Horn Relief: What we do
Protecting the environment
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The sustainability and success of pastoralist communities depends almost entirely on the state of their surrounding environment. Horn Relief’s programs focus on mitigating further environmental degradation through the promotion of pastoral livelihoods and natural resource management with local and international actors by:
- Enhancing rangeland management practices in pastoral communities
- Addressing accelerated land degradation through soil and water conservation and replanting
- Investing in sustainable energy practices, particularly solar power
- Campaigning against environmentally destructive practices such as charcoal production, dumping of waste and illegal fishing
- Research and documentation of the state of environmental degradation and best practices through regular data collection systems
A healthy and productive environment is essential for sustaining pastoral livelihoods. The success of pastoral communities depends entirely on the state of their surrounding environment. These communities depend on productive rangelands to raise camels, sheep, and goats. Currently, some regions are faced by an environmental crisis, brought on by multiple natural and man made shocks that has affected pasture conditions, caused near desertification and increased incidences of accelerated erosion. At the same time, the populations of the region lack both the human and financial resources to address these critical issues.
Horn Relief's programmes focus on mitigating further environmental degradation in the region by:
- Acting as an advocate and source of information on the relationship between pastoral livelihoods and natural resource management, and
- Promoting sustainable management and protection of natural resources in partnership with communities by promoting:
- On-going environmental documentation and research;
- Maintenance of traditional pastoral rangeland management practices;
- Contributing to technical best practices for soil and water conservation
methods, including programming for environmental rehabilitation in arid and semi arid areas;- Advocacy and lobby efforts for the cessation of environmentally destructive practices (charcoal production, dumping of waste, illegal fishing)
- Conducting environmental research and documentation of pastoral traditions;
- Investing in sustainable alternative energy practices such as solar power; and
- Improving productivity of rangelands.
Horn Relief founder and Executive Director, Fatima Jibrell, received the Goldman Environmental Prize in 2002 for her efforts to put an end to the devastating charcoal trade. Read more about Fatima and the Goldman Prize .
