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From Poverty to Power Green, Oxfam 2008 - weman

From Poverty to Power Green, Oxfam 2008 - weman

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FROM POVERTY TO POWERLike Australia’s aborigines, or Canada’s Inuit, pas<strong>to</strong>ralists weresubject <strong>to</strong> deliberate attempts <strong>to</strong> undermine their lifestyle and culture.According <strong>to</strong> a recent Human Rights Watch report, the government ofUganda continues <strong>to</strong> flout the rights of pas<strong>to</strong>ral communities through‘unlawful killings, <strong>to</strong>rture and ill-treatment, arbitrary detention, andtheft and destruction of property’. 118PASTORALISTS AS CITIZENSMaking up a small proportion of the national population in any givencountry, and living in remote areas, pas<strong>to</strong>ralists often lack the powerand space <strong>to</strong> organise themselves effectively. Pas<strong>to</strong>ral voices are notheard; local associations are often weak and frequently are co-optedby powerful elites. However, pas<strong>to</strong>ralists are getting organised. Laws orcharters have been passed in several countries that formally recognisepas<strong>to</strong>ralism and provide a better institutional framework for themanagement of rangelands. 119 Many of these laws recognise theimportance of mobility <strong>to</strong> the pas<strong>to</strong>ral system – Mali’s pas<strong>to</strong>ral charterdevotes a whole chapter <strong>to</strong> it.An example from Senegal in 2005 illustrates some of the importantfaultlines in debates over pas<strong>to</strong>ralism and shows what can be achievedthrough mobilisation. The country’s President Wade announced onradio that he was going <strong>to</strong> sell off 3,000 hectares of the ‘Doli ranch’ forpeanut production. This area was a key dry-season grazing area anddrought refuge which, although called a ranch, was actually under thecontrol of resident lives<strong>to</strong>ck herders. Following failed meetingsbetween the prime minister and lives<strong>to</strong>ck producers, the presidentissued a decree in November 2003 transferring ownership of 44,000hectares of the area.Pas<strong>to</strong>ralist groups responded by organising what turned out <strong>to</strong> bea very effective media campaign. They warned people living in thecapital Dakar that, if the government went ahead, they would boycottall lives<strong>to</strong>ck markets. They also criticised the underlying rationalebehind the land transfer (namely that pas<strong>to</strong>ral production was outmodedand inefficient) and official attitudes <strong>to</strong>wards the lives<strong>to</strong>ckproduction sec<strong>to</strong>r in general. The government subsequently withdrewits plans, providing pas<strong>to</strong>ralists with a vic<strong>to</strong>ry in what has becomeknown as ‘l’affaire du ranche de Doli’. 120270

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