Policy framework for Pastoralism in Africa

emphasis on industrial and socio-economic progress and sophistication, which came to be popularlyknown as modernization. A major part of the move towards modernization was the commercializationof agriculture, characterized by the shift from subsistence to commercial farming, frompastoral communal ownership to privatization of pastoral land, and from pastoral traditionalinstitutions of land management to seemingly modern ones. Within these frameworks pastoralistmobility continued to be viewed as irrational and economically inefficient, despite an emergingbody of research which demonstrated that pastoralist production was at least as efficient as modernranching. One outcome of the misunderstandings about pastoralism was widespread appropriationof pastoral rangelands, especially in eastern and southern Africa.3.2.1 Negative trends: the myth of the ‘tragedy of the commons’Two inter-related and powerful environmental narratives of land degradation and the tragedy ofthe commons were often applied to the modernization model of development, and were used tojustify ranching and other interventions. The tragedy of the commons argument was based on thenotion that when a resource is held in common, a self-interested actor will maximize their exploitationof the resource because they receives the full benefit of the changes, but the costs are spreadamong all users. According to the narrative, the result of everyone behaving in this way was theruin of the commons. When applied to traditional African pastoralism, the result (according to thenarrative) was overgrazing, soil erosion and bush encroachment.The logic of the tragedy of the commons argument as applied to African pastoralism was laterwidely criticized, and from a technical perspective, marginalized by rangeland scientists and ecologists.This was because the argument failed to take account of at least five important features ofpastoralism in Africa viz., pastoral herd dynamics and off-take; pastoralist mobility over wide andchanging system boundaries; the dynamics of natural pastures, and annual or seasonal growthcycles; the traditional and sophisticated rules of rangeland access and management, and, the widercomplex social, cultural, political and economic rules regulating pastoralist communities.Although the tragedy of the commons arguments are now widely disregarded by scientists andprofessionals, modern-day policies continue to allow appropriation of pastoral rangelands, withassociated displacement and impoverishment of pastoralists. Rangeland is taken over by farmersin countries where sedentary crop production is seen as preferable to livestock production; pastoralland is allocated to private companies for commercial agriculture, especially in riverine areas whichare often critical dry season resources for pastoralists; pastoralists are excluded from wildlife conservationareas which were formerly traditional rangelands; and pastoralists are displaced due tolarge scale irrigation schemes.In eastern and southern Africa there are no specific pastoral policies or laws that explicitly addresspastoral land tenure issues. Instead pastoral land tenure, when addressed, falls under other policyinstruments and laws such as a national constitution or poverty reduction strategies, or as asub-component of national sector-based laws on land, forests or the environment.3.2.2 Positive trends: pro-pastoral policies and legislation in AfricaIn West Africa, governments have passed a series of pastoral laws to protect pastoral land andenhance livestock mobility. For example, Guinea, Mauritania, Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger have22 Policy framework for Pastoralism in Africa