Sustaining indigenous Maasai Alalili silvo-pastoral conservation systems for improved community livelihood and biodiversity conservation in East African rangelands

FGD-MOND-22: “This Alalili system is privately owned by our clan and has existed for many years. Our grandparent narrated a brief history about it, whereby they have been keep- ing it since the colonial era in the late 1950s. Since that time, members of the clan have been using it not only for grazing purposes, but also for conducting rituals, cursing practices over the deviants from management norms of Alalili that built fear over our livestock herds and respect among the surrounding households. Some neighbour households also had their Alalili systems, but they did not manage to uphold them due to an introduction of the villagelization and communism policies in the 1970s which made them remain dependent on the communal grazing areas” (FGD/Alalili survey/Loosimingori village/June, 2022). FGD-LONG-24: “The large portion of this private Alalili that existed since 1970s, has been very important site of securing pastures that sustain our livestock especially the calves and lac- tating cattle in the long dry seasons. However, due to increased number of household mem- bers, we have changed a little portion (especially the eastern side you see) for residential purposes where my two sons have established their families. Due to a reduced grazing area, one of my grandsons is currently engaged in the mining activities at the nearby village of Matale A to sustain family needs. Some other households in the neighbourhoods have sold their privately owned grazing areas to immigrants who practice crop farming (maize, beans

and sunflower cultivation)” (FGD/Alalili survey/Kitumbeine village/May, 2022). Having an 18% of private Alalili systems, that are very recently established, is regarded as a newly emerging practice over the historical communal ownership of grazing lands by Maasai pastoralists [13, 17]. Although, from an opposite community perspective, it is regarded as a crucial restoration initiative whereby the Maasai pastoralists are securing the grazing areas that are likely being changed into protected areas, farmland, and settlements [18, 78]. They are turning into private ownership as a way to sustain their historical indigenous and traditional way of conserving pasture lands that used to support their grazing activities and rangeland management [17]. The changes are observed to be in transition in Maasai culture, eroding the key livelihood practices that is vital for the survival of these communities and sustainable use of the biodiver- sity [18]. Similarly, most of the private Alalili are smaller in size making them even more prone to vanish due to higher livestock herd size and grazing intensity compared to that of the communal Alalili systems [17, 25]. The findings suggest that communal Alalili systems are currently holding significant conservation potential than private Alalili. Regardless of the recent establishment of private Alalili systems, yet there is a radical shift of conservation prior- ity from these private to communal areas because, conservation agencies are highly promoting it through conservation incentives provided to community-based organizations for climate

change mitigation [46, 78]. In the past three decades, numerous projects have been done for rangeland improvement through participatory rangelands management (PRM) exposing more conservation incentives to communal enclosures than in private [26, 79]. Additionally, policies for livestock, wildlife, tourism, and land sectors in Tanzania have pri- oritized measures that promote communal rangeland management through traditional land use practices [26, 50, 56–58, 63, 80]. Effects of poverty, climate change, and food insecurity are additional drivers that scale down the size of private Alalili systems, abundance, and distribu- tion [7, 71, 81]. The growing population (both human and livestock) are in need of expanding settlement areas and farmlands for food crop production within the same land resources lead- ing to competitive effect and degradation [71]. A portion of privately reserved pasture land is sold out for sustaining their livelihood [8, 82]. Thus, private Alalili systems are at risk of mal- practices compared to communal ones. On the other hand, the decreasing number and size of PLOS ONE Sustaining Alalili systems in rangelands of East Africa PLOS ONE | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0303649 May 16, 2024 17 / 24