CONFLICT SENSITIVITY OF ESTABLISHING THE KACHIA GRAZING RESERVE IN KADUNA STATE AS A CONFLICT PREVENTION STRATEGY: A LITERATURE REVIEW
Joseph Atang and Abdullahi N. Liman, PhD
Volume 13 Issue 1
Abstract
The establishment of the Kachia Grazing Reserve in Kaduna State is intended to be a conflict prevention and peacebuilding strategy in the face of the incessant conflicts between nomadic pastoralists and the settled farming communities. It is also meant to engender improved health for pastoralists and their livestock due to sedentarization, improved animal husbandry and increased agricultural productivity. However, no matter how well intentioned, peacebuilding and development programming can exacerbate or bring about conflict if not well conceived, planned, implemented, monitored and reported. Through a review of secondary data, this paper, therefore, places the implementation of the Kachia Grazing Reserve Law 1996 on the scale of conflict sensitivity. It examines whether the establishment of the Kachia Grazing Reserve was done, and whether the management is being done, in such a manner as not to exacerbate or even create more conflicts between pastoralists and the indigenous farming communities surrounding the reserve. The paper has found that although conceptualization of the grazing reserve was conflict sensitive, there was no systematic mainstreaming of conflict sensitivity in the establishment of the reserve. There is also no mainstreaming of conflict sensitivity in the management, monitoring and reporting of the reserve. The Kachia Grazing Reserve was established and it is being managed in contravention of the Northern Nigeria Grazing Reserves Law 1965; the Kachia Grazing Reserve Law 1996 (backdated to 1988); the Kaduna State Grazing Reserve Regulations 1987; and the Nigeria Land Use Act 1978. The reserve was planned, established, and it is being managed and reported on the basis of political expediency and primordial considerations. The paper therefore recommends that in order to stem the rising tide of conflicts between inhabitants of the Kachia Grazing Reserve and their neighbouring indigenous farming communities, as well as amongst the inhabitants of the grazing reserve, a Review Committee should be inaugurated to develop a conflict sensitive framework for reviewing the reserve, starting from the implementation strategy through the monitoring and evaluation strategy to the reporting strategy. Key words: Conflict Sensitivity; Kachia Grazing Reserve Law; Conflict Sensitive Implementation; Conflict Prevention.
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