This document reports the results of a small meeting of social scientists from ILCA and IFPRI held at ILCA. The workshop was conceived to summarize the results of studies previously conducted by ILCA and others, to identify priorities for future research; to provide guidance for future research - problems, methodology, locations, and resource requirements, and to consider specific proposals for future research and evaluate the areas of complementarity and/or overlap with other past or current projects.

Livestock are important assets to the rural poor in developing countries but are faced with the major challenge of marked seasonal feed availability. A study was carried out to assess existing and potential feed resources and constraints to livestock production in Southern part of Mali. A feed assessment tool was used to collect necessary data. The assessment included focus group discussions and individual interviews.

There is growing evidence of escalating wildlife losses worldwide. Extreme wildlife losses have recently been documented for large parts of Africa, including western, Central and Eastern Africa. Here, we report extreme declines in wildlife and contemporaneous increase in livestock numbers in Kenya rangelands between 1977 and 2016. Our analysis uses systematic aerial monitoring survey data collected in rangelands that collectively cover 88% of Kenya’s land surface. Our results show that wildlife numbers declined on average by 68% between 1977 and 2016.

Since September 1993, ILCA and IFPRI have been engaged in a discussion about the most important, researchable, issues in the area of property rights. A concept note has been developed for collaborative research on the evolution of resource use and property institutions under risk. The starting point or framework was the Boserup, McIntire (and others) model of gradual intensification. This model has been used in documents such as the Winrock Assessment of Animal Agriculture to predict paths of future development and recommend research to facilitate that development.