Economic valuation of rangeland health services for environmental management, livestock productivity, and livelihoods

angelands support pastoral livelihoods and essential ecosystem services, yet they face severe degradation compounded by the historic economic undervaluation of landscape health in policy frameworks. This study addresses this gap by developing an integrated economic valuation framework to quantify the causal links between rangeland forage conditions, livestock productivity, and household food security across drought-prone pastoral regions in East Africa. Utilizing a 94-week panel dataset and a two-stage least squares instrumental variables model, the research uses the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) as a proxy for real-time forage condition.

The empirical results reveal that a 10% improvement in forage conditions (NDVI) reduces the probability of household food insecurity by 12 percentage points. This positive resilience effect is driven by three pathways: enhanced livestock productivity and lower mortality; stabilized local food markets that reduce basic commodity prices; and enhanced household adaptive capacity during climate shocks. The findings provide data-driven justification for policymakers to scale up investments in community-led rangeland restoration, framing sustainable environmental management as a core pillar of macroeconomic stability and food security at the last mile.