Community conservancies impact herders’ adaptation to climate change

The establishment of numerous community-based conservancies in northern Kenya has brought about radical changes in the use of, access to and ownership of land. Research outlined in the policy brief “The impact of community-based conservation on pastoralists’ climate change adaptation” (2023, 4pp) by Jackson Wachira et al, revealed that community-based conservation aggravated pastoralists’ vulnerability to climate shocks by reducing the amount of land available for grazing, hindering livestock mobility and constraining adaptation using traditional strategies, such as the grazing of drought-researve areas. In community-based conservation, NGOs often play an intermediary role in managing donor and tourism funds that can help pastoralists diversify their sources of income, but local politics shape the distribution of resources in ways that disadvantage the more marginal and less influential pastoralists.

Posted on 26 October 2024 in Pastoralism & Climate Change, Pastoralism & Natural Resources, Pastoralism, Mobility & Land Tenure, Pastoralism, Policy & Power