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| Community Rangeland Administration: Focus on Afghanistan |
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Reference |
| Stanfield, J.D., Safar, M.Y., Salam, A., and Rural Land Administration Project (RLAP) Team. 2008. "Community Rangeland Administration: Focus on Afghanistan." Presented at "Governing Shared Resources: Connecting Local Experience to Global Challenges," 12th Biennial Conference of the International Association for the Study of Commons, Cheltenham, England, July 14-18, 2008. http://dlc.dlib.indiana.edu/archive/00004086/ |
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Introduction to the Institution |
| Millions of Afghan rural households – including nomads – depend very heavily on rangeland to survive. Rangeland, however, is legally defined as public land and cannot be privately owned. Families, clans and tribes, as well as nomadic groups which herd sheep, goats, cattle and camels across semi-arid lands use rangeland for feeding livestock, for gathering fuel, as a source of herbs for medicinal and cooking purposes, and a passage ways for moving livestock from one place to another. Rangelands also represent crucial water catchment systems which supply water for valley settlements and farming. There are traditional informal institutions and arrangements which have existed for the use of these lands. |
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Rules for Management
of the Institution |
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(a) Boundary Rules |
| Spacial Boundaries: The villagers can have the exclusive right of use to their community pastures, which is the pasture area directly surrounding the village. In the 2000 law (Article 9), such community pastures were defined as ‘the area from where the loud voice of someone standing at the edge of the village can still be heard’. Lands used for grazing which are beyond the boundary of the community pasture, are called public pastures Social Boundaries: Various terms regarding the loci of rural community life exist in Afghanistan, such as qarya (often translated as “village”), qishlaq (usually meaning “settlement”) and manteqa (meaning something like “area”). |
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(b) Governance
rules |
| There are traditional institutional structures of qarya and qishlaq called as “shuras” (local councils) which traditionally are composed of family or clan elders, typically to resolve conflicts of one sort or another. The National Solidarity Program launched in 2002 has stimulated the formation of Community Development Councils to administer infrastructure grants at the local level for settlements or villages. These NSP councils are typically comprised of approximately 25-300 families, and are more formally constituted than the traditional community shura. In regard to defining the legitimate users of public pastures whose users come from more than one qarya or qishlaq, the manteqa may become the relevant definition of local community, with the governance structure of a manteqa shura or jirga called into action under specific conditions. Another community institution revolves around the person identified as the arbab. Arbabs, also known as maliks in some regions, are respected villagers who are educated and have the political and social skills needed to deal with government agencies and other outside organizations about the needs of villages. Villagers also consult with these individuals for advice when disputes arise which cannot be resolved by the parties to the disputes or their families. Their services are usually remunerated by villagers usually at the time of harvest, in the form and amount as defined in each village by the elders of the village, including the contribution of each family. The arbab/malik typically has an official stamp to use for validating documents which he prepares. One result of this role is that arbabs/maliks often keep community records, such as royal land grants and other written documents pertaining to community activities. |
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(c) Resource Allocation |
| In some Kuchi communities the basic concept of organising access to and usage of pasture is the ‘Yurt’. Literally referring to a round dwelling place constructed of portable materials, in Kuchi communities like that of Naw Abad this term also refers to a defined geographic area of rangeland that is used by a specific family of herdsmen. In the Kuchi village of Naw Abad, the shape of these geographis ‘Yurts’ evolves over time, and the location of their boundaries is established through family consultations, and orally transferred from generation to generation. Originally, the size of each ‘Yurt’ is determined by the size of an individual herd. The number of animals belonging to a specific user also influences who is allowed to use the area in |
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Conflict Resolution Mechanism |
| An important phenomenon accompanying this degradation of rangelands is the increase in conflicts among farming and livestock dependent families for a decreasing supply of adequate rangeland. As the supply of rangeland declines, and with a constant or increasing demand for areas to pasture livestock, competition for this increasingly scarce resource inevitably results. Evidence suggests that pastures are the principal focus of conflict in Afghanistan, often inflaming ethnic problems and cross-cutting with unresolved conflicting arable and pastoral land needs. To address these issues procedures have been developed to draft agreements among the village leaders and elders as well as leaders of nomadic groups as to who are the legitimate users of pasture parcels. |
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Problems Faced by Institution |
| Rangelands have been deteriorating in recent decades. Many formerly viable rangelands have become virtually barren wastelands. The degradation of |
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Changes in the Institution over time |
| The Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Livestock (MAIL) introduced a significant new policy/strategy in 2006 when which advocates “the transfer of effective management responsibilities for forestry and range resources within defined community geographical areas to communities”. The objective of this community based management of forestry and range resources is to create value for community members (both in the form of productive resources – timber, firewood, better pasture, and as means of protecting natural resources from erosion). Procedures have been developed to draft agreements among the village leaders and elders as well as leaders of nomadic groups as to who are the legitimate users of pasture parcels. Following the formalization of these agreements among the legitimate users of these pastures, their signing and witnessing by village leaders, and delineation of pasture parcels to which the agreements refer on satellite imagery, these documents are archived in the care of a villager named by the Elders in a safe house or room in the village. Copies are filed with Provincial government land administration institutions. The Woluswali Pasture Land Specialists of the Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Livestock work with the community pasture managers on designing and implementing pasture improvement plans for each pasture parcel, and review the user agreements for completeness and clarity. The Head of the Woluswali also reviews the agreements for completeness and clarity, and verifies that its terms do not infringe on the rights of users from other villages and are in accord with regional development plans. |
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Purpose |
| Management of pastural land |
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Country |
| Afghanistan |
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Date Of Publication |
| RS-14-18/07/2008 |
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