Pastoralism, which is the chief mainstay for most of the population in the Somali region of the Horn of Africa, has witnessed sweeping changes. These changes are characterized by weakening resilience due to a combination of climate-induced challenges and anthropogenic factors, including overgrazing, deforestation, land-use changes, loss of soil fertility, and proliferation of invasive species.

This article provides a brief overview of rangeland management in Somalia starting from the colonial days until the collapse of the central government in 1991. The period that followed until 2016, which covers the years of self-declared independence of Somaliland up to the re-establishment of Aroori Grazing Reserve (AGR), was characterized by low investment in natural resources including agriculture, forestry, and rangelands and compounded by weak institutions due to the paucity of resources.

I outline the key takeaways from the 2016 restoration of AGR in Somaliland, including the area's value to pastoralists as a fodder reserve for livestock during hard times brought on by prolonged droughts. I also highlight emerging trends in community-led grazing management in the form of “village grazing lots” through joint land-use planning.

Grazing reserves serve as refuges and as tools to maintain indigenous grass biodiversity.

The extent of annual grass invasions in sagebrush ecosystems has required land managers to prioritize treatments in strategic locations to influence invasion outcomes. Maps of invasive annual grass cover show the extent and severity of the invasion, but they do not illustrate how invasive cover is changing over time.

The rate of change in invasive annual grass cover describes the trajectory of invasion. This information can be used to fine-tune priority locations and strategies for invasive species treatments.

We identified locations with positive, neutral, negative, and variable rates of change. Although rates of change have accelerated, there were many locations with a consistent neutral rate of change in cover. High positive rates of change frequently preceded high invasive annual grass cover, and locations that had low cover rarely had a history of high positive rates of change.

We identified potential management opportunities by combining rates of change in cover and percent cover data, illustrating both invasion severity and trajectory. We applied these potential opportunities to a map of the sagebrush biome using example thresholds. This map identifies locations that could be prioritized for different management goals and shows how those areas align with the Sagebrush Conservation Design management framework.