy interventions capable of overcoming the paradox of pastoral tenure and strengthening tenure security while addressing herders’ needs for mobility and flexibility will often involv...
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Research Interests: Human Ecology, Conservation, Human Values, Corporate Governance, Political Science, and 9 moreCommunity Based Natural Resources Management, Conservation Social Science, Environmental Policy and Governance, Tanzania, Protected areas, Deliberation, Natural Resources Management, Scholarship, and Protected Areas
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Human and Livestock Population Dynamics The population living in drylands zones of the focus countries1 is estimated to include between 25 and 41 million pastoralists and 71 and 94 million agropastoralists. Overall, strong population... more
Human and Livestock Population Dynamics The population living in drylands zones of the focus countries1 is estimated to include between 25 and 41 million pastoralists and 71 and 94 million agropastoralists. Overall, strong population growth has occurred in dryland regions of Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Touré et al. (2012) found an increase in the overall rural population of the West African drylands of 2.4 percent per year over the period 2005–2010. Over the period 1960–2010, the human population increased 3.6-fold, leading to the emergence of urban centers and a rise in the sale of meat, milk, leather, and hides. Rural populations are still very young, with high dependency ratios caused by the outmigration of more active men. Data are scarce on the growth of pastoral and agro-pastoral populations/arable farmers and their differential birth rates. The conventional wisdom is that nomadic pastoralist populations have lower natural population growth rates than sedentary farming populatio...
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The borders of national parks in Kenya are hotspots for human–wildlife conflict. The deliberate killing of lions by Maasai pastoralists is illegal, but continues despite mitigation attempts. Currently, there is a somewhat pervasive... more
The borders of national parks in Kenya are hotspots for human–wildlife conflict. The deliberate killing of lions by Maasai pastoralists is illegal, but continues despite mitigation attempts. Currently, there is a somewhat pervasive opinion, within the human–wildlife conflict literature, that lions are killed by Maasai people either as cultural ceremony or indiscriminately in response to the loss of livestock. We reconsider the indiscriminate reputation of lion‐killing, using a combination of structured dialogue and quantitative analysis. Focus group discussions with Maasai pastoralists in three different pastoral regions, performed by in‐country experts, minimized the risk of cross‐cultural misinterpretation through a platform of shared Kenyan heritage. In our survey of 213 Maasai pastoralist communities, we found universal agreement that humans and lions should coexist in Kenya. Maasai communities distinguished among drought, disease, theft, loss and depredation as drivers of livestock losses. Maasai also distinguished among predatory species that take their livestock. The only cause of livestock loss that provoked increased killing of lions, was depredation by lions. Lion‐killing was not provoked by other predatory species. We found regional variation in the baseline probability of lion‐killing, and discuss the sources of this variation. The probability of lion‐killing increases as an act of retribution for predation of livestock that discriminates among species of carnivore. This, coupled with universal acceptance of coexistence between lions and Maasai pastoralists, should guide mitigation strategies for human–wildlife interactions in Kenya and beyond
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Research Interests: Geography, Environmental Planning, Livestock, Pastoralism, Frontier, and 2 moreRangelands and Rangeland(Rangelands and Rangeland)
(Rangelands and Rangeland)
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BackgroundThe arid and semi-arid lands are affected inherently by unpredictable rainfall and frequent droughts, which are exacerbated by climate change. This has resulted in deterioration of land resources, leading to forage and water... more
BackgroundThe arid and semi-arid lands are affected inherently by unpredictable rainfall and frequent droughts, which are exacerbated by climate change. This has resulted in deterioration of land resources, leading to forage and water shortages that negatively impact on livestock productivity. To cope with these climatic hazards that affect agricultural production and food security in pastoral areas, on farm adaptation strategies such as water harvesting initiatives are being supported by development agencies and governments. Some of these strategies have not been able to produce the desired levels of productivity and thus have failed to improve the welfare of the pastoral communities or prevent rangelands from deteriorating due to low adoption rates at household level.ResultsThis study determined social, economic and institutional factors influencing the adoption of water harvesting systems at household level in pastoral areas of Tana River County of Kenya. The data was collected t...
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The International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) works to improve food security and reduce poverty in developing countries through research for better and more sustainable use of livestock. ILRI is a member of the CGIAR Consortium, a... more
The International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) works to improve food security and reduce poverty in developing countries through research for better and more sustainable use of livestock. ILRI is a member of the CGIAR Consortium, a global research partnership of 15 centres working with many partners for a food-secure future. ILRI has two main campuses in East Africa and other hubs in East, West and Southern Africa and South, Southeast and East Asia. ilri.org
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The International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) works to improve food security and reduce poverty in developing countries through research for better and more sustainable use of livestock. ILRI is a CGIAR research centre. It works... more
The International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) works to improve food security and reduce poverty in developing countries through research for better and more sustainable use of livestock. ILRI is a CGIAR research centre. It works through a network of regional and country offices and projects in East, South and Southeast Asia, Central, East, Southern and West Africa, and in Central America. ilri.org
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Rangelands research in arid and semi-arid sub-Saharan Africa has been reinvigorated by renewed government and donor interest in pastoral livelihoods. The challenges facing productive rangelands remain competition over resources, which has... more
Rangelands research in arid and semi-arid sub-Saharan Africa has been reinvigorated by renewed government and donor interest in pastoral livelihoods. The challenges facing productive rangelands remain competition over resources, which has been exacerbated by armed conflict; overuse of some rangelands as fragmentation continues; and the failure of many technical and governance interventions. The unresolved development challenges of pastoralism in East and West Africa make it essential to renew long-term empirical research to understand rangeland dynamics and to develop appropriate public policies. The rangelands research agenda at the International Livestock Research Institue focuses on: (i) governance for better rangeland management; (ii) monitoring rangeland conditions to improve development interventions; (iii) understanding the interactions between climate change and the rangelands; and (iv) improving rangelands productivity for pastoral resilience.