An excerpt:

Pastoralists in the arid and semi-arid rangelands of Kenya are increasingly facing new challenges caused by greater pressures on land and resources and climate change. This has led to rangeland degradation and weakening of customary institutions that in the past managed these lands. In response to these trends, ILRI and its partners have developed participatory rangeland management (PRM). This community-led process strengthens local management institutions, promotes greater involvement of women and supports communities to develop and implement a rangeland management plan.  

PRM has its origins in Ethiopia and has proven to be highly successful in assisting communities to better manage their lands. Learning from these experiences, PRM was piloted in Baringo County, Kenya, with funding from the EU-supported Piloting Participatory Rangelands Management project. Subsequently, it was then strengthened with support from the CGIAR Research Initiative on Livestock and Climate.  

The project is now being scaled by Accelerating Impacts of CGIAR Climate Research for Africa (AICCRA), to enhance its capacity-building effort in additional counties for wider adoption of PRM. As part of this scaling process, PRM was introduced in Arbahajan Ward, Wajir West Subcounty, Wajir County in 2023. This area, which is more arid than Baringo, presents a distinct context and unique set of challenges. 

Building on this, ILRI collaborated with the Wajir county government and the Resources Conflict Institute (RECONCILE) to conduct an extensive stakeholder mapping exercise in September 2023. This exercise, serving as a critical first step in the PRM process, not only produced a stakeholder map but also provided an opportunity to foster shared understandings and greater cohesion among participants- essential elements for the successful implementation of PRM. 

Story by Allan Akivaga, Advocacy officer, and Irene Mukalo, Head of Programs, at RECONCILE