Supporting pastoral customary institutions to improve grassland productivity and practice in southern Ethiopia: a case study of the work of Save the Children/US

Introduction

The lowland pastoral areas of Ethiopia account for approximately 60% of the country’s landmass but only 15% of the national population. As little as 40 years ago the southern lowlands were pristine grasslands but in more recent times increasing numbers of people and livestock, land alienation to other land users, conflict, and climate change have resulted in significant changes both to the landscape and associated livestock management systems.

Figure 1. Borena grassland

The pastoral community of southern Ethiopia is heterogenous and the grasslands are managed by different ethnic groups including the Garri, Borena and Degodi. Each ethnic group uses a different set of livelihood strategies, as identified by Save the Children/UK’s livelihood mapping exercise, for example the Afdher Pastoral Livelihoods Zone (camels and shoats) and Dawa/Genale River Livelihoods Zone (maize, beans and cattle) (Save the Children/UK, 2002). All the lowland regions with the exception of Borena have been mapped in this way and the results thus far confirm that that whilst livelihoods are increasingly diverse, mobile pastoralism continues to play an important role in the lives of many, and the movement of mixed herds of livestock – camels, cattle, sheep and goats, in different proportions and combinations according to the specific characteristics of local grassland types and conditions - remains an important livelihood strategy.

The grasslands of southern Ethiopia are managed by pastoral elders[1] who meet together under a convenient shade tree to discuss and manage livestock movements and watering regimes. Central to these discussions are strategies to maximise milk production, whilst also giving due consideration to minimizing threats from livestock disease and possible theft from livestock raids. In response to the erratic rainfall and variable grassland productivity, the elders use seasonal livestock mobility as a key strategy. These meetings may continue over a period of several days, with participants making detailed contributions based on extensive knowledge of the local grasslands.

The rise of modern nation states in the Horn of Africa has had a profound impact on pastoralists, on pastoral production systems, and on the management of the region’s extensive grasslands. In general, administrators have – albeit sometimes inadvertently - failed to engage adequately with pastoral elders and as a result the elders have been marginalised. This marginalisation has meant that indigenous knowledge, in particular natural resource management strategies, have been lost to policy makers, with a negative impact on livestock mobility, grassland management and by implication livestock and human nutrition. For example, the development of new water sources has compromised former wet season only grazing areas, with the result that the grasslands are increasingly used all year round as opposed to seasonally. Key ‘wet grass patches’ which were previously managed specifically as dry and drought season reserves have also been increasingly developed for agriculture.

In Liiban on the northern edge of the Borena grasslands, Save the Children/US (SC/US) has been working with pastoralists and agro-pastoralists since 1999 to arrest the degradation of local grassland through area enclosure, resting and the thinning of invasive woody plants. Whilst good progress was made on trial plots (see photos below), it was difficult to take the work to scale. In 2005 therefore SC/US partnered with SoS Sahel to pilot a new ‘3 pillars of pastoralism’ approach – grasslands, livestock and people – rooted in a development dialogue with pastoral elders. This case study documents the 3 pillars approach and the progress made.

Figure 2: Former degraded area which has been rested as part of a trial

Background

Liiban is one of six districts in Guji Zone, Oromiya Regional State. With an average altitude of 1,490m and mean annual rainfall of 490mm Liiban is a semi-arid grassland ecosystem, inhabited by Borena, Guji and Arsi communities. In recent years increasing emphasis has been given to rain-fed farming and much of the district is now a mosaic of grassland and cultivated plots. However, given the erratic nature of the rainfall, cropping attempts tend to fail as often as they succeed.

The grazing lands are communally owned and managed. Rather than the ‘free-for-all’ that is frequently assumed, however, communal ownership in fact involves the regulation of the numbers of livestock that access a particular grassland through controlling access to key dry season wells, known locally as ‘eelas’. With the wells working at full capacity in the dry season, cattle are watered every 3 days - beyond this they become droughted and die. Eelas are also owned and managed by one of the 17 Borena clans, and livestock watering, grazing and consequently numbers are therefore regulated by clan elders. As grazing in one area is used up, clan members move their herds to other areas where they negotiate access to local water sources through their clan links. In this way, over-grazing has historically been controlled.

In recent years increasing human and livestock populations have brought new pressures to bear on both the grasslands and associated management systems. The pressures have however been exacerbated by the loss of key ‘wet patches’ to arable farming; land alienation by in-coming farmers and private ranchers; and the lack of recognition given to elders’ decision-making processes and institutions. The latter has been particularly problematic as individual herders have been supported by administrators to circumvent community decision making processes and in this way achieve private benefits, for example the enclosure of prime grazing land for personal use. As the process of marginalisation increased, the elders’ meetings began in some areas to disintegrate and long-standing livestock management systems began to collapse.

Pastoral Livelihoods Initiative

The Pastoral Livelihoods Initiative (PLI) is a 2 year USAID funded program, with the overall goal of strengthening pastoral livelihoods through livestock related interventions. One of several implementing agencies, SC/US’s operational area lies along the border with Kenya, from Moyale north to Arero and Nagelle, south-east to Dollo and as far east as Hargelle and Gode in Somali Region. SC/US and its partners are active in 17 of the districts of the southern rangelands.

SC/US has adopted the 3 pillar approach – grasslands, livestock and people – which is rooted in dialogue with pastoral elders’ and in separate forum with pastoral women. The success of the 3 pillar approach depends on making sustainable improvements to grassland management; hence SC/US partnered SoS Sahel which has a long and distinguished history in rangeland and forest management systems in Ethiopia. For example, SoS Sahel pioneered a community forest mapping technique which draws on a number of PRA/PLA techniques and which it was felt could be adapted to grassland management systems. In addition, SoS Sahel had established good relations with the ‘Gadaa’ customary Borena leadership. The plan therefore was to adapt the forest mapping approach to the grasslands and to include Guji and Arsi leaders with a view not only to addressing grassland, livestock and livelihood issues, but also to begin to explore conflict issues related to natural resource management.

In order to implement a program of this type the first challenge was to establish a cadre of people who were trained and therefore able to guide pastoralists through the mapping process. In the period January to May 2006, SoS Sahel trained a team of 40 NGO and local government staff. Once trained, the team members returned to their respective home areas and began to map grasslands and grassland management systems with pastoral elders. In Liiban discussions with Borena elders confirmed that the appropriate mapping unit was the madda or the area of grazing that surrounded a group of dry season eelas (wells) and that the appropriate group of elders to carry out the mapping was known locally as the jaarsa madda. Thus work in Borena centred on working with the jaarsa madda.

The jaarsa madda

The first meetings with the jaarsa madda and associated mapping were carried out in mid 2006 and in contrast to what was expected, the elders invited the whole community to participate in the planning process – men, women and in many cases children. Significantly too local government representatives also took part in the mapping both as facilitators and observers, as many were themselves keen to identify and develop better ways of working with pastoralists on a range of issues.

Following on from the mapping activities, SoS Sahel and SC/US staff assisted madda communities to work through a community action planning process, in which local development priorities were discussed and agreed. In the following year, the field staff in Liiban reported the following progress:

·  SoS Sahel, SC/US and government staff have assisted pastoralists to map 13 madda areas and complete associated community action plans

·  Having started to meet to discuss grassland and livestock management, several groups of madda elders came together and re-formed their jaarsa dheeda (a Borena regional council covering a number of maddas). This jaarsa dheeda had not met in more than 30 years. Once re-established it has now met 16 times and the number of participating elders has increased steadily to more than 300. The meetings regularly last for 2 days (see photo below)

Figure 3: Jaarsa dheeda meeting

·  Members of the district administration have been regular attendees at all meetings with representatives of the district pastoral development office attending each of the 16 jaarsa dheeda meetings

·  As a result of these various meetings, mappings and community action plans a number of practical actions were taken, as outlined in the tables below according to the 3 pillars:

Table 1: Practical actions implemented under Pillar 1 – Grasslands

-  300 private arable enclosures have been dismantled and returned to communal grazing
-  several former stock routes to rivers, ponds and mineral lick sites which had previously been blocked by enclosures have been re-established
-  2,000 ha of particularly degraded communal rangelands have been enclosed and rested
-  a fire trial to control the invasive of woody plants has been carried out with the support of the US Forest Service (another PLI partner organisation) after a break of more than 30 years
-  access to 5 eelas has been improved by excavating new routes which give livestock closer access to water and have in some cases reduced the height that water has to be lifted (in a chain of 8 to 13 people - see photo) by as much as 10 metres[2]

Figure 4: An improved eela where 8 people are now required to lift the water in a ‘human chain’ compared to 13 previously

Table 2: Practical actions implemented under Pillar 2 – Livestock

-  more than 160,000 livestock are being herded in a more traditional rotational wet and dry season grazing pattern, with the associated benefits of resting grasslands and associated water points
-  a local source of minerals has been identified to help reduce the incidence of botulism
-  119 women have been trained and equipped with knap-sack sprayers and protective clothing to spray ticks as part of a broader initiative to reduce the incidence of tick damage to the udders of cattle and in this way maintain higher levels of milk production
-  one private pharmacy has been established in Nagelle with SC/US support and linked with a network of 40 Community Animal Health Workers (including 7 women)
-  10 livestock marketing groups have been launched with a view to securing better prices

Table 3: Practical actions implemented under Pillar 3 – People

-  16 cereal banks have been established with a view to stabilise cereal prices in the dry season (the key post holders of each group are women as are 85 & of the members)
-  customary institutions have been supported to re-establish and exchange visits organised to learn lessons in other pastoral areas
-  customary institutions have also hosted visits from other pastoral elders in neighbouring areas
-  discussion have recently been initiated to explore opportunities for improving access to basic services – education and health

Taking to scale

As mentioned, the re-establishment of the jaarsa dheeda has attracted interest from other stakeholders including other pastoral elders and NGO and government representatives and SoS Sahel and SC/US have supported a number of exchange visits. As a result of these visits, similar mapping work has now been initiated in the neighbouring districts of Arero, Oromiya Region and Dollo Ado, Dollo Bay and Filtu in Somali Region. In the Somali areas, the results thus far show that grazing management practices among the Degodi Somali are different from Borena and it is anticipated that different elders’ councils and associated grassland management systems will be identified.

In June 2007 an indigenous Borena development organisation hosted a ‘Conserved Borena Landscapes’ workshop which was attended by pastoral elders, NGOs and government partners from across Borena and Guji Zones. The 3 day workshop concluded that customary Borena institutions had been significantly weakened within living memory. Elders from Liiban presented a case study of their work and the progress made as a result of the re-establishment of the jaarsa dheeda. The case study was well received and as a result it has been possible for closer links to be built with a wider network of pastoral elders.

Sharing experience from the field with policy makers

USAID is currently funding a desk study: Pastoralist and Agro-Pastoralist Land Tenure and Administration in Ethiopia, while Oromiya Regional State is supporting a Land Use Planning and Development Initiative. Together with other stakeholders, SoS Sahel and SC/US have been able to share the emerging lessons learned in Liiban with these initiatives and in this way help counteract some of the more negative perceptions of pastoralism and associated land tenure systems. SoS Sahel and SC/US’s key message is that appropriate support to customary elders, including future legal recognition of the jaarsa dheeda, offers an effective route to protecting Ethiopia’s lowland grasslands and building strong and more resilient livelihoods for future generations.

Solomon Wakgari and Adrian Cullis

3rd November, 2007

[1] Elders status is determined by membership of senior age sets and not as commonly thought age – thus a man as young as 30 can be a member of a senior decision making group and hence technically an elder.

[2] Whilst SC/US has provided support in the form of cement, re-bars and tools, all the manual work has been organised and carried out by community members themselves