- Land use in pastoral areas is undergoing rapid change due to factors like reduced authority of customary institutions and lack of rangeland management. - New interventions show promise in local land use planning, strengthening collective behavior and rights, but require further investment. - Surveys found increasing cropping and private grazing lands, commercial investment in riverine areas, and loss of customary rangeland management. - Trends include compromised pastoral systems, degradation, lower resilience, conflicts, out-migration of youth, and lost opportunities in pastoral areas.

1. Land use and tenure in pastoral and agro-
pastoral production systems
Fiona Flintan, ILRI
Workshop on Harnessing the Potential of Dryland Areas and Pastoral Agro-
pastoral Production Systems in Ethiopia, Addis Ababa, 7-8 March 2019

2. Key messages
- Land use in pastoral areas undergoing rapid
change due to a number of factors
- Authority of customary institutions has reduced,
whilst at the same time the management of
rangelands has all but disappeared
- New interventions show promise in local level
land use planning, strengthening and rebuilding
collective behavior, rangeland management and
in securing rights to land and resource, however
further investment is required.

3. Local level change: cropping (5281 HHs)
60% said yes
9%
91%
66%
34%
11%
89%
46%
54%
71%
29%
97%
3%
80%
20%
95%
5%
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
Yes No Yes No Yes No Yes No
Afar Oromia Somali SNNP
Pastoral Agro-pastoral

4. Local level change: private grazing lands
(5281 HHs) Total: 16.5% Yes
1%
99%
15%
85%
6%
94%
21%
79%
5%
95%
33%
67%
17%
84%
28%
72%
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
Yes No Yes No Yes No Yes No
Afar SNNP Somali Oromia
Pastoralist Agro-pastoralist

5. Commercial investment along riverine
areas

6. Loss of customary management in rangelands (3800
HHs Afar, Somali, Oromia, SNNPR)
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
Customary head
All community
No Management/ Not Managed
Customary head
Customary rangeland leader
Rangeland management committee
Local government
All community
No Management/ Not Managed
Customary head
Local government
All community
No Management/ Not Managed
Customary head
Customary rangeland leader
Rangeland management committee
Local government
All community
No Management/ Not Managed
AfarOromiaSomaliSNNP
Agro-pastoral
Pastoral

7. Trends and impacts seen
• Compromising of pastoral livestock system
• Loss of ‘high productivity’ areas making use of
rest of pastoral areas difficult
• Rangeland degradation
• Lower resilience and ability to cope with and
recover from drought
• Conflicts including over resources including land
and water
• Out-migration of youth, and other
moving/dropping out of pastoral system
• Lost opportunities to effectively benefit from
pastoral areas

8. Influences
• Lack of land use planning
• Lack of formal land tenure system for pastoral
areas
• Lack of investment in the livestock including
pastoral sector e.g. extension services
• Lack of investment in rangelands including
coordination of e.g. invasive spp management
• Inappropriate development policies and projects
in the past
• Changes in pastoral societies – education,
exposure etc.

9. Change of thinking: Pastoralism policy

10. Opportunities: Communal land tenure
system in development
July 2018. LAND project, funded by USAID facilitated landholdings
of three pastoral communities in Dheeda Dirre (750,980 ha),
Dheeda Golbo (767,688 ha), and Dheeda Malbe (1,208,750ha)
adjudicated, surveyed, mapped and registered. 2.7 million hectares
with primary residents of 23,015 households.

11. Opportunities: National land use policy and framework
development including WPLUP for pastoral areas

12. Opportunities: Participatory rangeland
management (PRM) PRIME-5.5 million ha.

13. New projects – different way of working?
• Lowland Livelihood
Resilience Project (new
PCDP, MoP)
• USD 350million+
investment
• Traditional rangelands are
entry point
• Rangeland investment
plans
• Integrated approach
• Community-demand
driven approach (CDD)

14. This work is financed by
Government of Ethiopia, Swiss Development Cooperation, USAID,
World Bank, International Land Coalition and partners
It contributes to the CGIAR Research Program on
Livestock Agri-food Systems and PIM Flagship 5
Acknowledgements

15. This presentation is licensed for use under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence.
better lives through livestock
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ILRI thanks all donors and organizations who globally supported its work through their contributions
to the CGIAR system