The Environmental Governance and Global Development Research Team at the Wyss Academy for Nature (WA), in collaboration with the WA Hub East Africa (EAF), analysed the social network of environmental-related stakeholders in the Naibung’a/Oldonyiro landscape in northern Kenya. 

The analysis draws on data from 53 semi-structured interviews conducted in October and November 2025 with representatives of 17 distinct stakeholder groups, including pastoralists, NGOs, governmental bodies, and other service providers. The data collected was analysed using descriptive and inferential techniques, such as social network modelling.  

The findings reveal several important patterns in the Naibung’a/Oldonyiro social network. First, the network is relatively dense, but connections between diverse stakeholder groups tend to represent less frequent employment- or business-related interactions. Second, we identify three communities in the network roughly organised along different levels of governance in the landscape. Third, stakeholders who directly work with natural resources, such as small-scale farmers, pastoralists, and resource user groups emerge as central nodes in the network. Fourth, stakeholders in the network seek to connect with the ones they perceive as more important for environmental governance.  

Altogether, these insights highlight opportunities to enhance network cohesion, reciprocity, and trust where it is needed, while ensuring local stakeholders can be the drivers of positive governance changes that promote nature–people co-benefits. Importantly, the WA Hub EAF has already begun to improve stakeholder engagement towards promoting systemic network transformations in the landscape. You can read more about the Naibung’a/Oldonyiro social network in the publicly available report.