Climate Change Threatens Indigenous Culture & Livelihoods.

---

The Maasai are Indigenous people who live in Kenya and Tanzania. From their rituals and traditions to their economic and livelihood sustenance, cattle are essential to their culture, identity, and belief systems. (The Cattle Currency of the Maasai). 

400 Years of a Sustainable Lifestyle Under Threat

For more than 400 years (National Geographic), the Maasai have lived a sustainable lifestyle based on their cattle herds. Maasai women milk the cows, and men herd and protect the cattle. The herds travel to new areas each season across the seemingly endless grasslands of the Serengeti and Amboseli. In Maasai tradition, everyone owns the land and shares it equally. 

Grasslands of the Serengeti are Drying Up due to Climate Change

Increasingly, the grasslands are drying up due to climate change. The Maasai are also increasingly being shut out of traditional grazing lands now reserved in safari parks. Large areas of Ethiopia, Somalia, and Kenya are currently in the grip of a severe drought. Four consecutive rainy seasons have now failed since late 2020, a climatic event not seen in at least 40 years. This  has resulted in a loss of soil moisture, caused waterways to dry up, and led to the death of millions of livestock.

"An estimated 16.7 million people face acute food insecurity. That’s more than the combined populations of Austria and Switzerland," (Relief Web).

Women and Girls Walk Most of the Day in Search of Water

Women and girls spend most of the day walking long distances in search of water because the usual water sources, like rivers, dry up often. Snow on Mt Kilimanjaro and Mt Kenya is melting away, contributing to increased flooding. The elders say the nights are now colder, and frost covers pastures, which is dangerous to livestock health.

Emergency Relief is Needed to Send Hay to Feed Maasai Cattle Today!

Soil4Climate has partnered with Dalmas Tiampati, a Maasai leader and pastoralist who founded the Maasai Center for Regenerative Pastoralism in 2015, to advance "Holistically Planned Grazing Management." This project will help restore grasslands, sequester soil carbon, and set up regenerative grazing and dairy operations. But this takes time, and the Maasai need emergency relief today in to ward off famine. Please donate to Maasai Emergency Relief Efforts today!

Soil4Climate and the Maasai Center for Regenerative Pastoralism launched a joint initiative, the Maasai Lands Restoration Project, in 2017 and visited project partners in Kenya and Nairobi in 2017 and 2019 for in person trainings (see photos below)

Improving the Land Sequesters Carbon

The project aims to improve degraded soils on Maasai-owned land in Kajiado County, Kenya, to provide permanent solutions to the challenges of drought, desertification, and food and water security, chronically plaguing the region. In addition, improving the land will sequester carbon, helping to address climate change.

Regenerative Grazing Improves the Land

Soil4Climate works with Maasai herders who are practicing regenerative grazing - moving animals in a way that restores damaged landscapes, sequestering carbon, and improving the soil.Regenerative grazing of livestock will be utilized to improve the land and increase the abundance of grass, allowing the herd size to grow. As the project proceeds, permaculture practices and other eco-agricultural innovations will be integrated into land management.

Partners in Holistic Land & Livestock Management

The Maasai Center for Regenerative Pastoralism, a Kenya-based nonprofit, works with Maasai pastoralists to implement regenerative land management practices. The Mara Training Center, in the northern Mara region of Kenya, is a Savory Institute Hub working to enhance the area’s plant and animal life and increase its economic viability. Other partners in this effort include the Mara Training Centre in Kenya, offering training in holistic land and livestock management.

Ecological Monitoring of Soil Carbon & Range VegetationThe Department of Land Resource Management and Agricultural Technology (LARMAT) at the University of Nairobi provides ecological monitoring of soil carbon and range vegetation.