Pastoralism & Extractives (page 3)
Impact of resettling Maasai from Olkaria on herd productivity
Projects such as dams, conservancies, and geothermal energy production necessitate the relocation of project-affected persons. Resettlement often causes loss of livelihoods. In 2014, Kenya Electricity Generating Company Limited (KenGen) displaced 155 Maasai pastoralist households to create space for expansion of the existing geothermal electricity generation plants at Olkaria. The pastoralists were moved to an area […]
Kenya: Wind-power project changes value of pastoral land
Lake Turkana Wind Power in northern Kenya is the largest wind farm in Africa and the biggest private investment in Kenyan history. While the Kenyan Government strongly supports this project, at local level it has been accompanied by accusations of land grabbing, corporate negligence and infringement of customary land rights. The article “The changing value […]
Impact of green-energy projects on pastoralists
The paper “Rush for the “wastelands”: revaluing pastoral land in the light of renewable energy”(2022) (Green energy + pastoralism paper, Powerpoint slides) by Ann Waters-Bayer and Hussein Tadicha Wario, was based on a study commissioned by the Heinrich Böll Foundation and Brot für die Welt in Germany. It looked into how large-scale green-energy projects affect […]
Unjust valuation of pastoralists’ land in Kenya
The Kenyan Government has passed laws that routinely undervalue pastoralists’ land and undermine pastoralism as a system of production and source of livelihood in the drylands. In his article “The unjust valuation of pastoralists’ land in Kenya”, published online in The Elephant on 2 October 2021, Jarso Mokku argues that the substantial contributions of pastoralists […]
Impact of renewable energy projects on Kenyan pastoralists
The report “The impact of renewable energy projects on indigenous communities in Kenya” (2019, 44pp) by Ilse Renkens was published by the International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs (IWGIA) in Denmark. It investigates the impact of two renewable energy projects on pastoralists in Kenya: the Lake Turkana Wind Power project and the Olkaria Geothermal Power […]