Pastoral women and their rangelands in Tanzania: a feminist critical discourse reframing

In northern Tanzania, pastoral women are targets of gender equality efforts that attempt to translate gender and environment theory into conservation action. These conservation efforts, much like other development agendas in Tanzania, are often driven by international narratives that oversimplify the knowledge, position, and power of pastoral women. Within the context of the integrated conservation and development agenda, this study turns attention to local discourse to investigate pastoral women’s work, positions, and roles in relation to their rangelands in northern Tanzania. Textual materials from three local non-governmental organisations were the focus of a novel ‘names, chains, and frames’ feminist critical discourse analysis method. Analysis of the data provides new information about the characteristics of pastoral women’s lives in northern Tanzania. In contrast to international development representations, pastoral women’s identities are complex and shifting, while their rangelands are both a place of nurturing and of conflict. This study also points out the potential negative impacts of conservation and development activities on women, especially lower-income pastoralists. Ultimately, results of this study invite actors to break away from dichotomous world views and Western-driven notions of nature. We advocate that a willingness to look through locally constructed frames will lead to the design of a new generation of integrated conservation and development projects that more successfully honor today’s pastoral women.