268 Scarcity and Surfeit
Most irrigation development has been in areas used by pastoralists, and in
a policy and legal context that does not protect the land and resource rights
of pastoralist populations. Conflict has been common, as pastoralists contin-
ue to defend their rights to access and use key resource areas. Yacob Arsano
explains:
" ... due to the lack of clear land tenure policy, the three Ethio-Italian
irrigation projects in the Jijiga agro-pastoral area (Chinaksen, Biyo and
Elbahe) have been caught up in land tenure related conflicts. The
Government-sponsored Gode irrigation scheme was scornfully con-
demned by the Somali pastoralists well before its devastation during the
Ethio-Somali war of 1977178 ... [And,] in the Woiyto Valley of southern
Ethiopia, the ethnic ago-pastoralists (the Tsemako, Albore, Hamer etc.)
are at loggerheads with the Birale Agricultural Enterprise which com-
petes for land and water resource^."^^Irrigation schemes are typically developed along the banks of the main rivers,
crossing areas inhabited by pastoralists, thus limiting access to water supplies
and pasture use in the dry season. This has increased pressure on and com-
petition to access and use of other resource areas. The expansion of agricul-
tural production into pastoral areas has increased natural resource competi-
tion as displaced pastoral groups move in search of pasture and water for
their herds, often in areas used by other pastoral groups.
Grazing systems used by pastoralists to graze livestock are characterised
by seasonal movements along known migratory routes, defined kinship net-
works and long-standing traditional political alliances. Pastoralists' political
systems are not based on defined and static territorial units but on fluid and
dynamic social units, with power and influence widely distributed. Territorial
attachment is an alien concept - pastoralists depend on freedom of move-
ment and widely disperse the different types of stock for which they are
responsible. Dividing stock by species, age and condition and distributing
them in different spatial areas, to be cared for by kinsmen, bond partners and
stock associates, minimises risk.
Increasingly, pastoralists are diversifying their livelihood systems, including
cultivating small plots where and when possible. As a result, formerly com-
mon property resources are being captured, protected and their access con-
trolled as private property by different individuals and groups. There is a lack
of supportive policies to protect access to common property resources. At the
same time the traditional authority that protected access to common property
resources in the past has been weakened by the imposition of more modern
political-administrative authorities. This has resulted in open access and
exploitation of valuable common property resources in many areasa3
A complex system of resource rights has evolved in some pastoralist areas.
For example, in the Somali region, a system of rights to access and use