Uganda’s rangeland policy

The paper “Uganda’s rangeland policy: intentions, consequences and opportunities” (2018) by Patrick Byakagaba et al, published in Pastoralism: Research, Policy and Practice 8:7 (https://doi.org/10.1186/s13570-017-0111-3) analyses Uganda’s rangeland policies from pre-colonial times onwards. It looks into what informed these policies, their objectives and the outcomes realised. The policies were based on western European resource management, classical rangeland ecological and economic theory and marginalisation narratives, rather than Uganda’s socio-ecological realities. As a consequence, pastoralists were displaced and suffered a breakdown of social networks. The inflexibility and immobility dictated to the Karimojong pastoralists led to increased soil erosion and decline in rangeland productivity. Expansion of competing land uses, often supported by external incentives, reduced the availability of rangeland resources. Policies promoting fire exclusion led to increased bush encroachment. Other policies undermined the centrality of practices and institutions to govern the commons.

Uganda’s land-use policies ought to support the functionality and productivity of rangelands and their ability to deliver important ecosystem services and address human needs. This can be achieved by promoting common property and consolidating land for optimal utilisation of ecological heterogeneity. Transhumance corridors should be mapped to increase herd access to forage and water. Payment for stewardship of rangelands should be considered to incentivise landowners to maintain their land as rangelands. The ecological and social impacts of fire should be assessed in order to determine optimal fire regimes, and laws should be amended to allow prescribed burning in rangelands.

Posted on 18 March 2018 in Pastoralism & Natural Resources, Pastoralism, Mobility & Land Tenure, Pastoralism, Policy & Power