Participatory mapping of livestock routes and resources in southern woredas of Oromia and Somali regions, southern Ethiopia

Pastoralism is a way of life and livelihood strategy for millions of people around the world and it is characterized by mobility. In Ethiopia, pastoralism is an important means of livelihood for more than four million people, with most pastoralists living in the Somali, Afar, Oromia and Southern Nations regions. Although it is understood that engaging with pastoralism has strong relevance to virtually all the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and food security (FAO 2013), pastoralists have remained vulnerable, poor and marginalized from development due to various factors, including conflict, inappropriate government policies, inappropriate government large-scale project planning and climate change that exacerbates the intensity of droughts. Livestock route mapping, understanding their status and better protecting the routes in the pastoral areas are the first steps towards the development of the areas. As a part of the national veterinary service rationalization roadmap, livestock route mapping in pastoral areas was indicated as an important task. In view of this, the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) and the Ethiopian Veterinary Association (EVA) are engaged with other partners in a newly designed EU-funded new project, namely Health of Ethiopian Animals for Rural Development (HEARD), which envisages enhancing sustainable livestock productivity and improving the marketing of livestock products across selected regions of Ethiopia. Among the three results expected from the HEARD project, EVA and ILRI have been at the forefront in implementing the project’s Result 2: Technical competences (knowledge, attitude and skills) and incentives for veterinary service providers improved to deliver better and rationalized services. Accordingly, ILRI, in collaboration with other partners, conducted participatory livestock route mapping with the current livestock movement routes mapping activity, several livestock routes and related resources have been identified and mapped in selected places of the Somali region and Oromia region and the final map products were successfully disseminated to the end users (project activity 2.1.2. Identify and map two traditional livestock movement corridors) and the mapping processes, results and the final map products are indicated in this paper.