The Impact of Political Instability on Sustainable Rangeland Management: A Study of Borana Rangeland, Southern Ethiopia

Yeneayehu Fenetahun,Yuan You,Xinwen Xu,Yongdong Wang,Vincent Nzabarinda

doi:10.3390/agriculture11040352

Abstract

Political instability (PI) occurs between governments and other political elites either at the local, regional, and/or national levels. Planning, implementing, and monitoring of sustainable rangeland management strategies have a significant impact on the political environment of an area. In this study, the term PI implies an unsafe and unstable exercise of political power, and is a major obstacle to the implementation of sustainable rangeland management. The main purpose of this research was to provide empirical and theoretical knowledge by testing hypotheses about the impact of PI on the implementation of sustainable practice of rangeland management. Using in-depth interviews, this study conducted both structured and unstructured group discussions with 300 representative households of local pastoralists and others who were considered the key stakeholders in the sustainable activities of rangeland management. Results indicated that the local communities are significantly susceptible to the economic, environmental, and socio-cultural effects of sustainable management of rangeland due to PI. Furthermore, the impact of PI on the economic, environmental, and socio-cultural aspects of rangelands indicators was evaluated. The findings also proved that the satisfaction of pastoralists with rangeland productivity and function was significantly affected, and prevented pastoralists from participating in rangeland management practice.

Highlights

Political instability occurs at local, regional, and/or national levels between the government and other political elites [1,2]
The model developed in the current study focused on six interrelated factors, namely Political instability (PI), three direct effects due to rangeland PI, pastoralists’ satisfaction with rangeland functions, and pastoralists’ participation in sustainable rangeland management (Figure 4) [29,30]
The proposed assessed parameters in our model regarding the rangeland status (Figure 4) and overall discussion (Table 2) begin with the impact of PI, which was assessed by four indicators: local and national government are less concerned with rangeland management activities, local rangeland areas have frequently exposed conflicts of interest, local pastoralists have misinformation about fair use of rangeland, and key rangeland areas are monopolized by a few politically powerful people and their families [17]

Summary

Introduction

Political instability occurs at local, regional, and/or national levels between the government and other political elites [1,2]. These actions may result in changes in the pastoralist community’s subsistence patterns, disruption of traditional territorial governance arrangements, and reduced adaptive capacity of the sustainable practice of rangeland management [3]. In many parts of the world, including Africa (mainly Ethiopia), the current rapid degradation of rangelands is caused by both natural and human-induced factors [5]. Pastoral livelihoods are mainly characterized by socio-ecological stress, risk, and uncertainties due to changing socio-political, economic, and natural environment conditions [8,9]

Objectives

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion