Grasslands of the World.pdf - Disasters and Conflicts - UNEP

Grassland perspectives 487
fencing may be to delimit properties. Since commercial enterprises hold valid
land titles their land can be used as collateral for loans.
In the extensive , pastoral subsistence sector, grazing rights are much
less clear. In the distant past these lands would have been managed under
traditional authorities and disputes over encroachment by other herding
groups or cultivators probably settled in battle. Changing times and régimes
have left many pastoral groups in a state of uncertainty, and they are often
relatively neglected minorities, except in countries that are mainly pastoral
– these are few: Mongolia and Somalia are examples. In the traditional sector,
grazing rights means pastoral resources in their wider sense, including access
to water and to mineral licks where these are used. The land rights of settled
farmers are recognized in most countries since they are resident on their
farms and obviously use them; the rights of pastoral groups, however, who
are usually mobile , are usually less well defined since they only use a piece
of grassland at a particular season. If others clear such grassland for crops ,
however unsustainable , it may be viewed as “development ” and pastoralists
are at a disadvantage in claiming their rights. In addition, traditional pastoral
tenure is not usually strong enough to prevent confiscation by the state,
probably without compensation, for mineral prospection, infrastructure,
building or nature reserves . While cropland can conveniently be allocated to
individual smallholders, the large areas of low-yielding grassland involved in
mobile herding and the desirability of managing such pasture at the landscape
scale make the allocation of grassland to individual families problematic
(although such allocation has been done in China ). Allocation to groups seems
preferable, but at what scale and how to decide to whom grazing should be
allocated is problematic.
Markets and trade
Commercial systems are, of course, market oriented, and nowadays most
traditional systems sell their surplus production; the East Africa n study
indicates that even conservative ethnic groups which formerly did not sell
stock now market their surplus. Most of the studies report poor prices for
grassland produce; wool is probably most severely affected. The break-up
of the USSR disrupted markets in Central Asia and Mongolia , and these
countries have yet to find new outlets. The effect of freer world trade on
produce from extensive grasslands has still to be seen, but meat produced
by traditional herders who are far from consumers may be at a disadvantage
– especially as urban consumers increasingly demand meat from cattle that
have been finished in feedlots or off good pasture .
Herder organization and community participation
Regime and political change have disrupted old herder groupings and hierarchies,
and decollectivization has left large areas with a disorganized pastoral sector.