range land in ethiopia

1. THE RANGELANDS OF ETHIOPIA
An Overview

2. INTRODUCTION
• Rangelands, defined as uncultivated land that provide the
necessities of life for grazing and browsing animals, make up
about 50 to 70% of the world’s landmass of which over 50% are
arid and semi-arid (Holechek et al., 2005).
• In Africa, rangelands are the major sources of feed for ruminants
and constitute about 65% of the total land area (Friedelet al.,
2000) which supports 59% of all ruminant livestock in Africa.
• In Ethiopia, rangelands support about 9.8 million people (Taffese
and Kassayie, 2004, PADS, 2004).

3. LOCATION OF THE ETHIOPIAN
RANGELANDS
• In Ethiopia, the rangelands are located around the periphery of the
country and most of these areas are found below 1,500 m.a.s.l.

4. Area Coverage of The Ethiopian
Rangelands
Region
Somali Region
Borana + Other
Oromia
Afar
SNNPR
BSG
DD
Gambella
Area in Km2
301,484 (World Bank 2001)
95,000 (Coppock 1994) +
57070 = 150070
97970 (CSA)
30307 (PADS)
8410
1200
17300

5. Rangeland physical characteristic
• Physical characteristics mainly include soil,
climate and topography. Physical characteristics
determine the type of vegetation and its
productivity in any rangeland area and the type
of vegetation and the terrain govern the type of
livestock and wildlife it will support (Holechek et
al. 2001).

6. Rangeland physical characteristic
• The rangelands are on warmest parts of the country, with
annual mean temperatures ranging from 20 to 25°C.
• The hottest areas are found in the most arid uni-modal
rainfall system in Afar where the precipitation ranges
between 200 and 600 mm.
• The bimodal system occurs in the Ogaden, Borena and
SNNP, where the annual rainfall ranges between 250 and
750 mm (PADS, 2004; Kidane, 2006).
• Temperature is increasing and Rainfall becoming more
erratic without clear pattern

7. Soil in the rangelands
• No clear documentation on the soils that exist in
the rangeland areas of Ethiopia. In general they
are shallow and stony, not well developed.
• Borana area dominated by sandy-loam and black
clay soils ; Afar volcanic soil, Somali Sandy porous
soil
• Soil erosion, gully formations and land
degradation have become a serious problem in all
rangeland areas of Ethiopia

8. Vegetation resources
• The natural vegetation of the rangeland areas
varies from dry woodland and grassland savannas
to desert plant communities (Kidane, 2006).
• Rangelands of Ethiopia are home to considerable
amounts of endemic plant species

9. Vegetation resources
• 70% of the Afar rangeland is comprised of bare land, 24.5%
constitutes grasslands, shrub-land, bush-land and riverine
woodland with the rest being water bodies
• Somali region vegetation is browse rich, thick thorny bush
good for goats and camel; pockets of grazing for cattle and
sheep
• More than 1.5m ha of the Afar rangeland is encroached by
prosopis, and it is expanding at a rate of 50,000 ha per year
• SRS is also threatened by expansion of prosopis in some
zones

10. Vegetation resources
• The Borana plateau was dominated by savannah
type of vegetation containing a mixture of
perennial herbaceous and woody plants (Desta
and Coppock, 2004). Good for grazers.
• Bush encroachment and other invasive species
have become and a serious problem and
degraded quality of the vegetation;
disappearance of preferred plant species

11. Livestock Resources in pastoral areas
Species
Oromia
Somali
Afar
SNNPR
Cattle
4.6m
1.4m
2.3m
0.64m
Sheep
0.82m
1.7m
2.5m
0.48m
Goats
1.8m
2.1m
4.3m
0.88m
Camel
0.77m
0.86m
0.85m
3.6 TLU
3.1 TLU
Holding/ 6 TLU
hhd
Of the national herd rangelands support 40% of the cattle, 25% of the sheep, 75% of the goats,
and 100% of camel.
Herd size suffers from frequent drought induced crashes; the low TLU/hhd signifies status of
poverty

12. Wildlife Resources
• Out of the 24 endemic bird species in the country, 19 species
are found in the rangelands.
• All national parks are situated in the rangelands with the
exception of Bale and Simen mountains.
• Rangelands are home for large herds of wildlife such as
buffaloes, lions, etc. (EARO, 2000; Beruk, 2003; Alemayehu,
2003).
• Habitat competition and poaching have resulted in massive
destruction of wildlife habitat and reduction in numbers.

13. Land ownership, traditional rangeland
management, and Institutions
• Rangelands in Ethiopia are managed as
common property and are usually controlled
by customary institutions. Traditional leaders
apply rules and traditional social control
mechanisms to regulate and coordinate access
in the utilization of the natural resources
(Desta et al 2002, 2004, Coppock et al 2012,
Simonsen and Mitiku, 1998).

14. Land ownership, traditional rangeland
management, and Institutions
• Borana
– Grazing resource in Borana, pastures and water, are
largely owned by the community and administered by
a council of elders and clan representatives.
– However, currently the traditional management
systems in administrating the rangeland resource has
been weakened; private and semi private enclosures
expanding, uncontrolled crop cultivation increasing
(Napier and Desta 2012)

15. Land ownership, traditional rangeland
management, and Institutions
• Land in SRS, traditionally belongs to clan or
sub-clan. Each clan or sub-clan has its
traditional boundary and individuals did not
own land. (Hogg, 1992; Tilahunet al., 1996).
The pastoralists had a well-established grazing
and water use regulations.
• Recently private enclosures are expanding
which have reduced area of land available for
communal grazing (Napier and Desta 2012)

16. Land ownership, traditional rangeland
management, and Institutions
• Afar
– Range use in Afar Region reflects high mobility
patterns where herd oscillates between dry and
wet season pastures. Dry season grazing sites are
close to permanent water points, while wet
season sites are far away from them.
– This system has been disturbed long time ago with
the establishment of irrigated farms

17. Land ownership, traditional rangeland
management, and Institutions
• The clan leaders were responsible to match the
livestock population with that of the rangeland
carrying capacity. The clan leaders were also
responsible to protect the browsing species. No
one was allowed to cut live trees.
• Currently such traditional rangeland management
institutions have lost their authority. No one is
now responsible for the protection of tree
species; any one can cut trees at any time and
place.

18. Key points to take note of
• Negative trends in the Ethiopian Rangelands
– Soil erosion and gully formations and land degradation
– Encroachment of bushes and other invasive plants have degraded productivity
of the rangeland
– Shrinkage of the grazing land that supports livestock
– Frequency and severity drought is increasing which is a manifestation of a
changing climate
– Population pressure due to low emigration
– Weakening of authority of the CI and traditional/indigenous NRM systems
• Positive aspect
–
–
–
–
Resilient system that continued to support millions of people
It makes tremendous contribution to the national economy
Potential for carbon sink
Conservation of biodiversity
The big question what next to maximize the positive aspect and deal with the
negative trend in the face of a changing climate

19. THANK YOU