Abstract:
Pastoralism has been under pressure due to a number of factors including climate
change, population pressure, cattle population, and socioeconomic dynamism. These
factors have affected the customary institutions in managing rangeland. The aims of this
study is to assessing of the customary practice on rangeland management problems and
prospects to explore guiding strategies of pastoral community in exercising their
institution for pastureland management. Data were collected through questionnaires,
focus group discussions (FGD), interviews with key informants, and field observation.
The study revealed that Liban pastoralists‟ customary rule and experiences their strength
and weaknesses of customary institution perceived threat to pastoral communal land, the
influence of the state policy in altering pastoral relations over resource use. Insights
from interview and discussion have revealed that customary institution used to play a
vital role in communal rangeland management.
This study identified specific tasks
performed by Liban District (Gujii_Borena) pastoralist customary authorities at different
levels emphasizing how rules are defined and enforced and who does what in the
customary governance system in grazing rangeland management. As a result, study area
pastoralists to cope with drought stress use various adaptive strategies such as
haymaking and herd division. The Administration and over all rangeland management
as the role of customary authorities in communal land management have put a great
strain in the pastoral production system and eventually may even undermine the pastoral
livelihoods in drought stressed ecosystems of the study area. In addition, the relationship
between Kebele leaders and customary authorities are non-cooperative. This finding
suggest that to effectively exploit the role of customary practice and better manage
rangeland, the territorial unit for certification should be to grazing zone („Dheeda
Reera‟) right to secure communal rangeland and this pastoral area strongly dictate the
need for legal recognition of customary institution.
Key words:-Customary, Rangeland, Pastoralist, Management, and Governance