Rangelands and their Governance: Implications for Traditional Pastoralists

Abstract

Rangelands play an important role in the livelihood of local communities andwildlife. In this paper, however, the three main roles of rangelands in low rainfall areaswill be discussed in the following sections: (i) as a feed source for livestock production;(ii) a base of survival for local communities, their institutions, and management practicesthey developed to overcome environmental variability; and (iii) as a means of avoidingconflicts between herders and farmers. This paper is about local communities of peoplewho live in and get their livelihoods from drylands. On a global basis they numberhundreds of millions of people with thousands of millions of livestock. The focus ison the human dimension of rangelands i.e. indigenous communities, local institutions,and resource management systems.Key words: Development, tenure, common property, privatization, traditional institutions,pastoralism.