Resource information
This case study, conducted in north Afar pastoral settlements in Ethiopia, explores pastoral natural resource management as well as indigenous conflict management.Main findings of the study include:the pattern of natural resource management has shown dramatic changes in 4-5 decades time, eroding traditional strategies of pastoral resource management; and this is caused mainly by the encroachment of cultivation and human population pressuregrazing reserves once used to sustain pastoral livelihood during drought periods are no longer widely used by community. Customary laws that were effective means of ensuring sound use of grazing reserves are weakened by the creation of incompatible administration system and recurrent droughttransformation in government support of pastoral natural resource management is an essential component of sound pastoral natural resource management and this needs to devolve decision-making responsibility to grassroots indigenous institutionsintra-community conflicts of the Afar heightened with a change in land use system from nomadic pastoralism to settled agriculture. These conflicts, however, have been declining, which is mainly due to the increased economic interdependence and crosscutting ties as well as the growing power balance between the two communities the Afar have local assemblies through which inter-clan conflicts are sorted out and thoroughly addressed. Together with highland communities, they have also acquired a long-standing tradition of settling inter-community disputes through a joint institution these traditional dispute settlement mechanisms have symbiotic relations with modern governmental administrative and legal machinerya merger and further integration of the traditional and the modern systems is recommendedNGOs and development agents can also play a pivotal role by creating a conducive environment for inter-community socio-economic integration through community based development interventions.
