Strategy for Combining Community Environmental Planning and Strategic Environmental Assessment for Conflict Management in Kenya’s Northern Rangelands

Description

Residents of northern Kenya's semi-arid rangelands face numerous challenges, including climate variability, land degradation, and resource conflicts. Their livelihoods are largely dependent on livestock with seasonal herd migration being a main mechanism to ascertain sufficient food and water intake for their animals. However, frequent droughts, flooding, erosion, disease outbreaks, and proliferation of non-palatable invasive species jeopardize the sustainable provision of sufficient levels of ecosystem services to meet the needs of the various pastoral groups, while armed conflict over scarce resources is common.

Abstract

Rangelands are culturally and biologically diverse ecosystems that support approximately 2 billion people worldwide. Kenya's rangelands cover approximately 80% of the land mass and are home to about 10 million people who are mainly pastoralists and contribute significantly to Kenya’s tourism and food security. Kenya’s Northern rangelands, however, face persistent resource-based conflicts exacerbated by weak community participation in environmental planning, rapid infrastructural expansion, and intersecting spatial drivers of conflict at both national and local scales.

The study’s main objective is to develop a strategy for combining community environmental planning with Strategic Environmental Assessment for Conflict Management in Kenya’s Northern Rangelands. Drawing on qualitative and mixed-methods approaches—including Key Informant Interviews (KII), Focus Group Discussions (FDGs), Participatory Mapping (PM), and Spatial Analysis (SA) the research will address the following specific objectives:

1. To understand how communities in Kenya’s Northern rangelands cope with local versus national spatial drivers of conflict through community environmental planning
2. To assess the contribution of community ideas in formal Strategic Environmental Assessment for spatial planning in Kenya’s Northern rangelands
3. To develop a strategy on how community environmental planning can be formalized and aligned with Strategic Environmental Assessment in spatial planning and conflict management in Kenya’s Northern rangelands.

Isiolo County, a region marked by diverse actors, rapid development interventions, and entrenched inter-community competition over natural resources, is selected as the core study area. Findings are anticipated to address current gaps in public participation in environmental planning and conflict management, illustrate mechanisms by which local knowledge can be systematically incorporated into formal Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA), and propose an adaptable, conflict-sensitive model for devolved environmental governance. The research aims to inform policymaking and SEA practice, fostering more inclusive, resilient, and context-sensitive environmental planning and management in Kenya’s Northern Rangelands and comparable settings.

Project Details

RANGE - Resilient Approaches in Natural ranGeland Ecosystems - University of Twente Research Information

Meet the team

G.K. Ngugi

PhD Candidate

prof.mr.dr.ir. J.A. Zevenbergen

Promotor

dr.ir. L.G.J. Boerboom

Co-promotor

Research theme

Urban and regional Planning and Geo-information Management

In our research, people are our focus. Everyone is included, from societal thought-leaders, government policy makers, high-level civil society advocates, entrepreneurs and citizens, and the disenfranchised. These people are our collaborators, participants, beneficiaries, and users. PLUS focuses on understanding the spatial information needs of society and responding to those needs in responsible ways – as tools, as systems, as infrastructure, or as ways of thinking. Our work sits at the nexus of urbanisation, land tenure, governance, climate change, and transportation – and the grand challenges of sustainability and social equity in the age of the Anthropocene.

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