Transhumance Pastoralism Conflict Study

One of the most basic characteristics of conflict is its ability to change as the macro-environment changes. In my lab, we are interested to decipher the structural and systemic mechanisms responsible for long term changes in pastoral transhumance. These changes can give us insight on the capacity of pastoral communities to change, adapt or maladapt to environmental changes.

Transhumance Pastoralism- this form of livelihood has shifted from community-based herding to market-centered. Climate change continues to shrink the grazing land, consequently, disrupting livelihood. This environmental change has led to the evolution of maladaptive strategies such as armament of pastoral communities with small arms and light weapons (SALW). Proliferation of SALW is the major cause of death and disrupted livelihood among pastoral communities.

In the lab, we study how pastoral transhumance has shifted over time and space in response to environmental changes. We study a diverse context, adaptation and maladaptation of pastoralists as our main hypothesis is that the various adaptation and maladaptation strategies leads to various intercommunal relational problems thus mechanism for resolving them may differ markedly between different geographical regions. We use geographical techniques and economic modelling combined to discover patterns of conflict occurrence and evolution in various Clusters.

Currently, we are focusing on the Karamoja Cluster since it is an extremely important when it comes to proliferation of small arms and light weapons (SALW).

Understanding the mechanisms underlying kinship relations among pastoral communities may assist in understanding the mechanics of armament and in turn may assist in developing novel disbarment and livelihood strategies.