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Chapter 3 The importance of addressing risk 93
recognition of the territorial entitlements of indigenous and tribal peoples.
Community-based approaches to rangeland management have also been the focus of
much innovation and public support in recent years, with a view to addressing risks
related to natural resource degradation, water stress, conflict and adaptation to climate
change (see box 4). In such contexts, the existence of clear economic incentives
(e.g. through improved veterinary and breeding services) for poor households to
participate in improved management of natural resources is also important, and so
is institutional change towards more inclusive governance.
Increasingly it is being realized that some types of common property resources
can provide important environmental services. There is a rapidly expanding range of
schemes making payments for environmental services such as biodiversity functions,
carbon sequestration, landscape beauty and watershed functions; common property
resources such as forests and grazing lands can greatly contribute to these.
Participation in such schemes can strengthen the ability of communities to manage
risks related to environmental changes – including climate change – through better
adaptation and more resilient practices. However, as we will discuss in chapter 5, in
order for poor rural people to participate in such schemes, some of the challenges they
face also need to be mitigated, notably by securing their land entitlements and by
strengthening their capabilities.
BOX 4 Community-based rangeland management in Morocco
In 1995, more than 12 per cent of rangelands in
Morocco were degraded, and it was realized that
if this was not addressed, rangeland degradation
would jeopardize the livelihood of millions of
pastoral households. It was in this context that
an IFAD-supported project in Eastern Morocco
sought to develop a community-based rangeland
management approach in an area covering
four communes with 3 million hectares and a
population of about 58,000 people.
The project approach was based on five principles:
(a) taking rural communes and tribal affiliation as
the two bases for the creation of cooperatives;
(b) reorganizing tribal institutions into pastoral
management cooperatives responsible for choosing
technology options and managing their resources;
(c) requiring tribal members to purchase ‘social
shares’ in the cooperatives to access cooperative
services and improved pastures; (d) supporting
pastoralist mobility through new, flexible livestock
management systems; and (e) engaging in
consensual decision-making processes.
Through the project, 44 cooperatives were
created, involving 9,000 households in 15 rural
communes. The project had a positive impact
on the environment – by increasing dry matter
from 150 kilograms to 800 kilograms per hectare;
on the nomadic pastoral system – by reducing
transhumance to shorter distances; and on
animal health – by delivering health and veterinary
services. Critically, government technical institutions
supported a process that reduced their control
over the development of rangelands. Today, all new
range development efforts in Morocco are being
implemented using this approach, which is also
being adopted by other countries in the region.
Source: IFAD, IFPRI and ICARDA (2004)