The document discusses rapid changes occurring in Maasailand in East Africa due to population growth, changing land tenure patterns, and increasing demand for land. Pastoralists are facing challenges to the sustainability of pastoralism, threats to biodiversity, and increased vulnerability to climate change. The study aims to understand how land use, livestock trends, agriculture, and institutional arrangements are changing among pastoralists in order to help them adapt their livelihood strategies. The document outlines research questions around characteristics of ongoing land privatization and its impacts, socioeconomic and ecological changes in pastoral lands, and emerging institutional innovations and their implications.

1. University of Nairobi Changing Maasailand: Governance, Land use and Livelihoods transformation among East African Pastoralists ___________________ Dickson Ole Kaelo PhD in Range Management Department of Land Resource Management and Agricultural Technology (LARMAT) 16 August 2011 Draft Proposal

2. Herding communities in East Africa confront rapidly changing social, economic and political environments that enhance or impede their resilience (Esther, 2007). Maasailand in E.A. is undergoing rapid changes owing to an unprecedented growth in human population, changing land tenure patterns, and the increasing demand for land for agricultural production, human settlement and biodiversity conservation The intensification of land use on this fragile ecosystems challenges sustainability of pastoralism, threatens biodiversity and has wider implications on societal vulnerability to climate change impacts and escape from abject poverty. Understanding changes in land use, livestock, agriculture and wildlife trends and institutional arrangements used by pastoralists to adapt their livelihood strategies is a contemporary challenge to both science and development Introduction

3. Study Area Protected Zone Pastoral Zone Cultivation Zone

4. Pastoralists in the Greater Mara Ecosystem are becoming poorer and more vulnerable to system shocks To decrease vulnerability pastoralists are diversifying their income sources Wildlife abundance and diversity is on a downward trend Agriculture is expanding southwards covering more marginal land excluding both livestock and wildlife Land Subdivision is adopted to reduce perceived land loss threats Traditional community institutions have collapsed New innovative institutional arrangement are developing to capture agricultural, grazing and wildlife conservation benefits Economic, Social and ecological gains and losses are experienced by different stakeholder groups Problem Statement

5. What are the characteristics of land privatization and acquisition that are ongoing in the greater Mara ecosystem and to what extent do they enhance or curtail land use transformation, equitable sharing of common resources and benefits What socioeconomic and ecological changes are occurring in the pastoral lands adjacent to the Masai Mara National Reserve What institutional innovations are underway resulting from changes in land ownership and land use transformation? What are the implications of these emerging institutional arrangements on land use, livelihoods (livestock keeping) and biodiversity How are this institutions and socio-economic changes enhancing climate change adaptation or increasing climate change vulnerability Study Questions

6. Methods Method Research Question Data Source FGD, Key Informants, survey, Mapping & GIS Characterize ongoing land subdivision and acquisition and extent land use transformation is curtailed or enhanced – what motivates privatization, how its organized, Narok Land office, Group Ranch Satelite image analysis, GIS analysis Extent and direction of land use change – Cultivation, Conservation, Pastoral use and tourism ILRI, Seneels, Said, Mapping Survey Socioeconomic change – Livelihood impacts Secondary (Michael Thompson) and primary data comparison Trend Analysis & NDVI Ecological change – Livestock , Wildlife and NDVI DRSRS, ILRI Interviews, FGD, workshop Innovations in institutional transformations Participants, boundary spanning organizations