Bring Maasai youth into rangeland planning

A study in 2013 shows that many young Maasai are not only interested in rangeland-tenure issues but are also keen to maintain rangeland-based livelihoods. The short article “Competent, but ignored: bringing Maasai youth into land tenure decision making” in the International Land Coalition (ILC) Making Rangeland Secure Bulletin 5 describes youth Maasai’s perspectives on the privatisation of rangeland. In efforts to safeguard pasture from encroachment by neighbouring ethnic groups, national elites and the State, Maasai pastoralists in southern Kenya have been privatising their collective land holdings. This has led to widespread land sales, exclusion of others from critical grazing resources and disruption of pastoral production systems. Young Maasai are officially excluded from decision-making about land tenure, yet they are keenly interested in such rural matters. This is a summary of the longer article “Young perspectives on pastoral rangeland privatisation: intimate exclusions at the intersection of youth identities” in the European Journal of Development Research 26 (2): 204–18 (2014). This article can be accessed as read-only version under http://rdcu.be/qqr3

Posted on 27 March 2017 in Pastoralism & Natural Resources, Pastoralist Livelihoods & Nutrition