Unrecognized opportunities for pastoral tenure: Re-framing variability, mobility, and flexibility for practitioners and scholars
Kramer Gillin
Department of Geography, University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA
Among scholars and practitioners involved with land tenure in pastoral areas, there has existed a tension between the benefits of clearly established property rights and the dynamic land access needs of pastoralist communities. In describing the institutional demands of pastoral mobility, those advocating for pastoralist communities often explain that the climatic variability of pastoral areas necessitates flexible property arrangements. The seemingly inherent incompatibility of formal registration and clear boundaries, on the one hand, with flexible access rights, on the other, is the crux of the problem of pastoral property rights. This paper clarifies the often conflated concepts of unpredictability vs. variability and mobility vs. flexibility. While climatic variability and livestock mobility are intrinsic to pastoral systems, the relevance of “uncertainty” and flexibility are context specific. Looking for predictability can help form the basis of institutionally viable tenure arrangements that meet the livelihood demands of pastoralists.
Event: Annual World Bank Conference on Land and Poverty 2019
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