While it features real solutions, final content will undergo review by a technical working group and incorporate feedback from a validation workshop planned for December 2020. Please see these as examples only, and not a definitive list.
Solution /Innovation:

Participatory Rangeland Management (PRM)

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Organization:

International Livestock Research Institute

For more information:

Technical contact:
Fiona-Flintan.jpgFiona Flintan 300x300
Ms. Fiona Flintan
Senior Scientist - Rangelands Governance Specialist, Sustainable Livestock Systems
International Livestock Research Institute
f.flintan@cgiar.org
More info, related website links:

https://rangelandsinitiative.org/piloting-use-participatory-rangeland-management-prm-kenya-and-tanzania
https://cgspace.cgiar.org/handle/10568/106017
Categories:
Camel, Dairy, Frameworks and tools, One Health, Other breed, Pig, Policy, Poultry, Red meat, and Sustainable production
Has been implemented in:
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Ethiopia, Kenya, and Tanzania
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Challenge

Rangelands are a particular and important landscape, associated with dryland areas and where extensive livestock production (pastoralism) is carried out. Temporal and spatial climatic variability, particularly rainfall, results in a landscape of patchily distributed resources. Mobility of people and livestock is key to the sustainable use of these landscapes. To function well, rangelands require wet and dry season grazing, permanent and non-permanent water points. In many cases dry season grazing areas with permanent water access e.g. along rivers, have been excised and converted to crop farming. This has threatened the functioning of the whole rangelands system.  Historically, these lands have been marginalised from development and investment. Though this has changed in recent years, the challenge now is that the development and investment must be appropriate, and not threaten the functionality of the pastoral system that has a comparative advantage in these areas. As pastoralists have struggled to keep up with new challenges such as inappropriate investment, their governance structures have weakened – this has led to a lack of control over grazing access amongst other, often resulting in over-grazing and rangeland degradation. There is a lack of incentives and/or knowledge on how to reverse such degradation and restore the rangelands to their previous if not, more productive, state.

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Solution

Participatory rangeland management (PRM) is a process of planning and management of rangelands, led by communities. Government, development actors and/or rangeland experts can be facilitators. It is a landscape level approach, that has the potential to provide for multiple use for multiple users. A high level of community participation and commitment is key to the success of PRM: communities must feel complete ownership over the process and have strong incentives to implement the plan(s) made.
PRM is made up of three key stages: Understanding, Planning and Implementation. The process commences with participatory data collection on the rangelands and natural resources found there, as well as who are the users of these resources, their status and how are they governed. The next step is to define the appropriate unit for rangeland management (such as a traditional grazing area) with the community and other stakeholders. This is followed by the strengthening or setting-up of a governing community association or institution for this unit. Once in place, a rangeland management plan (RMP) will be developed based on an in-depth rangeland inventory and community action planning. Access to resources is improved through the drawing up of a legally binding rangeland management agreement between the community and local government, with rules and regulations (by-laws) defined, based on the RMP. Capacity is built to implement the plan. More information on the process can be found here.
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Impact

PRM has contributed to an improvement in management and governance of rangelands in terms of structures, presence and engagement with multi-stakeholders. This has been an important step in a context of increasing lack of management of rangelands, and an increasing number of multiple stakeholders and interests. PRM has contributed to a strengthening of the commitment to rangeland management processes and activities, roles and responsibilities and has discouraged dependency on external assistance. Moreover, spaces have been created through PRM where people who have been empowered with knowledge can come together and discuss, share and generate meaningful information deemed important by them.

PRM has been shown to improve collective ways of working and management, and reduce the trends towards individualization of resource use, management and ‘ownership.’ PRM can provide opportunities for a better valuing of women’s knowledge and role in rangeland management, improving women’s understanding of NRM challenges and potential solutions, and increasing women’s participation in decision-making processes. The results of review of PRM can be found here.
PRM has been implemented across Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania and Mongolia. With the upcoming UN Decade of Ecosystem Restoration being launched in 2021, sustainable rangeland management solutions such as PRM are key for reversing rangeland degradation and restoring, even increasing productivity.

Category

Camel, Dairy, Frameworks and tools, One Health, Other breed, Pig, Policy, Poultry, Red meat, and Sustainable production

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