Ambivalence and contradiction: a review of the policy environment in Tanzania in relation to pastoralism.

How pastoralist livelihoods can be supported and enhanced

How can pastoralist livelihoods be supported and enhanced? What aspects of the current policy environment can be built on?

Tanzania is undergoing a rapid pace of policy change and reforms which will affect different communities in different ways. This publication reviews the often contradictory and sometimes ill-informed array of policies which currently have direct impact on prospects for pastoralism in Tanzania. It notes that relevant policies enshrine quite different notions of the benefits and drawbacks of pastoral systems, and that negative perceptions regarding livestock mobility and the migration of pastoralists to new territories are particularly prevalent.

This paper argues that:

Mobility is key to pastoralist strategies for efficient resource management, climate vulnerability reduction and livestock disease management.

The consistent view that pastoral system productivity needs to be increased by a modernisation process involving securing the tenure of pastoral land for pastoralists threatens this mobility.|Some policies, however, like the National Strategy for Growth and Reduction of Poverty (NSGRP) offer better prospects for pastoralists by acknowledging pastoralism as a sustainable livelihood. The publication recommends that:

Pastoralists should seize such opportunities to encourage the government to enforce elements of policy and legislation supportive of pastoralist livelihoods, while also lobbying against those policies which are not working in their favour.

Dialogue should centre on how the proposals in the NSGRP can be translated into action by the different ministries and given legal force.

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Ambivalence and contradiction: a review of the policy environment in Tanzania in relation to pastoralism.