Short Abstract

This panel examines how growing multifunctionality in African pastoral landscapes is reshaping socio-ecological interactions. These new forms of collaboration and contention among pastoralists and other actors lead to new ways of envisioning futures and governing these landscapes.

Long Abstract

Pastoral landscapes across Africa are increasingly multifunctional. Rangelands, which were historically organised around the mobility of livestock and flexible access to water and pasture, now accommodate wildlife conservation, agriculture, tourism, energy and infrastructure development, as well as carbon and biodiversity initiatives and rangeland restoration. Consequently, wetlands, grazing areas and wildlife corridors are acquiring multiple ecological and economic values, creating opportunities while also generating new claims over land and resources.

These changes intersect with climate change, land degradation, evolving tenure systems and the commercialisation of pastoralism. They are reshaping pastoral commons, local economies, mobility and institutions governing access to land and resources, while introducing new actors, interests and forms of environmental value into pastoral landscapes.

This panel examines the social, ecological and political dynamics of multifunctional pastoral landscapes in Africa. How are pastoralists responding to these changes? How are different claims over land and resources being negotiated? What new forms of governance and collaboration are emerging, and what implications do these have for pastoral livelihoods, cultural institutions, pastoral mobility, conservation projects and equal access to land and resources?

We invite papers examining emerging configurations of pastoralism, including pastoral-conservation collaborations, wetland governance in pastoral landscapes, changing relations between livestock and wildlife mobility, pastoral engagements with ecosystem-service economies, community responses to nature-based solutions, negotiations between pastoral institutions and new landscape actors, and the intersections between multifunctionality, identity, power and access to pastoral landscapes. The panel uses multifunctionality as a lens to examine new practices, relationships and institutions emerging across contemporary African rangelands.

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