Grazing management strategies tend to have different effects on rangeland plant production. Changes in grazing management can, therefore, affect the carbon stock potential of rangelands. Despite rangeland ecosystems being important global sinks for carbon, we know relatively little about the effect of traditional grazing management practices on their potential to store carbon. In this study, we evaluated the carbon stock and change rate of rangelands using three traditional grazing management practices in the semiarid pastoral ecosystem of eastern Ethiopia. By comparing data on vegetation and soil carbon stocks, we found that there was a strong significant difference (p < 0.001) between these different management practices. In particular, the establishment of enclosures was associated with an annual increase in carbon stocks of soil (3%) and woody (11.9%) and herbaceous (57.6%) biomass, when compared to communal open lands. Both enclosure and browsing management practices were found to have the highest levels of soil organic carbon stocks, differing only in terms of the amount of woody and herbaceous biomass. Thus, modest changes in traditional grazing management practices can play an important role in carbon storage and sequestration. Further research is required on a wider range of traditional pastoral management practices across space and time, as understanding these processes is key to combating global climate change.

Pastoralist grazing management practices play a vital role in maintaining rangeland productivity and biodiversity. However, the degradation of rangelands and loss of ecosystem services have raised concerns about the future of pastoralism as a form of land use. Despite their importance, we have limited knowledge about the effect of traditional grazing management practices on vegetation attributes, such as species composition, richness, diversity, herbage biomass, and density, and canopy cover. To address this knowledge gap, we studied the changes in vegetation attributes under three traditional grazing management practices in the Somali pastoral ecosystem of Ethiopia. We found a significant difference in herbaceous and woody vegetation attributes among the grazing management practices (p < 0.001). Enclosures supported higher herbaceous species diversity and abundance of desirable species, such as Chloris gayana, Chrysopogon aucheri, Cynodon dactylon, and Themeda triandera, compared to open grazing and browsing management sites. The herbage biomass was three times higher in enclosures than in open grazing and twice higher than in browsing management practices. However, browsing management practices supported significantly higher levels of wood biomass, density, and canopy cover than the other management practices. Our results suggest that transitioning from open grazing to the enclosure and browsing management practices can lead to higher plant productivity, which supports the local pastoral economy in the Somali rangeland of Ethiopia. Thus, dryland restoration programs should consider traditional indigenous knowledge for ensuring the sustainability of future rangeland productivity and biodiversity conservation.