Examining drivers of land use change among pastoralists in Eastern Ethiopia

This paper explores the major land use changes occurred in Kebribeyah district of the Somali Region in Ethiopia. It examines the driving factors of these changes over the past five decades. The study used qualitative in-depth case analysis. Results show that expansion of settlement areas, crop and vegetable land, shrinkage of grazing land and reduction of livestock holding are the major land use changes. Population pressure, price incentives, intervention by development agencies, change in land tenure and improvement in infrastructure, attitudinal change of pastoralists, climate change, land degradation, and deforestation are the drivers of land use changes. Climate change and population pressure were perceived to be the major drivers. Hence, sedentary land use could not be taken as one of the available alternatives for herders but it became the only choice as they lost their livestock due to adverse climate change.