When the state arrived in Maasailand and the Maasai became citizens, farmers, and conservationists to remain pastoralists

Despite the growing recognition of dryland transformation, insufficient attention has been paid to the ways national law creates challenges and opportunities for pastoralists. Here, we examine how the Maasai in Southern Kiteto, Tanzania, have adapted and contributed to agricultural expansion by using village governments’ relatively new official authority to establish private and community property. Using biophysical and ethnographic data, we document and explain two decades of land use change (2000–2020) where agriculture has replaced large traditional grazing areas and Maasai pastoralists have reversed their seasonal grazing cycle. Fortunately, harvested farms are better dry-season pastures than uncultivated lands per area unit. Recognising this, Maasai pastoralists have strategically established private farms in Maasai-dominated villages, which they now use for post-harvest grazing during the dry season. In contrast, those in non-Maasai-dominated villages have struggled to do so, but they negotiate access to farmers’ harvested fields in their own or distant villages. Reflecting the growing public authority of village governments, movements of livestock across the landscape increasingly require cash payments to farmers and host villages. Importantly, the Maasai, assisted by non-state actors and donor-supported projects, have also used recent national legislation to establish common property areas, including forests, where livestock grazing is allowed and agricultural expansion is prohibited. These have become vital wet-season pastures, when livestock would otherwise damage cropped farms, making grassland and forest conservation a priority for Maasai pastoralists. Thus, the Maasai have strategically become agrosilvopastoralists by applying new national legislation and engaging as citizens in village governments and associated common pool resource governance institutions to sustain their pastoral livelihoods. This contributes to a state formation process that advances national objectives of nature conservation, reduces farmer-herder conflicts, and promotes economic development in rural areas.