Description

Abstract: Household-level survey evidence indicates that conflict over land and water among pastoralists in northern Kenya and southern Ethiopia is relatively rare. Resource conflict in this region appears to be associated more with the rise of nontraditional land uses, especially crop cultivation in streambeds and valley bottoms traditionally used for grazing and watering herds, than with any growth in herd sizes associated with livestock cycles or growing pastoralist populations. Traditional pastoral communities tend to have fewer resource-related conflicts than communities experiencing a rise in crop cultivation. And the incidence of resource conflict is unrelated to herd size. The traditional pastoral system appears more capable of mitigating resource related conflicts and of resolving them when they do occur. Such conflicts appear to be more frequent and less easily resolved where land use patterns are shifting away from traditional extensive grazing systems towards more diverse land use systems incorporating cultivation as well as grazing. Policies aimed at conflict management should focus on building effective institutional arrangements in such transition areas without undermining indigenous institutions that are crucial to the peaceful utilization of scarce rangeland resources in traditional pastoralist zones.