SCOUTING THE BEST WAY FORWARD

The CLIMATE ADAPTATION FUND began providing support to projects which had been prioritised and developed by ward-level adaptation planning committees. In four of Isiolo's rural wards, the committees chose to allocate £66,234 to incrementally enhancing the local customary methods of managing grazing resources.

Strengthening these local adaptation systems is a 'low regret' adaptation approach because it helps pastoralists to cope more effectively with dry conditions in the short term, while also enabling them to increase their resilience to future dry seasons and droughts.

Scouting the best way forward

Customary practices for modulating water use and grazing patterns between the wet and dry seasons in the Eastern rural parts of Isiolo County are based on continuous monitoring and observation of the natural resource conditions. This can be difficult to organise when grazing areas are remote from towns and villages.

It requires local associations to select, train and coordinate young people as scouts, review the information that they collect, and make decisions about when and how to use the dry season grazing areas and drought reserves. This task can be complicated by the circulation of pastoralists from different areas, including some who may not recognise the local scouts and grazing patterns.

The video below shows how the Isiolo County Adaptation Fund has helped communities in Isiolo revive customary ways of managing access to land and water.

The CAF provided support for local associations to host meetings with pastoralists from neighbouring counties and to purchase mobile phones and motorbikes that youths could use to monitor the remote grazing areas and water points.

In light of this, the associations increased the frequency of their coordination meetings. They developed resource surveillance strategies, including rules for responsible use of the monitoring equipment, responded to reports on resource conditions and some took charge of the management of watering points.

A worthwhile investment

The elders paid from their own pockets to host their meetings, hire vehicles, and support the youths during their scouting expeditions. When all of the associations across the Eastern wards of Isiolo added up how much they had invested in these activities over the long dry season of 2014, the amount was five times the funds that they had initially received from the CAF. However, when they considered the benefits, they concluded that it was well worth their investment.

During a series of participatory assessment workshops held at the end of dry season in 2014, local association members from Garba Tulla, Sericho, Merti, and Kinna wards debated how many livestock would have died had it not been for their effective stewardship of the dry season grazing areas and drought reserves.

They also noted that because the reserves had ensured the continuous availability of pasture and water in their areas, their animals had not grown weak and ceased to provide milk during the dry season, but had instead given birth and kept households supplied with milk.
 
Individuals also identified other immediate direct and tangible benefits from local natural resource stewardship relating to improvements in the condition of vegetation and levels of regrowth, improvements in soil quality, and in the water balance. These ensured that the ecosystem remained a source of the "services" the local community depended upon, including food, water and fibre for human use, as well as wildlife, seedbanks, germination, and other benefits.

There were also immediate indirect impacts on consumption, mobility and the wider economy. Less tangible benefits, such as enhanced family and social cohesion, reduced conflict and insecurity, strengthened local associations and even an increase in the political status of the local associations were also reported.