Pastoralist futures in Africa a balance between traditions and opportunities

ILRI's Augustine Ayantunde reflects on the recent conference in Addis Ababa on the future of pastoralism in Africa. He draws attention to the two major conference strands - on one side, the optimists, on the other 'doom and gloom.' One thing is clear, it is not really possible to generalise across regions. He concludes by suggesting that the future will lie in pastoralist communities being able to take advantage of present opportunities while also taking care of their traditions. The Addis Ababa conference (21-23 March 2011) was organized by the Future Agricultures Consortium with Tufts University