The documentation of adaptive strategies of people living in arid and semi-arid land reveals that people have evolved complex adaptive strategies to deal with their environments in a sustainable way. Various pressures are forcing an ever increasing rate of change, necessitating the adoption of new strategies for survival. Thus some of the adaptive strategies identified are relatively new, while others have been passed on from one generation to the next.

These findings are not surprising. It is clear that in searching for insights into the promotion of sustainable livelihoods, the adaptive strategies which need close inspection are the ones which are entrenched in the traditional systems, because, unlike the modern statutory systems, they tend to be explicit in the norms and regulations which guide people in their interaction with natural resources. The policy debate has yet to pay sufficient attention to the arrangements within traditional systems which enable the development of adaptive strategies which are attuned to the long-term survival of the environment. The different support systems and decision-making processes of the various groups of pastoralists need to be taken into account to support lessons learned from local adaptive strategies for policy, as well as for sustainable livelihoods.