Participatory Rangeland Management Project (PRM)

Piloting the use of Participatory Rangeland Management Project (PRM) is a multi-year project which has been in implementation since December 2017 in Kenya and Tanzania. The project is funded by the European Union through ILC, and it aims at improving the livelihoods and food security of pastoralists and agro-pastoralists in the context of competing land demands in rangelands which mostly result to rangeland degradation. Locally, the project is implemented by two members of ILC – RECONCILE in Kenya and Tanzania Natural Resource Forum (TNRF) in Tanzania in collaboration with various local and national government agencies.

The project sets out to:

• Develop and strengthen collaborative and supporting partnerships with a common vision of improving the tenure security of rangelands users.
• Identify, develop and/or scale-up innovative initiatives that can assist governments and other actors in implementing enabling policies for securing tenure rights, reducing conflicts, and prompting the inclusive management of rangelands for higher productivity
• Share experiences and lessons learned with and between different actors, in order to further influence the securing of rangelands resources.

By working together with national government ministries, local governments, non-governmental organisations, the civil society, and other stakeholders- PRM interventions are improving tenure security in all eight project pilot sites, contributing to securing over 246,770 hectares of rangelands, with 85,629 ha in Kenya and 161,144 ha in Tanzania.

Equally important, women participation went much higher in rangelands governance and management thanks to PRM and intra-communal conflicts and conflicts among farmers and pastoralists got reduced in PRM intervention areas.

With support from CELEP, ILRI and ILC, PRM approach, as per the experience of Tanzania and Kenya, was promoted and recognized as participatory process of planning and management of rangelands that starts from communities and align support from government and outside agencies to community drive.

Fostering Local and National Government Involvement and Buy-In

The participation of both local and national governments in PRM processes have allowed it to influence pastoralist and rangelands related policy developments in Kenya and Tanzania, namely the County Spatial Planning (CSP) Guidelines for Monitoring and Oversight, County Spatial Planning in Pastoral Areas annex toolkits for the mapping in Kenya; and the Grazing Lands and Feed Resources Act (2010) and guidelines for joint village land use planning (JVLUP) in Tanzania.

There is a high degree of involvement from county governments- especially in the Isiolo, Marsabit and Samburu counties in Kenya, where awareness-raising campaigns on the implementation of the Community Land Act (2016) were conducted utilising the PRM formulated County Spatial Planning Toolkit. As a result, the Samburu County developed a rangelands management policy, while the Baringo County amended a spatial plan to incorporate over mention to pastoralism and pasturelands. In 2020, RECONCILE was further requested to provide inputs to the National Forest Policy as a result of their efforts in advocating for the inclusion of a PRM approach in the management of forest resources in Kenya.

Restoring Intercommunal Peace in Kenya and Tanzania

Communities with a history of frequent and violent clashes have reduced conflicts as a result of the project’s Rangelands Committees and Associations taking a lead in conflict resolution dialogues. These dialogues bring together rival communities, represented by their elders, to discuss mitigation measures in order to foster peaceful community access to grazing lands.The project also provides trainings on conflict resolution and management.

In Baringo County, Kenya, the project established a committee of 20 elders to mitigate the violent conflicts between the Tugen and Pokot peoples with the participation of the Assistant County Commissioner that has fortified the general stability of the area.

In Tanzania, the involvement of decision-makers has improved the efficiency of the legal land demarcation processes through Certificates of Customary Rights of Occupancy (CCROs), which have solidified intercommunal agreement on the classification of grazing and farming lands and provided a sustainable approach to minimising conflicts while fostering a sense of community ownership.

Gender Justice: Ensuring Women’s Leadership in Rangelands Management Structures

In East Africa, the role of pastoral women in livelihood development is seldom recognised and women, as well as the youth, often remain excluded from decision-making processes. PRM integrates a gender mainstreaming approach in its activities, including a gender-sensitive baseline quota for rangelands management committees at a minimum of 35 percent; to date, this figure is at an average of 45% percent.

The project has also helped change community perspectives regarding the role of women in securing livelihoods. In the Koitegan community in Kenya, women are now able to access and use natural resources by engaging in beekeeping- a practice that has historically been regarded as an activity reserved for the male population.

Alliance Building and Linkages with Relevant Actors

PRM processes strengthen existing initiatives on rangelands management and pastoralism in Eastern Africa formulated by international organisations- namely the Coalition of European Lobbies for Eastern African Pastoralism (CELEP), the European Union (EU), the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), and USAID. In the OLENGAPA and ALLOLE clusters in Tanzania, PRM has strong linkages with the Sustainable Rangelands Management Project (SRMP) implemented by ILRI and supported by IFAD.