Resilience of Maasai pastoralists on group ranches in Kenya

The article “Pastoral resilience among the Maasai pastoralists of Laikipia County, Kenya” by Ambani Ameso et al (published in Land 2018, 7, 78; doi:10.3390/land7020078) analyses Maasai pastoralists’ coping strategies and mechanisms through a food-system approach, based on an anthropological study in Laikipia County, Kenya. This site was chosen because of the co-existence and interactions of pastoralism as a food system with other types of food systems, such as large-scale horticulture.

Using a “new institutionalism” approach, the paper looks at the actors and their roles, and how internal and external forces regulate access to and use of common pool resources, leading to food sustainability amidst climatic challenges and cyclic humanitarian crises. In the food system, the actors’ roles and institutions (formal and informal rules, regulations, values and norms) are continually redefined, affirming the value of pastoral economies and benefits accrued to a wide range of actors beyond the community and leading to pastoral resilience.

Data collected through in-depth interviews in 50 pastoral household, key informant interviews, focus group discussions based on age and gender, and unstructured observations identified actors and their roles in pastoralism and the institutional settings and changes within and outside the community group ranches. The findings reveal that actors in the households, government, NGOs and service providers have developed various coping strategies and mechanisms that sustain pastoralism. The study also identified institutional settings and changes that promote pastoral resilience, such as co-management of livestock markets, decentralisation of livestock services, holistic pasture management and watershed management plans.

Posted on 4 March 2019 in Pastoralism & Climate Change, Pastoralism & Marketing, Pastoralist Livelihoods & Nutrition