Villagers agree to dismantle illegal
grazing enclosures
By
Aden Yusuf Qodah --Somalilaland
“Somaliland Ministry of Pastoral Development and
Environment has held a ten-day advocacy
workshop on the protection and preservation of the
environment in
Baligubadle which is one of the Hargeisa Region
Districts with the support of Danish
Refugee Council ( DRC).
The workshop was attended by 70 community members
including
the traditional leaders such as Aqils , the religious
leaders and elders, members from the
women and youth organizations, and the pastoralists
and semi-pastoralists in the District.
At the end of the workshop, the participants
unanimously signed a declaration stating that
they are committed to remove all the illegal communal
grazing enclosures that occupy
more than 60 percent of the grazing area of the
district.
The workshop participants then formed a 15 -member
environment committee to
immediately launch a public awareness advocacy
campaign to cover all the 20 villages of
the district followed by community- driven
activities to remove all the illegal individual
enclosures that are established in the communal
grazing lands to give free access to
livestock and enclosure proper rangeland management .
The community prioritized the plain area as the
Minister of Environment told me and
started their activities to clear the area from the
individual illegal enclosures that restrict
the sharing of the communal grazing lands by the
pastoralists. The private use of the
communal grazing lands is always a source of the
intra and inter-clan armed
conflicts among the rural communities.
The recurring resource conflict on the newly
introduced illegal enclosures in the communal grazing
lands does not give room for the
Somali customary law that serves the best tool in
resolving disputes in Somaliland in
general and in the rural areas in particular.
Therefore, it remains a constant dilemma that
threatens peace and security and often leads to armed
conflict due to the limited
available natural resources.
The community in Baligubadle district , under the
leadership of the traditional leaders ,
members from the pastoral community ,elders , civil
society organizations , the district
authorities , the regional coordinator of the
Ministry of the Rural Development and
Environment , Danish Refugee council commenced their
work to remove the illegal
enclosures , but after 10 days of rigorous work , it
became clear that the community
including the owners of the removed enclosures
earnestly support the initiative but
on the condition that all existing illegal enclosures
that cover 60 percent of the communal
grazing lands in Baligubalde be removed to ensure
equal justice for all .
But on the other hand, it became apparently clear
that if the removal of the illegal
enclosures is temporarily halted as previously planed
it may cause conflicts of interest
between those who already removed their enclosures
and their neighbors. Both the
ministry of pastoral development and environment and
communities committee
expressed their concern and immediately decided to
revise their plans and to continue
dismantling all the existing illegal enclosures in
the whole region. The minister of
environment held several meetings in his office with
the representatives of the rural
community, the village headmen, and other
stakeholders and they all agreed on the new
plan and expressed their commitment to support the
initiative by donating enough
number of sheep and goats for meat in contribution to
the community driven efforts that
would be very crucial activities in the environmental
conservation activities in
Somaliland.”