Landscape Management and Governance, Gomole Rangeland, Ethiopia

Abstract

The key pillars of development plans for most developing nations are poverty eradication, sustainable economic growth and environmental sustainability. On one hand, scholars are arguing that natural resources are fundamental for improving livelihoods and achieving sustainable development. On the other hand, how best to manage natural resources to improve livelihoods, reduce poverty and advance economic growth sustainably remains an elusive goal and daunting challenge for research, education, development practices, community actions and policy. An array of causative factors—inappropriate development policy and development interventions, political marginalization, lack of communal land rights, rangeland fragmentation, weakening of customary institution pertinent to NRM, derivative effects of the changing climate coupled with the mismanagement of natural resources driven conflict among neighboring pastoral groups—have now combined to compromise the viability of Borana pastoral livelihoods for the past three to four decades. The International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) and the Pastoralist Areas Resilience Improvement through Market Expansion (PRIME) project have recognized that some of these approaches might work while some may not. PRIME has been working to design its activities in a way that is informed by research and that reflects an appreciation for the integration of the different dimensions of sustainability, resilience improvement and livelihoods through market expansion.