Review of livestock mobility in sub-Saharan Africa

Movement of African pastoralists with their herds has historically been seen by outsiders as working against environmental and development goals. Recently, the logic of livestock mobility has been embraced but uncertainties persist as to what it means and how it could be measured. Various unexamined associations circulate that tie livestock mobility to features of pastoral cultures, ecologies and institutions. The article “Livestock mobility in sub-Saharan Africa: a critical review” by Matt Turner & Eva Schlecht (published in Pastoralism: Research; Policy & Practice 2019 9:13) reviews the empirical literature that has sought to measure and document livestock mobility, comparing two parameters of its components: grazing movements and travel mobility. It finds strong similarities in daily grazing movements of herds around base locations (camps, villages, waterpoints) but wide variation in the seasonal travel movement between base locations. This variation reflects the fact that mobility is not a cultural norm but responds to the nutritional needs of livestock. The magnitude of travel mobility is highest for those transhumance systems moving along latitudinal and elevation gradients, thus moving across variation that is more predictable than is commonly presumed in the pastoral literature. The institutional implications of the observed regularities and variabilities of livestock mobility are discussed.

Posted on 21 December 2019 in Pastoralism, Mobility & Land Tenure