Transitioning Maasai pastoralists adapt to climate change in Kenya

With increasing fragmentation of rangelands, more restricted mobility and growing climatic stress, Eastern African pastoralists are diversifying their sources of livelihood. Diversification is also promoted as a strategy to adapt to climate change. In an article based on a study on Maasai communal land in southern Kenya, entitled “Adapting to climate change among transitioning Maasai pastoralists in southern Kenya” (in The Journal of Peasant Studies, September 2022), Edwige Marty et al from ILRI (International Livestock Research Institute) and the Norwegian University of Life Sciences, Norway, analyse how pastoralists navigate changing access to key productive resources linked to diversification processes, social differentiation and reshaping livelihood practices. The authors reveal context-specific patterns of inclusion and exclusion embedded within evolving production relations.

The ILRI policy brief 37 “Adapting to climate change in transitioning pastoral systems: understanding opportunities and constraints to benefit from diversification” (2022, 4pp) is based on this study.

Posted on 21 September 2022 in Pastoralist Livelihoods & Nutrition