Pastoral Commercialisation: on Caloric Terms of Trade and Related Issues. With four Kenyan case studies: the Pokot, the Maasai, the Somali and the situation in Marsabit Ton Dietz, Abdirizak Arale Nunow, Adano Wario Roba and Fred Zaal* Amsterdam Research Institute for Global Issues and Development Studies (AGIDS) University of Amsterdam In: Mohamed Salih, M, Ton Dietz & Abdel Ghaffar Mohamed Ahmed, 2001, African Pastoralism, Conflict, Institutions and Government. London: Pluto Press in association with OSSREA, pp. 194-234. Based on a contribution to a conference organised by OSSREA in Addis Ababa, October 1999. The title of the contribution there was ‘Pastoral Commercialisation: a Risky Business? Three Kenyan Case Studies: the Pokot, the Maasai and the Somali’. * Ton Dietz is professor of political environmental geography at the University of Amsterdam and director of AGIDS Abdirizak Arale Nunow is a member of staff of Moi University’s School of Environmental Studies and PhD student at the University of Amsterdam, in collaboration with the African Studies Centre, Leiden Adano Wario Roba is a PhD student of AGIDS, in collaboration with York University Fred Zaal is postdoc researcher of AGIDS AGIDS is a founding member of the Netherlands Research School for Resource Studies for Development CERES The research among the Pokot was partly funded by the Dutch Ministry of Development Cooperation (as a research for the Arid and Semi-Arid Lands Programme in West Pokot) and partly by the University of Amsterdam (recent data collection by Rachel Andiema is gratefully acknowledged); the research among the Maasai and the Somali was partly funded by the Netherlands Israel Development Research Programme and in collaboration with the ASAL Programme in Kajiado and with the School of Environmental Studies, Moi University in Eldoret, Kenya. The research project in Marsabit was funded by WOTRO. The section on concepts and some elements of the Pokot and Maasai cases were presented before at a conference in Uppsala, in late 1995 (see Zaal & Dietz 1999, pp. 166-172). The literature review is a summary from Zaal 1998. As the Somali case has never been presented before some more empirical evidence will be presented in that section of the paper. Results of a fourth related project, in Kenya’s northern Marsabit region (among the Gabbra, Boran and Rendille, by PhD student Adano Wario Roba) could only partly be included, and was not discussed yet at the Addis Ababa conference. The authors wish to thank all contributors to a lively debate about the paper at the Addis Ababa conference. agids@frw.uva.nl http://frw.uva.nl/agids AGIDS, 1018VZ130, NL fax 0031205254051 tel 0031205254063