Pastoralists in East Africa are engaging in conservation and tourism to supplement their livestock-based livelihoods and spread risk. This journal article, by Claire Bedelian and Joseph O. Ogutu, and published in ‘Pastoralism: Research, Policy and Practice’, uses a mixed set of qualitative and quantitative data to explore how involvement in conservation and tourism in Kenya may be enhancing, or restricting, climate-resilient pastoral livelihoods.
The research examines some of the livelihood trade-offs pastoralists must make when participating in conservancies, and the mechanisms through which they manage their livestock herds to cope with shrinking ranges. The results can help to inform conservation and tourism investments to better serve as livelihood opportunities that maintain, and enhance, pastoral resilience.