End of the road nears for pastoralists’ way of life

The government of Kenya and the donor community should act fast to preserve the way of life of nomadic people.

For long, the economic worth of nomadic people has been underplayed, though the role they play in preserving fragile ecosystems is vital.

That’s the conclusion of a new book published by the Institute for Environment and Development.

It adds that contrary to popular belief many nomadic people have adapted rapidly to the modern world, finding out the latest market prices for cattle on their mobile phone and being able to organise the sale of their livestock to international markets, for instance.

The book Modern and mobile: The future of livestock production in Africa’s drylands, says the nomadic cattle of Kenya, Ethiopia and West Africa produce more and better quality meat and generate more cash per hectare than modern Australian and US ranches where animals remain in one place.

While acknowledging that this way of life is increasingly under threat from drought and market accessibility problems, the book argues that with minimum levels of support, the pastoralist way of life can be saved.

While misperceptions of nomadic life continues, the book says countries such as Kenya draw huge economic benefit from land ill-suited to other forms of use.

Co-author Saverio Kratli says that “harsh arid and unpredictable environments are not obstacles to pastoralists as they would almost inevitably be to other farmers.”

In many areas of Africa where the governments are encouraging a more western form of farming, they are making a mistake, the book argues.

They believe that by doing so, output from animals — for export as well as for local consumption — will increase. However, the opposite appears to be true.

“The slow but inexorable advance of family farms, combined with large scale farming, is swallowing up vast areas,” the report says.

“In East Africa, the loss of land to national parks, game reserves, hunting blocks and conservation severely restricts mobility. (The result is that) lands that have traditionally been used are no longer available.”

Across East and West Africa, an estimated 50 million livestock producers support their families, their communities and a massive meat, skins and hides industry based on animals that are fed solely on natural dryland pastures.

Where other land use systems are failing in the face of global climate change, mobile livestock keeping or pastoralism is generating huge national and regional economic benefits, the book says.

“Prevalent perceptions about pastoralists are that they are a minority of people who practice an archaic and outmoded lifestyle.

Unique production strategies

But even though pastoralists often inhabit harsh remote regions, they are fully integrated with wider global processes.

The book says the fundamental problem is that pastoralist communities cannot move in the way they once could.

“Pastoralism relies on unique production strategies, with the ability to move being the most crucial. Moving is now becoming a serious problem.

Grazing lands are being taken over for other uses, and access to water and markets is increasingly difficult and the economic profitability of livestock keeping is being critically undermined.

“Animals are producing less meat and milk. And they are more susceptible to drought and disease. Poverty, resource degradation and conflict are increasing.”