Policy options for sustaining productive pastoral systems

Pastoral communities in East Africa are found in areas characterised by arid and semi-arid conditions such as low rainfall and high temperatures. Therefore, these areas are suitable for extensive livestock production systems, and are predominantly under collective land tenure regimes. Pastoral communities have continued to use customary laws in management of land under collective access with mixed results. Expanding urbanisation, large public investments and potential to change use of land have negatively affected collective land tenure regimes, and hence the sustainability of pastoral systems. Enactment of policies that recognize customary laws, strengthen community mechanisms to enforce land rights and ensure fairness in use of land and resources derived from land will help communities in the maintenance of collective land access regimes, thereby improving the sustainability of pastoralists’ production systems.