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