0 Rehabilitation of Degraded Community Grazing Lands in Laikipia, Kenya

Land degradation is a serious problem in semi-arid rangeland in Africa, threatening wildlife habitats, grazing lands and pastoral livelihoods. Range rehabilitation was carried out in degraded grazing areas in four community ranches in Laikipia. The aim was to alleviate pasture scarcity, improve ecosystem resilience and create alternative income generating activities for the pastoralist group ranch communities. As part of an implementation program of the natural resource management programmes developed by the respective group ranches communities’ African Wildlife Foundation started facilitating rehabilitation of degraded lands with support from various donors e.g. GEF. The communities showed great interest in restoring the degraded areas within their ranches as an important strategy of implementing the plans. Rehabilitation was also deemed necessary for the sustainability of the community conservation initiatives, combating land degradation, and resource-based conflicts and improvement of the pastoral livelihoods. Besides ecotourism, rehabilitated areas can be a resource for various income generating activities (IGAs) for the community, such as bee-keeping, harvesting grass seed for sale, and fattening of stock for sale among others. So far. More than 500 Ha of severely degraded rangeland has been successfully rehabilitated in the four group ranches. 

See a project showcase in SER website here and read a policy brief here.

0 Effects of enclosures and land zoning on the restoration of degraded semi-arid rangeland in Kenya

Below is a summary of my PhD thesis, defended successfully on 29th November, 2012 at Ghent University, Belgium.

In response to the increasing land degradation in arid and semi-arid environments in Sub-Saharan Africa, numerous approaches to their restoration have been developed. Very few of these have been successful beyond the project implementation period. In some parts of Eastern Africa however, rangeland enclosures and community-based conservation are increasingly being adopted in pastoral areas under transition and in the livestock-wildlife interface, respectively. The two approaches represent restoration initiatives at site (enclosure) to landscape (conservancy) levels. However, their impact on the semi-arid ecosystem health is still not well understood. This study aimed to assess and describe the impact of enclosures and community conservation management on the restoration of degraded semi-arid rangeland in Kenya. 

The specific objectives were to (a) assess the impact of enclosures under private and communal management on ecosystem health using the key biotic (herbaceous vegetation) and abiotic (soil properties) indicators; (b) quantify the tangible benefits derived from rehabilitating a degraded semi-arid rangeland in communal enclosures; (c) assess the impact of community conservation management on a semi-arid savannah; and (d) determine the effects of range rehabilitation through reseeding on large herbivore dynamics. The study was conducted on the Njemps Flats in the Lake Baringo basin (Baringo County), and in a number of group ranches in the neighbouring Laikipia County. 

Enclosure establishment and active management has led to recovery of herbaceous vegetation, especially grasses and standing crop biomass, compared to the adjacent degraded rangeland. Enclosures were also effective in restoring soil quality. The tangible benefits realised from the restored areas are one of the incentives driving rangeland enclosure establishment in the Lake Baringo basin. Positive correlations between enclosure total incomes with time demonstrate increase in the enclosure income. The improvement of the soil quality, general rangeland condition, and economic return show that creating rangeland enclosures is a potential avenue for combating land degradation and poverty in the drylands where pastoralism is in transition from extensive to sedentary and hybrid systems. 

The adoption of community-based conservation (CBC) by the pastoral communities in northern Kenya has leveraged more land for conservation of wildlife, habitats and grazing lands. It has also secured the community land from sub-division and erection of fences which impede wildlife migration and pastoralism. Thirdly, CBC offers a great opportunity for the communities to benefit from wildlife and other natural resources existing on their land through profit-sharing from eco-tourism initiatives using the payment of environmental service (PES) arrangements. However, CBC and its natural resource management programme have also created new challenges such as a declining and improving rangeland condition in the grazing and settlement, and conservation zones, respectively. The challenges of planning and budgeting the utilisation of key land resources, especially pasture, remains a serious threat to the success of CBCs. This thesis highlights a number of pragmatic suggestions on how the situation can be managed, in order to abate further decline in range condition in the grazing zones. These would increase the resilience of the rangeland ecosystem in the long term and increase the potential of community conservation management to restore degraded grazing lands and habitats, conserve biodiversity, and alleviate poverty in the Kenyan livestock-wildlife interface areas.

Citation: Mureithi, S.M. 2012. Effects of enclosures and land zoning on the restoration of degraded semi-arid rangeland in Kenya. PhD thesis. Ghent University Press. pp. 210. ISBN 978-9-4619708-4-8

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0 Healing the Grasslands, Rangelands and Savannas of the World - We need a brown revolution (Allan Savory)

Allan Savory pursued an early career as a research biologist, game ranger, soldier, politician and international consultant in Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). Exiled in 1979, he co-founded the non-profit Center for Holistic Management in 1984 and in 2009 the Savory Institute with his wife Jody Butterfield and colleagues in the United States. In 1992, they formed a second non-profit (social welfare) organisation, the Africa Centre for Holistic Management, near Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe, donating a ranch that would serve as a learning site for people all over Africa.

In 2003, Savory was awarded the Banksia International Award for the person doing the most for the environment on a global scale. His current work in Africa is receiving much praise and recognition and the Africa Centre for Holistic Management won the 2010 Buckminster Fuller Challenge for the organisation providing the most comprehensive solution to a pressing global problem.

Savory gave the keynote speech at this year’s UNCCD Land Day in Bonn on 11 June, where he spoke with UNCCD News editor Susanne Reiff.

Food security: the top issue is biodiversity

Today, we are producing more eroding soil than food. I think that is probably the most frightening statistic in the world. When we destroy soil, a vast amount of carbon is released into the atmosphere. Food security is impossible while this problem exists.

To achieve food security and human security, we need to focus on the degradation taking place in all environments. Every environment in the world is now degrading to some extent. Fish stocks have been destroyed and coral reefs are being destroyed, but we can find solutions to these problems through our conventional thinking. If these environments rest, they will recover. If overfishing stops, even if the world’s entire cod stocks have been depleted, the sea will recover, given time. The same applies to the world’s humid environments. But in areas of the world with only seasonal rain and in arid regions, biodiversity loss needs to be stopped as a matter of urgency, and current thinking changed. Biodiversity is not only about charismatic species. It is about humble soil-covering litter, soil microorganisms and many other factors. For food security, biodiversity is the top issue. 

When addressing food security, most people limit their view to the croplands. However, we also need to focus on stabilising all the catchment areas. Rainfall has to be effective – it needs to soak in the soil and stay there, rather than evaporate or run off. We cannot rely on irrigation or agroforestry alone for sustainability. They create oases in an expanding desert. 

Read on.........