Improved Rangeland Quality

The Eurasian hoopoe (Upupa epops) spotted in the Mukutan Conservancy and Mshipi area, 2025, Kenya
The Eurasian hoopoe (Upupa epops) spotted in the Mukutan Conservancy and Mshipi area, 2025, Kenya / Photo: Nicole Fahrni

Improved Rangeland Quality

  • Our Objective

    Transforming degraded lands into healthy, functioning ecosystems in Naibunga and Ol Donyiro by combining community-driven restoration practices with modern land restoration science to support the coexistence of pastoralism and wildlife under climate stress.

  • Figures

    The project was launched on March 17, 2022 and is currently in progress.

Summary

Overgrazing, climate variability, and unequal access to grazing land have left large areas of Northern Kenya's rangelands severely degraded. The damage is visible: soil erosion, loss of vegetation cover, invasive species, and fragmented landscapes. Together, these threaten wildlife survival, reduce grazing opportunities for pastoralists, and weaken the resilience of entire ecosystems.

This project tackles these challenges directly, using a combination of reseeding, semicircular bunds, gully healing, and invasive species control, all tailored to communities’ grazing priorities and to landscape-wide needs. Crucially, it blends traditional pastoral knowledge with modern land restoration science, demonstrating how community-driven approaches can secure a more productive and sustainable future for these drylands.  

Progress is tracked through monitoring of vegetation cover, soil health, and wildlife presence, building an evidence base for ecological recovery. The project also builds local capacity for collective grazing management, supporting equitable land use and the long-term productivity of restored areas. 

 

Project Connections

  • Part of the topic

    Human well-being that supports nature

    Human well-being that supports nature

  • Part of the topic

    Stewardship

    Stewardship

  • Part of the solutionscape

    Enabling the co-existence of pastoralism and wildlife in semiarid rangelands in an insecure climate

Timeline

  • Co-Creating Pathways for Scaling Sustainable Pastoralism in Northern Kenya

    News April 28, 2026

    Researchers, conservation practitioners, government and community representatives gathered in Nanyuki on 1 and 2 April 2026 for a two-day co-creation workshop focused on synthesizing lessons for sustainable pastoralism in northern Kenya.Convened by the Wyss Academy for Nature’s East Africa Hub, the workshop brought together partners working across Laikipia and Isiolo counties to reflect on lessons emerging from ongoing initiatives that combine ecosystem restoration, biodiversity protection, and resilient pastoral livelihoods in arid and semiarid lands, using the Solutionscape approach.The workshop marked the start of a broader synthesis process aimed at turning field experience into practical guidance for practitioners, policymakers, and communities working to strengthen pastoral systems in similar landscapes. 

    Participants take part in a group-work session during the co-creation workshop on sustainable pastoralism in Nanyuki, Kenya.

  • When communities are empowered rangelands restoration progress is faster—and the knowledge stays

    Project Update December 16, 2025

     For effectiveness of assessment activities, livestock keepers, youth, women groups members, and community scouts were trained to monitor the bunds in various ways.

  • From practice to public evidence: monitoring nature-based solutions for Kenya’s water

    News November 3, 2025

    The authors propose three pillars that work together: Adaptive, co-designed monitoring through living labs connects local practice to agreed protocols and continuous learning, so datasets are consistent over time and anchored in place. A national, open NbS repository built on FAIR principles makes vegetation, hydrology, and household water metrics findable, citable, and verifiable, which allows results to be checked, compared, and reused beyond single projects. Standardized indicators embedded in planning and finance ensure county plans, national strategies, and outcome-based instruments track performance in the same way—linking budgets to outcomes rather than activities. The paper also points to practical enablers: long-term monitoring, evaluation, and learning budgets; open-access publishing and co-authorship with practitioners and county officers; and careful attention to land tenure and free, prior, and informed consent to sustain monitoring access and trust. Read alongside our work in Kenya, the emphasis is familiar—pair grounded practice with shared evidence so decisions travel across levels and endure. Ultimately, the value of Kenya’s nature-based solutions will be judged not only by what is built, but by what is learned and shared. Turning monitoring into public evidence—co-designed, comparable, and open—gives communities and authorities a common reference point for decisions and finance. That is how local practice informs policy, and how water governance becomes both more accountable and more resilient over time. 

    A graphic with a title

  • Regional context of the Semi Arid's landscapes in Northern Kenya

    Project Update June 2, 2024

    Nothern Kenya's SemiArid Landscapes

Team

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