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Climate Change Sounds Death Knelll to Pastoralism

By Michael Tiampati

The frequent droughts, famines, destruction of ecologies and lands and the escalating global temperatures which are as a result of climate change spell disaster to nomadic peoples most of who practice pastoralism.

According to an article by Peter Beaumont appearing on the on The Observer on 7th September 2007, the “African Nomads will be the first people wiped out by climate change”.

This spine chilling reality has been voiced by pastoralists on many occasions and their appeals have largely been ignored. They have become pawns in an insensitive and unscrupulous capitalistic game of profit margins.  In Kenya, this prediction flies in the face of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and the Vision 2030 whose achievement the government of Kenya has committed itself to achieveing in 2015 and 2030 respectively.

It is important to acknowledge the fact that pastoralists have for a long time borne the brunt of other people’s actions. “Development” has been one the major undoing to these herders who reside in the Arid and Semi Arid Lands (ASALs) that constitute about 80% of the Kenyan landmass.  Pastoralists way of the life is characterized by highly developed skills especially on climate and ecology. The key features of pastoralism are animal husbandry, ecological and land management as well as wildlife conservation which are considered “backward” especially by the extractive and destructive commercial oriented ‘development’.

For millennia pastoralists have coexisted with wildlife and the ecology without attempting to destroy them, but in one short millennium the activities and pressures of industrialization and “development” are sounding the death knell of a system of production described by various researchers and scholars as the as the economic practice  of the future. In Africa, the reality is that pastoralists and their way of life continue to be treated in a back handed fashion. Their cultures and resources have continued to be exploited for commercial purposes with little or no benefits even as climate wrecks havoc on their herds and stocks.

The ASALs are characterized by harsh climatic conditions that include high temperatures and lack of water and fodder and going by the United Kingdom Meteorological unit prediction that one third of the planet will be desert by the end of 2100, then there is every reason for this cluster of peoples to raise the red flag.

With the loss of fodder and water sources thanks to climate change, pastoralists are being forced to move to towns-a good example is the Maasai of Kajiado who migrate into Nairobi in search of fodder and water much to the chagrin of city dwellers and the city fathers ostensibly for being a “nuisance”. But these are indicators that the situation in their lands is growing dire with each passing day due to multifaceted challenges that need urgent intervention.
As the future of pastoralists become bleak with each dawning day, development remains indicted. The achievement of the Millennium Development Goals which seek to address some of the challenges confronting mankind from the basic levels shall remain a pipedream to pastoralists should the effects of climate change remain unaddressed. It is the responsibility of the world’s highest carbon emitters to fund intervention mechanisms to spare the innocent by standers such as pastoralists from the perils of industrialization and so called “development”.  

 

Policy prejudices condemn Maasai to a life of dying a little each day

By Michael Tiampati
The Maasai of East Africa are a people that have preserved their social-cultural and economic practices which revolve around livestock keeping and environmental soundness. Their socio-cultural and economic lifestyles have ensured the survival of a wide array of fauna and flora. Today, this friendliness to nature has left their lands with indigenous vegetation and the rolling plains teeming with mighty armies of wild life, which form the foundation of Kenya’s most important foreign exchange earner--tourism industry. Recently, the Maasai Mara Game reserve in the Maasai district of Narok was named in a list of the Seven Wonders of the World by the American Broadcasting Corporation.

Despite the vibrancy of the Maasai pastoralist’s landscapes, the policy environment has greatly undermined the production and wellbeing of these guardians of nature reducing them to a national after-thought. Key among the policies that have continued to disenfranchise the Maasai and indeed other pastoralists revolve around land, natural resources, economic production and ecological management. The agro-centric policy on land ownership, management and production has for one long century compromised Maasai people’s rights to pasture, water and other resources as land forms the foundation of pastoral production.

Hiving off of vast Maasai people’s territories for the creation of National Parks and Game Reserves equally disenfranchised livestock production as these communal lands and resources guaranteed access to both dry and wet season grazing. In addition to depriving the community of pasturelands and such resources as water and saltlicks, this has also greatly hampered mobility in response to the vagaries of nature which enabled pastoralism to thrive for millennia. Mobility is a survival technique that ensured ecological sustainability, livestock health and optimum production.

Insensitivity to the fragile pastoral people’s ecology and failure by colonial and postcolonial ‘development’ policies to recognize the vital role played by Maasai pastoralism has been central to ecological and land degradation as well as spiraling poverty.  Maasai pastoralists are also victims of climate change for no fault of theirs, they are today paying the price unpredictable weather more so the frequent droughts and famines and the Elnino and Lanina phenomena

Home Grown interventions

There is need for homegrown interventions by Maasai themselves and more so the civil society. A great deal of advocacy work has been done thanks to pastoralist NGOs and other development players. This has resulted in discussions for a possible pastoralism policy which if approached in a sober and user friendly manner it would be the start of addressing the myriad challenges confronting pastoralists. NGOs have also been instrumental in alleviating suffering especially in times of drought and famines and in enhancing education and food security. The challenges, shall only be adequately addressed if the underlying twin factors of deliberate social exclusion and marginalization are dealt with conclusively. Failure to take this approach will render all current efforts a pipe dream and subject the people to living each day at time in the hope that tomorrow brings a new ray of hope.