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AEGIS European Conference on African Studies
11 - 14 July 2007
African Studies Centre, Leiden, The Netherlands
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Resilience on the edge: Socio-ecological challenges to pastoral livelihood security in Afar region/Ethiopia
| Panel |
77. Conceptualizing natural hazards, risks and resilience in Africa
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| Paper ID | 117 |
| Author(s) |
Rettberg, Simone
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| Paper |
No paper submitted
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| Abstract | This paper is based on an empirical research in Afar, an arid lowland region of Northeast Ethiopia, which highlights the complex interplay of multiple risk factors in a historic-dynamic perspective and the critical development towards a socio-ecologic collapse. In a context of political and economic marginalization of pastoralists violent conflicts on different spatial levels overlap with processes of institutional and socio-economic destabilization as well as ecological degradation and drought.
The study area Baadu used to be a preferential area for Afar pastoralists in the past due to its abundant grazing opportunities along the Awash river. But especially within the last 30 years Baadu faced extreme changes due to recurrent droughts, floods, the expansion of invasive plant species, the expansion of external interventions (irrigation agriculture, settlement projects etc.) and increasing conflicts with Somali-pastoralists and the state. Many of these factors contributed to an enormous loss of pasture areas and a restrained mobility resulting in a severely increased vulnerability to drought and livelihood insecurity for large parts of the pastoral population. Therefore the study shows how famine crises and the capacity to cope with these crises are embedded into larger processes of socio-political change.
Main focus of the presentation will be the analysis of the differentiated answers of pastoral actors to these challenges in terms of adaptability. Pastoralism in the past was a highly resilient livelihood system with strong collective agency which again contributed to its resilience, the capacity of the pastoral clan societies as whole to bounce back from destabilizing events/processes. In the current situation the pastoral livelihood system seems to become more and more fragmented for which the breakdown of traditional institutions and the increase of non-pastoral coping strategies are an indicator. Especially the significance of strong local institutions in order to stabilize a socio-ecological system under pressure will be analyzed in this context.
Different livelihood pathways will be examined, tracing back (changing) coping strategies to deal with livelihood insecurity and their successes/failures to do so. The question is why some groups transform their livelihoods while others still hold on to pastoralism even under very marginal conditions. Trade-offs between the increasing vulnerability of some groups for the sake of the resilience of the clan will be discussed as well as the other way around. Finally it is questioned how the local capacity to cope with crisis situations interacts with and is influenced by external interventions in order to stabilize pastoral livelihood systems in Afar region.
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