When Pastoral Commons Are Privatised: Resource Deprivation and Changes in Land Tenure Systems among the Karrayu in the Upper Awash Valley Region of Ethiopia

Abstract

"Owing to the physical geography of the region they inhabit, the subsistence base of the Karrayu is heavily dependent on nomadic pastoralism and exploitation of natural resources, marked by spatial and seasonal variations. Nevertheless, the traditional migratory pastoral mode of existence has come under increasing pressure over the last half century particularly from the ever expanding and 'disempowering' development interventions in the region such as large-scale agricultural enterprises and conservation schemes. In response to changing circumstances and resulting pressures, the Karrayu in certain neighbourhoods have tended to sedentarise and take up farming. The fundamental changes have to do with the growth of agriculture and the associated changes in land tenure mainly in better- watered areas and at certain locations along the banks of the Awash River which are suitable for irrigated agriculture. The implication of the shift is that changes have also taken place in the traditional mode of pastoralism and the pattern of land use. Hence, the inhabitants of neighbourhoods in Abadir and Gelcha areas now exploit privately enclosed land for agriculture and controlled grazing, rather than the customary communally held ranges. With the process of land privatising underway, the well-watered sections of these neighbourhoods have almost entirely been enclosed and held by individual herdsmen. In the light of the forgoing, this paper attempts to examine the process of transformation of the traditional resource tenural arrangements and its various implications for Karrayu pastoral adaptations."