From poverty to power - Oxfam-Québec

FROM POVERTY TO POWERLIVING ON THE EDGE:AFRICA’S PASTORALISTSForeign visitors to the Kenyan capital of Nairobi are used to seeing,amid the traffic jams and smog, the distinctively tall, red-cloakedforms of Maasai herdsmen on a visit to the city. The Maasai are themost internationally recognisable of the world’s 100–200 millionpastoralists – mobile livestock herders living in arid and semi-arid areasthat constitute some of the harshest and remotest places on earth. 112In such hostile conditions, it is hardly surprising that pastoralistsare subject to higher levels of risk and vulnerability than people livingin areas where farming is a viable option. Rain is scarce, infrastructureis almost unknown (or at best dilapidated), and guns abound due topoor security. Nevertheless, there is a considerable body of evidencethat pastoral livelihoods are in fact well-designed risk managementand adaptation strategies. 113 Several studies have even found thateconomically, pastoralism compares favourably with commercialranching. 114Pastoralists are not only an important and sizeable group in themselves,but their livelihood epitomises the links between poverty, risk,and vulnerability. Pastoralists are experts at risk management, showingextraordinary resilience, but all too often their efforts are underminedby the prejudice and incomprehension of governments and societyat large. Pastoralists are also at the sharp end of climate change,and could provide valuable lessons in how to cope with a drier,hotter planet.268