Regional Rangelands and Pastoralism Resilience is a Pastoralist Tenure Project funded by the Home Planet Fund through Rights and Resource Initiative with the focus to Build effective governance systems and frameworks to secure resilient pastoralism and rangelands in East Africa. The project recognizes Pastoralism as an adaptive livelihood that not only maximizes the resources in the ASALs but also fusses culture with the natural landscape thus promoting ecological integrity. It requires secure land and natural rights for sustainability.

Other initiatives that have been brought together by this regional resilience project include Coalition of European Lobbies for Eastern African pastoralism (CELEP), the platform for advocacy and awareness of the International Year of Rangelands and Pastoralists. The platforms strengthened are very in monitoring and advocating pastoralists customary land tenure and resource rights as well as issues of Indigenous Peoples and policy issues. This has contributed to regional learning and experience sharing through case studies and good practices through documentation and documentaries.

This approach therefore is designed to have pastoralists and indigenous Peoples issues prioritized and to address challenges policy and governance, land and natural resource management sustainable development of rangelands through participatory planning, and to create an enabling environment for functional, healthy and productive sustainable pastoralism and rangelands management across East Africa.

Objectives

Legal training on customary tenure rights: Emerging jurisprudence on customary tenure rights in EA

The training sought to enhance litigation strategies for legal practitioners in the Indigenous People’s space, both at the national and international level.
At the International level, the training focused on litigation before the East African Court of Justice (EACJ) and the African Court on Human and Peoples Rights (ACHPR).
The training laid a basis for the identification of opportunities and barriers that affects the Indigenous People from fully enjoying their rights under various regional and international instruments.

Opportunities

The need to write a paper titled: “EACJ @20Initiative: to engage Indigenous People’s Perspectives” in a broader discussion about the “EACJ@20: The Role of the East African Court of Justice to promote a People-centered Integration: Challenges and Prospects

  • Regional Advocacy
  • Consolidation and dissemination of knowledge products for learning across countries
  • Consolidating country level experiences and voices into a regional compendium for learning and showcasing good practices for upscale

Identification and establishment of country-level CSO innovation and dialogue working group. ​

Nomination of a country lead to facilitate and documentation of the agreed case study. ​

Outputs

  • Groups established and first engagement undertaken in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania.​
  • Lead facilitator/consultant identified. ​
  • Identify and agree on a case for documentation and a possible road map for undertaking the exercise . ​
  • A list of cases identified and steps for documentation agreed with timelines