SPECIAL REPORT: As COP17 nears, Nigeria’s rangelands crisis deepens, threatening farmers, pastoral livelihoods

On a Monday in early August, when a herd of cattle led by pastoralists strayed into a soybean farm in the Pampo community, Kataeregi District, Katcha Local Government Area, Niger State, North-central Nigeria, an argument broke out between the farmers and the herders.

The disagreement quickly degenerated into a clash, leaving at least four farmers seriously injured as they attempted to prevent the cattle from grazing on their cultivated fields.

The incident is the latest in a long-running pattern of farmer-herder clashes that has affected agrarian communities across Nigeria. Repeated confrontations and reprisal attacks have devastated communities, caused deaths and disrupted agricultural activities and livelihoods.

Over the past decade, farmer-herder conflicts in Nigeria have resulted in thousands of deaths, widespread displacement and significant economic losses, particularly across the Middle Belt and North-central regions.

Documentation by organisations, including Amnesty International and the Nigerian Security Tracker, has recorded thousands of deaths linked to the conflicts. Previous reports have also documented intense periods of violence, including more than 3,600 deaths during one multi-year spike and an estimated 3,000 deaths across North-central states during a subsequent five-year period.

What is driving the conflict?

At the heart of the conflict is increasing competition over shrinking land and natural resources. Data show that Nigeria has about 417 grazing reserves covering a land area of about 4.5 million hectares, spread across the Northern region and parts of the South West (Oyo and Ogun states). Of this figure, 273 have been officially gazetted. However, over the decades, the physical network of routes and rangelands has become increasingly dysfunctional due to anthropogenic pressures driven by population growth, urbanisation, and the Land Use Act of 1978.

Meanwhile, extreme weather events such as rapid desertification, recurrent droughts, and pasture degradation have reduced the availability of grazing land in northern Nigeria and other parts of the Sahel. As pastoralists move in search of water and pasture, they increasingly come into contact with sedentary farmers whose livelihoods depend on cultivated land.

The proliferation of small arms and light weapons has also transformed what might otherwise have been localised disputes over crops, livestock and access to land into deadly confrontations.

In some areas, experts say, criminal groups and armed gangs have exploited existing communal tensions, further worsening insecurity. However, they have also hinted that the crisis cannot be addressed solely as a security problem. The deteriorating condition of Nigeria’s rangelands and grazing routes is also central to the problem.

As global attention turns to COP17, Nigeria’s rangelands are coming under increasing pressure from desertification, climate change and competing land-use demands. The degradation is disrupting pastoral livelihoods, increasing pressure on agricultural land and threatening biodiversity across northern Nigeria and the wider Sahel.

Rangeland degradation and biodiversity

In an interview with PREMIUM TIMES, Naziru Zakari, a Bauchi-based wildlife conservation expert, said rangelands are critical not only to pastoralism but also to biodiversity conservation.

“I am going to speak from the perspective of wildlife conservation and management as a conservation biologist. Firstly, rangelands are extremely important for biodiversity conservation because they are where many wildlife species find refuge and survive,” he said.

Mr Zakari said rangelands also provide habitat for rare and endangered species that may not necessarily be found within protected areas.

“This brings home the importance of efficient management of rangelands, as it affects biodiversity conservation,” he said.

According to him, human activities, including grazing, farming and infrastructure development, have contributed significantly to the degradation and encroachment of rangelands and grazing routes in Nigeria.

He criticised the management of grazing routes and rangelands by government institutions, saying ineffective management has contributed to their deterioration.

“This has led to the degradation of the grazing routes and rangelands, leaving the nomadic herders with no option but to encroach into government wildlife protected areas and private lands to graze their animals, and sometimes even settling for some period of time if they notice the place is rich for feeding their livestock,” he said.

Mr Zakari said the resulting competition for land and pasture has helped sustain farmer-herder clashes.

“Hence, the clash between farmers and herders continues to erupt as a result of this,” he said.

He called for improved management of grazing routes and government-owned grazing reserves, arguing that simply eliminating grazing routes without providing alternative infrastructure would not resolve the problem.

“In my candid opinion, the government’s improvement of rangeland management and grazing routes will go a long way in solving the farmer-herder clashes,” he said.

“This can be done because there are already land-use practices and government policies regarding the use of land. The government can ensure strict compliance with the law.”

Mr Zakari added that the government should invest in infrastructure within grazing reserves and strengthen law enforcement to encourage pastoralists to use designated areas.

Government turns to ranching

In the face of this problem, the federal government has increasingly promoted ranching as part of its response to the long-running farmer-herder crisis.

This prompted the government to initiate the National Ranching Policy framework that began taking shape following the establishment of the Federal Ministry of Livestock Development in July 2024.

The rollout has occurred in stages.

In September last year, the government launched the broader operational framework, the five-year National Livestock Master Plan,

In February, the Minister of Livestock Development, Idi Maiha, officially accelerated the implementation of the targeted ranching policy.

This month, the minister announced that the six-state pilot rollout was formally activated, beginning with the Wase Grazing Reserve proof-of-concept.

The initiative is intended to provide a more structured system for livestock production while reducing the movement of cattle through farming communities and the resulting conflicts over cultivated land.

However, experts argue that ranching alone may not resolve the broader environmental crisis if the degradation of rangelands and grazing reserves is not simultaneously addressed.

Nigeria heads to COP17

The rangeland crisis comes as Nigeria joins other countries at the 17th session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD COP17) in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, from 17 to 28 August.

The conference is being held under the theme, “Restoring Land. Restoring Hope.”

According to the United Nations, COP17 is expected to bring together delegates from UNCCD’s 197 Parties, alongside government, business and civil society leaders, scientists, young people, Indigenous Peoples, pastoralists and smallholder farmers.

They are expected to deliberate on solutions to the interconnected challenges of desertification, land degradation and drought, with particular attention to how land restoration can help reduce instability, prevent displacement and strengthen human and national security in vulnerable regions.

PREMIUM TIMES gathered that at least 60 delegates from Nigeria are expected to participate in the conference.

“Land is our most vital infrastructure — underpinning food security, water, livelihoods and stability. When land fails, insecurity rises — through lost livelihoods, forced displacement and increased competition over scarce resources,” UNCCD Executive Secretary Yasmine Fouad said.

She said the conference must promote practical, investable solutions as drought intensifies and land degradation accelerates, including restoring degraded land and soils and strengthening the land-water nexus.

Nigeria’s worsening land degradation

Data from the UNCCD Data Dashboard indicate that approximately 11.96 per cent of Africa’s total land area was recorded as degraded in baseline reporting.

For Nigeria, the figure is roughly 23.41 per cent, equivalent to about 21.07 million hectares of the country’s total land area.

The degradation of rangelands is particularly concerning because of its implications for pastoral livelihoods, agriculture, biodiversity and food security.

Nigerian authorities have said more than 50 per cent of the country’s rangelands and grazing routes have been degraded.

The deterioration has contributed to growing pressure on the remaining pasture and water resources, increasing competition between pastoralists and farmers and aggravating conflicts that have persisted across several parts of the country for decades.

Insecurity and funding undermine restoration efforts

For the government agencies responsible for addressing desertification and land degradation, restoring affected landscapes is a difficult task in itself.

Etim William, Director of the Desertification, Land Degradation and Drought Management Department of the Federal Ministry of Environment, said insecurity remains one of the biggest obstacles to government intervention.

“The challenges in our case are enormous. One of the greatest is insecurity. These areas are affected by banditry, terrorism and kidnapping, so some areas are not accessible because they are high-risk areas in terms of security,” Mr William said.

He said insecurity sometimes prevents officials from reaching areas where restoration interventions are required.

“Sometimes we cannot go to those areas,” he said.

Even where officials can establish restoration projects, he said, vandalism and livestock incursions pose additional challenges.

“In areas that we can reach, after establishing plantations, we sometimes find people coming to vandalise the projects. They steal solar pumps and solar panels and break the fences,” he said.

The government normally protects its plantations with wire fencing, Mr William said, but cattle sometimes enter the project sites and destroy seedlings.

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“These are some of the challenges we are facing,” he said.

Funding is another major constraint.

William said government agencies responsible for combating desertification and land degradation have to compete with other sectors for limited public resources.

“Another challenge is funding. The government has many things to address, and many sectors require subsidies and appropriations. What comes to us is just a pittance, so we have to make do with the limited funds available to us,” he said.

With COP17 focusing global attention on restoring degraded land, Nigeria faces the difficult task of translating international commitments into practical interventions at home.

For farmers, pastoralists and communities already facing the consequences of degraded land, the stakes are particularly high. Without effective restoration of rangelands, better management of grazing routes, improved security and sustainable livestock production systems, competition for increasingly scarce land and water resources is likely to persist.