Women-Led Grassplots for Rangelands Restoration and Climate Resilience

Scaling Women-Led Grassplots for Rangelands Restoration and Climate Resilience in Sera Community Conservancy

Project Story

Across the drylands of northern Kenya’s Sera Community Conservancy, pastoralists women are emerging as leaders in restoring degraded rangelands while building resilience to climate change. Through village-based grassplots, women grow indigenous grass species using semi –circular bunds technique to provide seedlings for rangeland restoration, improve household livelihoods and strengthen community resilience. What began as a small conservation initiative has grown into a practical model that combines rangelands restoration and climate adaptation efforts for women.

This women- led project not only restore degraded landscapes but also create opportunities for women to generate income, strengthen food security and contribute directly to the rangelands management of longer term sustainability.

The women sale the grass seedlings harvested from the grassplots to community members and landscape partners for rangelands as they graze the milk cows in the plots during the dry season when the herds move away supplementing family diet.

Our Mission

We protect rangelands and wildlife through an accountable, scalable, community-led conservation model that strengthens livelihoods.

This particular project places women at the center of rangeland restoration and climate resilience, empowering them to lead regeneration efforts that improve livelihoods, protect livestock resources and restore the health of the landscape.

Background and Problem Statement

Sera Community Conservancy lies within the arid and semi-arid lands of northern Kenya, where healthy rangelands are critical for both wildlife conservation and pastoral livelihoods. However, prolonged droughts, erratic rainfall patterns, overgrazing and increasing climate variability have contributed to significant rangeland degradation across the landscape.

The loss of grass cover has reduced pasture availability for livestock and wildlife, increased soil erosion and diminished the land's capacity to recover from climatic shocks. As grazing resources become scarce, livestock often travel long distances in search of forage and water. This movement places additional burdens on women and children who are responsible for many household tasks and often remain behind with lactating animals and young children.

The women bear a disproportionate climatic burden in maintaining family health and food security. Without alternative income sources, families become increasingly dependent on livestock, making them highly susceptible to climate-related losses. There is therefore an urgent need for community-driven restoration approaches that rebuild degraded rangelands while creating sustainable economic opportunities for women.

This project puts these women at the heart of the action and invests in their agency to implement climate change adaptation strategies through the grass seed bank (grass plots) projects that enhance supply of grass for community-based rangelands restoration and while also keeping the milk cows in the plots during the dry season to supplement their diets.

Solution

The project establishes and scales village-based, women-led grass plots that serve as community grass seed banks, educational demonstration sites and restoration hubs.

Women are supported in establishing and managing grass plots where indigenous grass species are propagated and harvested for seed diversifying livelihoods. The harvested seed are stored and used to restore degraded areas within the conservancy and on surrounding community lands on the onset of rains.

The grassplots also serve as learning centers where women, youth, and community members gain practical knowledge in rangeland restoration and climate adaptation practices.

This community led project also helps change mindsets and spreads knowledge among other pastoral communities on how to restore and manage rangelands for long term sustainability.

Opportunity

This project presents a major opportunity to restore degraded rangelands, improve pasture availability and support the regeneration of the landscape.

It also offers women a meaningful income-generating activity through grass seed production and sale.

As the number of grassplots increase, more households will benefit from improved access to fodder for milk cows when herds move and better milk production because cows do not need to travel far in search of pasture.

In addition, the project contributes to broader climate resilience and may create a foundation for future carbon-related restoration benefits.

How We Regenerate

The project regenerates landscapes through a combination of grass seed production, reseeding using the semicircular techniques and protection of restored degraded areas from livestock and wildlife access.

Women establish and manage grass plots that produce high-quality indigenous grass seeds that are used during the rainy season for reseeding degraded rangelands.

Restoration sites are protected from grazing pressure during the establishment phase, allowing vegetation to recover naturally.

As grass cover increases, soil stability improves, erosion decreases, water infiltration increases, and biodiversity begins to recover. These restored areas provide better grazing resources for both livestock and wildlife, contributing to long-term ecosystem health and resilience.

Tracking Impact

Project success will be measured through:

• The number of successful grassplots established
• Quantity of grass seed harvested
• Hectares of degraded land restored
• Income earned by women from sell of grass seedlings
• Number of women actively participating and trained
• Potential carbon credit footprint and restoration co-benefits

 Our Experience

Sera Community Conservancy has been implementing women-led grassplot projects as part of the broader rangeland restoration strategy. Currently, four active grassplots are managed by women's groups across the conservancy providing a foundation for scaling restoration efforts.

The initiative is supported by the Conservancy's rangelands department, which provides technical guidance on grass establishment, seed harvesting, restoration planning and monitoring. The department works closely with women's groups to ensure that restoration activities are scientifically informed and aligned with broader landscape management objectives.

The women have restored 80 hectares of degraded landscapes, harvested seedlings and supported households’ incomes. The grassplots have demonstrated the potential of community-led restoration to regenerate degraded areas while creating tangible benefits for women and their households.

50 women village level women rangelands have been trained on the semicircular bunds’ techniques have become the trainers and supervisors of more women and grassplots.

With increasing acceptance of model, Sera aims to expand the number of grassplots, increase seed production, strengthen women's leadership, and restore larger areas of degraded rangelands across the conservancy landscape.