In a previous post, I summarised a recent article that I wrote with colleagues on the changing system of access and benefits within Maasai land in southern Kenya. This post only hinted at ongoing changes in land tenure, and the closely related, extremely complex issue of wildlife conservation interventions. However, with wildlife conservation interventions continuing to expand in Kenya, and ‘community conservancies’ now covering about 11% of Kenya’s landmass, much of which is within pastoralist land, the relevance of these changes for pastoralist livelihoods cannot be overstated.
In another recent article, I highlighted how a wide range of international actors working in Amboseli under the loose banner of ‘community-based conservation’ have been brought together by the idea of migratory wildlife and Maasai livelihoods mutually benefitting from open rangelands within Maasai group ranches. Wildlife conservation in group ranches surrounding Amboseli National Park has long been held up as a model of an alternative to exclusionary ‘fortress conservation’. Following the prohibition of the Maasai’s seasonal temporary settlements near swamps within the national park in the late 1970’s, these practices sought to gain support for conservation and to secure habitat connectivity for migratory wildlife on group ranch land.
This article is from PASTRES, a research programme that aims to learn from pastoralists about responding to uncertainty and resilience, with lessons for global challenges. PASTRES is co-hosted by IDS.
