Integrated management of and institutional framework for pasturelands
From WaterWiki
This article discusses the legal framework and instutional basis needed for pasture management and utilization, sustainable usage and management of pastures and ideas to address the interconnected issues of climate change, pasture degradation, livestock productivity and rural livelihoods in an integrated and comprehensive manner
Contents |
Good practices in institutional frameworks
Responsibility for rangelands is often fragmented across different ministries – the ministry of agriculture often also deals with livestock; sometimes they are combined; environment ministries also have some of these responsibilities, as do local authorities.
For example, in Kenya responsibility for pastureland management is shared between the ministries of environment, livestock, water and agriculture, with an overall coordinating framework under the environment act, as well as local coordination at the district level. This framework has had limited success due to the lack of a coherent land policy and the very centralized nature of decision-making in the country.
In the case of Kyrgyzstan, responsibility for overseeing and regulating the use of rangelands is shared by five ministries and institutions, together with regional, district and village level authorities with responsibility for ‘distant pastures’, ‘intensive use’ pastures and ‘village pastures’ respectively.
Using traditional knowledge to develop rules and regulations: In Pakistan, where legally all alpine and sub-alpine pastures in the north of the country are the property of the state, no formal institution is involved in managing pasturelands, instead, local communities manage the pastures on the basis of customary laws according to which every community has grazing rights to their adjoining pastures, sometimes leasing pastures out to non-community members. When disputes between different communities arise over grazing of their livestock in a particular pasture, communities often go to court to establish their claim of rights of grazing in these pastures. A UNDP-GEF project in Pakistan, “Mountain Areas Conservancy Project” has developed management plans using traditional practices, together with scientific analysis to ensure sustainability of pasturelands and watersheds. These plans are implemented by local communities themselves.
Legal Regulations and Policy
The critical issue may not necessarily be the creation of a new government agency, but ensuring and/or creating laws and policies that clearly define the rights and responsibilities among various agencies and the effective implementation of these laws and policies. Lack of clearly defined jurisdictional rights and responsibilities causes inter-ministerial conflicts regarding land use and management. For example, in Senegal, although regarded as a good practice in terms of establishing a framework for local community participation and consideration of traditional knowledge, challenges have arisen as the land tenure law does not specify precise criteria regarding land use regulation, and judgment remains subjective. In addition, lack of clarity of laws and regulations (including inconsistency with those in neighbouring countries, such as Guinea and the Gambia) hinder land conservation efforts.
It is therefore important to examine current threats and issues in pastureland management, and identify the gaps in existing institutions, laws and policies before deciding which government agency/ies should be responsible for pasturelands.
For example, Kyrgyzstan, in order to pursue the policies and reform processes necessary following the end of the centralized Soviet pasture management system, has implemented a number of radical legislative reforms related to resource use and agriculture. Although legally rangeland territories in Kyrgyzstan remain the property of the state, the legal framework has now been put in place so that usage rights can be leased to pastoralists by auction; rent is payable according to legally standardized prices.
Good practices in rangelands management
Before considering government agencies and regulatory mechanisms it is important to thoroughly understand the pastoral lifestyle and how pastoralists already manage their resources. The best “regulation” will be one that strengthens the pastoralists’ existing management capacities. In particular, regulations must support community participation and effective indigenous practices to be successful.
- Participation of pastoralists in decision-making is essential if errors are to be avoided. There are many examples of the establishment of pastoral groups and various ways in which those groups have contributed to decision-making.
- Access to Markets – Pastoralists often remain dependent upon their traditional insurance methods because they have poor access to markets and few livelihoods options. Improving access to markets (roads, slaughterhouses, processing facilities, cold stores, access to price information, etc.) can be extremely valuable and will encourage people to adopt lower volume – higher value systems.
- Human Development – Rangeland should not simply be regarded as an environmental resource – it is vital to think in terms of the economics of the people living there. In Kenya, UNDP’s Drylands Development Centre assisted the government in developing a policy for all the country’s arid and semi-arid zones, linking government ministries and stakeholders responsible for local government, environmental management, water, community development, education, health, transport, communications, etc. The cross-sectoral way of developing the policy ensured that all aspects of human development were addressed for a huge area of territory.
- Alternative livelihoods – Mobile pastoralism is unlikely to support an increasing population. It is therefore vital to link pastoralists with other employment opportunities. This requires a skilled and informed pastoral community.
- Early warning systems can warn of imminent weather problems and allow people to avoid the weather’s worst effects. Providing information to roaming pastoral groups is difficult. There have been some good examples of using local FM radio stations for early warning and the dissemination of market information, as well as good examples of pastoral communities forming a vital part of early warning networks. Indicators observed in the field can often inform government of impending problems.
- Land tenure reform has had mixed but generally bad effects. Privatization will exclude all but a favoured few and will lead to impoverishment of the rest. Group ranches (where private owners combine their holdings for communal management) have often failed in Africa when certain land owners do not want to go along with the rest.
- Rangeland rehabilitation – There is abundant technology available for rehabilitating rangeland, but it is very site-specific in nature. The best examples have been community-driven and linked to community patterns of rangelands use. For example, it is necessary to keep animals out of areas that have been re-seeded, however, this requires community agreement to avoid newly planted areas and/or agreement to fence off areas.
Any pastureland management strategy should reflect the country’s mixed pastureland management system by including differentiated strategies for a) pasture management around settlements where semi-settled/semi-intensive animal breeding is practiced and traditional pastureland management is not longer an option, and b) grassland management for extensive livestock breeding, which needs to adjust to the specifics of a free market economy and diminishing open water sources due to climatic and anthropogenic factors.
Interconnected issues of climate change, pasture degradation, livestock productivity and rural livelihoods
To date, climate change issues are seldom understood with respect to pastoral futures. While examples have been shared of how pasture degradation and livestock management are dealt with at national institutional levels, no example of a single government institution has been cited which deals with all these cross-cutting issues in an integrated manner. The most feasible mechanism to deal with these issues is almost certainly the establishment of an inter-ministerial committee, rather than creating a new overarching institution or agency.
One example of this comes from Pakistan, where the Prime Minister’s inter-ministerial Committee on Climate Change acts as a policy and review forum focusing on the challenges related to climate change. The Committee is chaired by the Prime Minister and its members include the Minister for Environment, Minister for Food, Agriculture and Livestock, Minister for Science and Technology, Minister for Water and Power, Minister of State for Environment, Deputy Chairman, Planning Commission and Special Advisor to the Prime Minister.
Further Readings, References, Links
- UNDP Cross-Practice Land Tenure Initiative – UNDP’s Drylands Development and Oslo Governance Centres are currently working together on a cross-practice initiative on land tenure and land rights empowerment for development, which aims to promote and build UNDP capacity related to the critical and cross-cutting issues of land tenure practice areas to improve access to, productivity and sustainability of land resources through improved governance of natural resources.
- Global Drylands Initiative – “Challenge Paper on Land Tenure Reform and the Drylands”, UNDP Drylands Development Centre, 2003 - This paper looks at land tenure reform, how is it seen and why it is undertaken, together with a comparative overview and survey of land tenure systems in the drylands
- Eldis pastoralism resource guide – Comprehensive online resource guide to issues related to pastoralism, provided by the Institute for Development Studies, University of Sussex, UK.
- Southern Africa Regional Poverty Network – Land Resources Page – Contains selected recent papers on land-related issues.
- Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit – Natural Resources Management (NRM)– An independent research organisation headquartered in Kabul, their NRM research looks at institutional arrangements that affect the management of natural resources, including animal husbandry, and help to prevent conflict.
Source(s)
The source for this article is the Consolidated Reply to the query on institutional frameworks for and management of pasturelands that was sent by UNDP Mongolia in January 2006 to the EENet and DGPNet groups of UNDP.
