News

ILRI News

Rangelands Initiative events at COP26 highlight the importance of pastoral livestock systems

On November 5, the World Alliance of Mobile Indigenous Peoples (WAMIP), supported by the Rangelands Initiative , held an event called 'sheep for the climate' at the Govan docks in Glasgow as part of COP26 . The event brought together an international delegation of pastoralists and Scottish sheep...

ILRI News

Loss of communal grazing lands in India threatens the status of pastoralist women

Communal grazing lands, or commons, are an essential resource for pastoralists in India. Pastoralists historically managed these lands through rich and diverse local traditions that not only gave women equal access to the commons but also established them as the primary economic actors in pastoral...

ILRI News

Ancient farming practices in the Burren region of Ireland reveal the mutually beneficial relationship between farmers and the environment

The Burren's stone walls enclose grazing livestock (photo credit: Brendan Dunford) For thousands of years, farmers in the Burren region of Ireland have marked the end of summer by moving their cattle onto ‘winterage’ pastures in the limestone uplands where they spend the winter grazing. This...

ILRI News

Ruminant livestock production systems and imperatives for sustainable development

Jimmy Smith, director general of the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), this week gave a keynote presentation at the International Grasslands and International Rangelands Virtual Congress. Smith began, as almost all livestock related talks now begin, by reminding his grasslands/...

ILRI News

The challenge of securing women's land rights in the pastoral areas of Ethiopia

Land rights remain a complex and ambiguous subject for the majority of people in sub-Saharan Africa. In Ethiopia, formal state laws assert that women have equal rights regarding land use and access. However, Ethiopia's pastoral areas are often highly influenced by both religious and customary...

Mazingira blog

A field visit to support climate-smart sustainable agro-pastoralism in East Africa

On 1 Sep 2021, scientists Sonja Leitner and Claudia Arndt from the Mazingira Centre of the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) in Nairobi, Kenya, hosted a group of international researchers on ILRI’s Kapiti Research Station in Machakos County. They were supported in the field by farm...

  • sonjaleitner
AVCD program blog

Syndromic e-surveillance: averting livestock disease outbreaks, improving livelihoods

In early 2019, pastoralists in Turkana County lost 675 camels ( Camelus dromedarius ) with more than 750,000 at risk due to a severe outbreak of the contagious haemorrhagic septicaemia disease. It was not only a costly economic loss, estimated at 33.7 million Kenya shillings (USD337,000) but also a...

  • wanderaojanji
ILRI News
ILRI News

Building the evidence case for scaling up drought risk financing in East Africa

Just over 10 years ago, researchers at the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) and their partners* launched an ambitious experiment: to provide index based livestock insurance (IBLI) for livestock keepers to help protect them from drought-related asset losses. This safety net...

ILRI News

After 10 years in Kenya and Ethiopia, are we ready to scale up livestock insurance in the Horn of Africa?

Index-Based Livestock Insurance (IBLI) programs in East Africa have thus far had limited success. A new ILRI study finds that future initiatives should embrace a number of lessons learned if they wish to achieve scale and financial sustainability. It’s not a secret – for millions of people,...

  • Felix Lung
    Disaster risk finance consultant
New science
ILRI News

​​​​​​​New atlas reveals climate-critical rangelands cover half the world's land surface, supporting millions of people and critical ecosystems—yet often ignored despite threats

● 54 per cent of the world’s terrestrial surface consists of rangelands, but just 10 per cent of national climate plans (as part of the Paris Climate Agreement) include references to rangelands ● New rangelands atlas can guide climate and biodiversity negotiators ahead of UN summits ● Despite their...

ILRI News

Towards clearer One Health policies in eastern Africa: Interview with HEAL Project interim regional manager

In November 2020, Zuleka Ismail joined the One Health for Humans, Environment, Animals and Livelihoods (HEAL) Project as interim regional manager. Zuleka brings more than seven years of experience in managing and monitoring public health and veterinary programs in pastoralist systems to the table...

Opinion and analysis
ILRI News

A blind spot in global health surveillance: Africa's nomadic pastoralist communities

(Photo above by KINNAPA/Abraham Akilimali) Three ILRI scientists—Eric Fevre, Bernard Bett and Nathan Jensen—co-authored with others an interesting ‘note’ published earlier this month in an academic journal that argues that Africa’s nomadic pastoralist communities and landscapes are a blind spot in...