Staying Maasai? Livelihoods, Conservation and Development in East African Rangelands
Core message
People, livestock and wildlife have lived together on the savannas of East Africa for millennia. Their coexistence has declined as conservation policies increasingly exclude people and livestock from national wildlife parks, and fast-growing human populations and development push wildlife and pastoralists onto ever more marginal lands. The result has been less wildlife, and more pastoral people struggling to diversify their livelihoods as access to pasture and water becomes harder to find.
This book examines those livelihood and land use strategies in detail. In an integrated research effort that involved researchers, local communities and policy analysts, surveys were carried out across a wide range of Maasai communities providing contrasting land tenure and national policies and varying degrees of intensification of agriculture, tourism and other activities. The aim was to create a better understanding of current livelihood patterns and the decisions facing Maasai at the start of the 21st Century in the context of ongoing environmental, political, and societal change.
Full citation
Homewood, K., Kristjanson, P., and P. Chenevix Trench. 2009. Staying Maasai? Livelihoods, Conservation and Development in East African Rangelands. New York: Springer. https://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-87492-0