When pastoralists, researchers, policymakers and development practitioners gathered in Marsabit this year to mark the

International Year of Rangelands and Pastoralists (IYRP-2026)

, the conversations went far beyond livestock, drought or humanitarian aid. Convened by the Centre for Research and Development in Drylands (CRDD), the dialogue challenged a deeply rooted assumption that has shaped development policy for decades: that pastoralism is an outdated livelihood gradually being overtaken by modernity.

It is an assumption that has endured despite mounting evidence to the contrary.

For generations, pastoralism has been portrayed as a temporary stage in development—a way of life expected to give way to settled agriculture, urban employment and industrial economies. Consequently, public investment has overwhelmingly favored crop farming, mining and infrastructure while pastoral regions have often received attention only during periods of drought, livestock disease or conflict.

Yet climate change is forcing the world to reconsider what resilience actually means.

As rainfall becomes increasingly erratic and extreme weather events grow more frequent, scientists and development agencies are promoting flexibility, mobility, ecosystem restoration and adaptive resource management as essential responses to a warming planet. Ironically, these are the very principles upon which pastoralism has been built for centuries.

The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), through the International Year of Rangelands and Pastoralists, has recognised that healthy rangelands support biodiversity, store carbon, strengthen food security and sustain the livelihoods of hundreds of millions of people worldwide. Rather than viewing drylands as empty or unproductive landscapes, the initiative calls for renewed investment in pastoral systems as part of global climate resilience.

For Kenya, this conversation could not be more timely. Nearly 80 per cent of the country’s landmass consists of arid and semi-arid lands where livestock production remains the most viable economic activity. The livestock sector contributes significantly to national income, supports millions of livelihoods and underpins regional trade across the Horn of Africa. Yet pastoralism continues to be discussed more as a humanitarian challenge than as a strategic economic sector deserving sustained public investment.

The recent Marsabit dialogue highlighted a different perspective. Participants did not simply discuss surviving the next drought. They asked how pastoralism could become more productive, more resilient and more attractive to young people without losing the indigenous knowledge that has sustained dryland communities for generations.

The greatest challenge facing pastoralism today is not simply climate change. It is the persistence of policies and public attitudes that continue to treat one of Africa’s oldest and most climate-adapted economies as though it belongs to the past.

The Quiet Crisis beyond Climate Change

Climate change is undoubtedly reshaping pastoral life. Prolonged droughts, shrinking grazing lands, invasive plant species, conflict over natural resources and unpredictable rainfall have made livestock production increasingly difficult across northern Kenya. These realities dominate headlines, attract humanitarian funding and rightly concern governments.

Yet another crisis is unfolding almost unnoticed. For centuries, pastoralism flourished because knowledge moved with the herds. Children learned by accompanying their parents and elders across the rangelands, identifying pasture species, reading weather patterns, recognising livestock diseases, locating water sources and negotiating grazing access with neighboring communities. This was not informal learning in the casual sense of the word; it was a sophisticated system of environmental education developed over generations and refined through lived experience.

Today, that classroom is changing. The greatest threat to pastoralism may not be drought alone. It may be the gradual disappearance of the knowledge, labour and institutions that have sustained it for centuries

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The expansion of formal education across Kenya’s arid and semi-arid lands is one of the country’s greatest development achievements. Thousands of children from pastoral communities now complete primary school, secondary school and university, opening doors to careers that were unimaginable only a generation ago. This …