Understanding pastoralist adaptations to drought via games and choice experiments: Field testing among Borana communities

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cg.authorship.typesCGIAR single centreen
cg.authorship.typesCGIAR and developing country instituteen
cg.authorship.typesCGIAR and advanced research instituteen
cg.contributor.affiliationCornell Universityen
cg.contributor.affiliationUniversity of Antananarivoen
cg.contributor.affiliationInternational Food Policy Research Instituteen
cg.contributor.affiliationBrandenburg University of Technology Cottbus-Senftenbergen
cg.contributor.affiliationGiraffe Conservation Foundationen
cg.contributor.affiliationUniversity College Dublinen
cg.contributor.crpPolicies, Institutions, and Markets
cg.contributor.crpWater, Land and Ecosystems
cg.contributor.donorCGIAR Trust Funden
cg.contributor.donorEuropean Unionen
cg.contributor.initiativeLow-Emission Food Systems
cg.coverage.countryKenya
cg.coverage.iso3166-alpha2KE
cg.coverage.regionAfrica
cg.coverage.regionEastern Africa
cg.coverage.regionSub-Saharan Africa
cg.creator.identifierWei Zhang: 0000-0002-2933-6275en
cg.creator.identifierRuth Meinzen-Dick: 0000-0003-4782-3074en
cg.howPublishedFormally Publisheden
cg.identifier.dataurlhttps://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.14681173en
cg.identifier.doihttps://doi.org/10.5751/es-15836-300125en
cg.identifier.projectIFPRI - Natural Resources and Resilience Uniten
cg.identifier.projectIFPRI - Director General's Officeen
cg.identifier.publicationRankAen
cg.isijournalISI Journalen
cg.issn1708-3087en
cg.issue1en
cg.journalEcology and Societyen
cg.reviewStatusPeer Reviewen
cg.subject.actionAreaSystems Transformation
cg.subject.impactAreaEnvironmental health and biodiversity
cg.volume30en
dc.contributor.authorBell, Andrew Reiden
dc.contributor.authorRakotonarivo, O. Sarobidyen
dc.contributor.authorZhang, Weien
dc.contributor.authorDe Petris, Caterinaen
dc.contributor.authorKipchumba, Adamsen
dc.contributor.authorMeinzen-Dick, Ruth S.en
dc.date.accessioned2025-03-11T16:39:15Zen
dc.date.available2025-03-11T16:39:15Zen
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/10568/173575
dc.titleUnderstanding pastoralist adaptations to drought via games and choice experiments: Field testing among Borana communitiesen
dcterms.abstractTranshumant and nomadic pastoralism in arid and semi-arid spaces from West through Central, East, and Southern Africa is regarded as critical to regional system resilience and food security. Although pastoral systems are highly adapted and adaptive to uncertainty and change, recent decades of severe climatic events and increasing resource pressure are pushing pastoral systems to adopt novel norms and practices. Importantly, forage residue conservation and private forage enclosures are becoming important practices among herders and non-herders alike. As one part of considering the relevance of these responses in shaping the future trajectory of transhumant pastoralism, we developed a multi-part intervention for measuring and observing preferences in pastoral systems, including a novel experimental game called GreenReserve, and tested it in Borana communities in northern Kenya. We found that GreenReserve captured dimensions of human-environment dilemmas faced by pastoralists, and shifted preferences around herd size, losses, and the use of time, as measured through a repeated discrete choice experiment. We found game groups with younger players and with more female players to include more exploration of pastoral adaptations such as the use of grass reserves and the harvesting of grass, as well as to have less conflict within the game. We also observed both preferences as well as game strategy to shift along the length of the study: as the region moved further into a drought and failed short rainy season, players were more conscious of large herds, bad rainfall-year losses, and made better use of reserves in game play, though it was beyond the scope of the current study to determine causality. Future research is needed to unpack the mechanisms underlying the variations and possible shift in preferences and subsequently help identify entry points for targeted interventions (including agricultural extension services) to support pastoral communities in climate change adaptation. Further, these first fieldwork findings suggest two key dimensions for expanded work beyond this study to identify whether mixed methods approaches such as this aid experiential learning in agriculture contexts.en
dcterms.accessRightsOpen Access
dcterms.audienceAcademicsen
dcterms.bibliographicCitationBell, Andrew Reid; Rakotonarivo, O. Sarobidy; Zhang, Wei; De Petris, Caterina; Kipchumba, Adams; and Meinzen-Dick, Ruth S. 2025. Understanding pastoralist adaptations to drought via games and choice experiments: Field testing among Borana communities. Ecology and Society 30(1): 25. https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-15836-300125en
dcterms.issued2025-03en
dcterms.languageen
dcterms.licenseCC-BY-4.0
dcterms.publisherResilience Alliance, Inc.en
dcterms.relationhttps://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/11/11/114024en
dcterms.relationhttps://doi.org/10.1016/j.agsy.2015.11.012en
dcterms.relationhttps://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.136723en
dcterms.relationhttps://doi.org/10.5751/ES-13862-280130en
dcterms.relationhttps://doi.org/10.1016/j.cosust.2023.101289en
dcterms.relationhttps://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2018.02.006en
dcterms.subjectpastoralistsen
dcterms.subjectdroughten
dcterms.subjectfood securityen
dcterms.subjectexperiential learningen
dcterms.subjectclimate change adaptationen
dcterms.subjectclimate changeen
dcterms.typeJournal Article

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