Livestock for Livelihoods

AWF has worked for decades with pastoralist communities to improve sustainable livelihoods through ecotourism and other conservation enterprises. Often present in the same landscapes, AWF has benefited greatly from Maasai and other pastoralist communities’ knowledge of the lands and history of peaceful co-existence with wildlife. Building on its long partnership with such communities, AWF, with funding from USAID, has launched the Livestock for Livelihoods program in two of its Heartlands—the Maasai Steppe in Tanzania and Samburu in Kenya. The program’s central goal is to help eradicate poverty among the Maasai and other pastoralist communities while simultaneously protecting landscapes, livestock and wildlife. Gleaning lessons learned, AWF will eventually replicate the program in other Heartlands where livestock are the basis of many people’s livelihoods.

In the Maasai Steppe Heartland, the Livestock for Livelihoods program is being carried out on Manyara Ranch as part of AWF’s large-landscape program to protect the wildlife corridor that connects Lake Manyara and Tarangire National Parks. A sprawling operation, Manyara Ranch is a publicly owned ranch with a 35,000-acre conservancy being managed by AWF in partnership with the Tanzania Land Conservation Trust and local stakeholder communities. Working with the ranch’s management, AWF is now helping the surrounding communities realize better returns from livestock raised in sustainable ways. “The boost to livelihoods should reduce the pressure on the landscape from activities such as subsistence farming and charcoal burning and provide a stronger economic base for conservation activities,” says Giles Davies, AWF’s Director of Conservation Enterprise.

In addition to grazing and water management, breeding, and extension service improvements, the project is building an abattoir facility on the ranch that will be available for local livestock keepers to process and freeze livestock products in accordance with best environmental practices, as well as directly link local producers with buyers. According to preliminary analysis, the program is expected to boost prices $200-$300 per head of cattle—double the price fetched previously and a boon to people with few other income-earning opportunities.

Nearby in the Samburu Heartland, AWF has launched a second Livestock for Livelihoods program, introducing a revolving livestock fund in partnership with local pastoralists and The Ol Pejeta Conservancy. The program is structured to guarantee market access for local herders on the condition that they comply with good rearing and grazing practices. Just six months after the project’s start, 350 head of cattle had been purchased through the fund, earning herders $167,000.