NGO-Led Community-Based Conservation: A New Frontier of Territorialization with Implications for Pastoralists’ Land Tenure and Climate Change Adaptation

Jackson Wachira (), Joanes Atela, Paul Stacey and George Outa
Additional contact information
Jackson Wachira: Department of Earth and Climate Sciences, The University of Nairobi, Nairobi P.O. Box 29053, Kenya
Joanes Atela: Africa Research and Impact Network, Nairobi P.O. Box 53358-00200, Kenya
Paul Stacey: Department of Social Sciences and Business, Roskilde University, 4000 Roskilde, Denmark
George Outa: Centre for Science, Technology and Society Studies, Technical University of Kenya, Nairobi P.O. Box 52428-00200, Kenya

Land, 2024, vol. 13, issue 6, 1-26

Abstract: In recent years, many community-based conservancies (CBCs) led by non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have been established on land inhabited by pastoralists in Northern Kenya. Despite a growing body of research, little attention has been paid to the impacts on pastoralists’ climate change adaptation. We provide a deeper understanding by considering NGO-led community-based conservation (NGO-led CBC) as a new frontier of territorialization and adaptation to climate change and variability as a social-natural process. Based on an analysis of primary data collected in Samburu County, Kenya, we show that NGO-led CBC involves resource enclosures that aggravate conflicts over land rights and pastoralists’ vulnerability to climate change and variability by constraining their mobility. In relation, the legal and institutional environment promoted by NGO-led CBC leads to increased control over ecologically vibrant lands, which erodes pastoralists’ land tenure security and climate change adaptation. Although NGO-led CBC plays an important role in enhancing access to external finance and incentivizing diversification, governance mechanisms remain opaque and overshadow local institutions. Overall, we highlight the need for actors to carefully consider the implications of this conservation/development model for already hard-pressed land-dependent communities.

Keywords: NGO-led community-based conservation; new frontier of territorialization; pastoralists; climate change adaptation; land tenure; northern Kenya (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q15 Q2 Q24 Q28 Q5 R14 R52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
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