Pastoralists’ use of income diversification as a strategy for adapting to social-ecological change in Samburu, Kenya

Lenaiyasa, Michael Lugard; Bruyere, Brett L.; Salerno, Jonathan; Pickering, Tomas

doi:10.1007/s10113-020-01612-x

Cited by 10 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 30 publications

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“…Other activities include sand harvesting, used, for example, by young schooled people in Laikipia North subcounty in Kenya, to replace or complement pastoralism [74]. In Samburu, some pastoralists increased their herds, while others used income diversification as a strategy or switched to completely non-herding options such as casual labour, tourism, charcoal or murram sales, family remits or government assistance [75]. In lower eastern Kenya, irrigated maize and in situ water conservation measures are seen as the most effective adaptation strategies [76].…”

Section: Plos Climatementioning

confidence: 99%

Facing old and new risks in arid environments: The case of pastoral communities in Northern Kenya

Schilling,

Werland

2023

PLOS Clim

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Pastoralism is an important form of livelihood in Kenya, particularly in northern Kenya. While pastoralists have always faced risks such as political marginalization, harsh climate conditions and violent conflict, pastoral communities are increasingly exposed to new risks such as wildlife conservancies as well as large-scale wind and oil projects. The growing climate security literature has provided some insights into how changing rainfall patterns are affecting pastoralist conflicts, but we know little about the compound nature of multiple risks. This paper seeks to narrow this knowledge gap. It aims to better understand new and old risks and their combined impact on pastoral communities in the counties of Turkana, Samburu and Marsabit. The study is based on a comprehensive and structured review of the scientific literature. The findings show that all pastoral communities in northern Kenya face the old risks while the newer ones are county-specific. In Turkana, potential oil spills threaten land and water resources upon which pastoralist communities depend. In Samburu, wildlife conservancies have changed the land-use system, and in Marsabit a pastoral community is exposed to noise and visible emissions from a wind park. Common to these risks are that they: (1) are caused by top-down governance processes with little to no community involvement; (2) reduce the mobility and access to water and pasture of (some) pastoral communities; (3) change the security situation. A rethinking of wildlife conservancies and energy projects is needed that involves pastoral communities from the outset and makes them the primary beneficiaries of any measure implemented in northern Kenya.

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Section: Plos Climatementioning

confidence: 99%

Facing old and new risks in arid environments: The case of pastoral communities in Northern Kenya

Schilling,

Werland

2023

PLOS Clim

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Formal education as a contested pastoral adaptation pathway: insights from southern Kenya

Marty

2024

Reg Environ Change

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In dryland pastoral environments, political and geographical marginalization has historically led to development strategies that poorly account for individual and communities’ spatial and socio-economic realities. These development legacies, including long-standing epistemic biases in defining what should be adapted, are often insufficiently considered within adaptation research and practice. This article sets out to analyze the historical emergence and enactment of formal education as a contested adaptation pathway in southern Kenya. For this, I combine the strengths of the historically situated analyses of the pathways scholarship and feminist political ecology’s attention to the performance of intersectional relations of power in everyday livelihood practices. I bring together both archival data and qualitative primary data from focus group discussions (n = 16) and individual interviews (n = 122) conducted in three pastoral communities. The results exemplify the ways that non-climatic factors, such as increased formal school enrolment, (re)shape everyday livelihood practices and social aspirations, molding the current adaptation space. Notably, enacting formal education as an adaptation pathway requires one to navigate increasing cash pressures, mobility, and labor constraints. Wealth disparities, gendered norms, and geographies intersect to shape patterns of vulnerability, with poorer pastoralists residing further away from school centers facing difficult trade-offs on their time and resources. Understanding pathways enactments contributes to problematizing current logics of development and adaptation needs, while yielding important information on socio-spatial differentiation processes in pastoral systems. It also opens the space for further research to use these critical insights to identify alternative adaptation pathways that support more just transformations towards sustainability.

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Pastoral coping and adaptation climate change strategies: Implications for women's well-being

Walker

Bruyere

Solomon

et al. 2022

Journal of Arid Environments

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Pastoralists’ use of income diversification as a strategy for adapting to social-ecological change in Samburu, Kenya

Cited by 10 publications

References 30 publications

Facing old and new risks in arid environments: The case of pastoral communities in Northern Kenya

Facing old and new risks in arid environments: The case of pastoral communities in Northern Kenya

Formal education as a contested pastoral adaptation pathway: insights from southern Kenya

Pastoral coping and adaptation climate change strategies: Implications for women's well-being

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