Enclosures in West Pokot, Kenya - Transforming land, livestock and livelihoods in drylands

Abstract

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populations and associated pressure on water and land. Based on a combination of social and natural science
methods, we studied a 30-year transformation process from pastoralism to a livestock-based agro-pastoral system
in northwestern Kenya, with the overall aim to increase the understanding of the ongoing transition towards
intensified agro-pastoralist production systems in dryland East Africa.
Key to this transformation was the use of enclosures for land rehabilitation, fodder production, and land and livestock
management. Enclosures have more soil carbon and a higher vegetation cover than adjacent areas with open grazing.
The level of adoption of enclosures as a management tool has been very high, and their use has enabled agricultural
diversification, e.g. increased crop agriculture, poultry production and the inclusion of improved livestock. Following the
use of enclosures, livelihoods have become less dependent on livestock migration, are increasingly directed towards
agribusinesses and present new opportunities and constraints for women. These livelihood changes are closely associated
with, and depend on, an ongoing privatization of land under different tenure regimes.
The results indicate that the observed transformation provides opportunities for a pathway towards a sustainable
livestock-based agro-pastoral system that could be valid in many dryland areas in East Africa. However, we also show that
emergent risks of conflicts and inequalities in relation to land, triggered by the weakening of collective property rights,
pose a threat to the sustainability of this pathway