JOURNAL OF DEGRADED AND MINING LANDS MANAGEMENT Volume 10, Number 2 (January 2023):4179-4190, doi:10.15243/jdmlm.2023.102.4179 ISSN: 2339-076X (p); 2502-2458 (e), www.jdmlm.ub.ac.id Open Access 4179 Research Article Existential threats to pastoralism in an arid environment: the fate of Gujii pastoralists in Southern Ethiopia Mekuria Haleke Guye 1,3* , Abiyot Legesse 2 , Yimer Mohammed 2 1 Department of Geography and Environmental Studies, Arba Minch University, Arba Minch, Ethiopia 2 Dilla University, Gedeo, Dilla, Ethiopia 3 Bule Hora University, Bule Hora, Ethiopia * corresponding author: mekuriaguye@gmail.com Abstract Article history: Received 25 August 2022 Accepted 27 October 2022 Published 1 January 2023 The pastoralists of Gujii have faced numerous risks, with their pastoralism system facing serious challenges. With the technically inconsistent and timely unmanaged interventions, several pastoral households are facing unreserved challenges. As a result, the future of pastoralists appears to be in great danger. The objective of this study was to investigate the ongoing challenges of Gujii pastoralism, as well as the fate of pastoralists in southern Ethiopia who are suffering from unrelenting drought. Ethiopian Meteorological Agency provided monthly rainfall and temperature data from 1986 to 2016. A household survey was conducted with 340 household heads randomly chosen from the study area to examine the challenges of the pastoralists have been facing. Moreover, a key informant interview and a focus group discussion were employed to collect qualitative data. Each watershed unit held one round of focus group discussions, with an average of 7-10 participants. The coefficient of variation (CV) was used to detect the temporal variability of seasonal rainfall and temperature. To detect trends, the Mann Kendall (MK) and Sen's slope estimator were used to determine the trends and magnitude of the change. Political and tenure insecurity seriously affected the pastoral system in different ways. Autumn and spring had high variability in rainfall, with CV = 48.76% and 32.43%, respectively. Both winter and spring temperatures show a significant increase at (a = 0.1). Climate variability has made the already fragile pastoral households even more vulnerable. Pastoralist’s future would be difficult with all of these problems, and its resilience would be doubtful. As a result, in order to ensure the pastoral's long-term survivability, the government. Keywords: coefficient of variation Mann Kendall pastoralists rainfall variability To cite this article: Guye, M.H., Legesse, A. and Mohammed, Y. 2023. Existential threats to pastoralism in an arid environment: the fate of Gujii pastoralists in Southern Ethiopia. Journal of Degraded and Mining Lands Management 10(2):4179-4190, doi:10.15243/jdmlm.2023.102.4179. Introduction Pastoralism is an economic system in which people make their living by raising livestock. Due to the nature of pastoralist livelihoods, determining the total population of pastoralists worldwide is difficult. There are approximately 200 million pastoralists in the world (Ajao and Ogunniyi, 2011; IUCN, 2011). Pastoralists use approximately 25% of the world's land area, supporting approximately 200 million pastoralist households, and produce 10% of the world's meat (Abara et al., 2020). Pastoralists occupy 60% of Africa's land area (Nyangena, 2018), with 50 million estimated to live in Sub-Saharan Africa (Szeptycki et al., 2015; Selemani, 2020). In Eastern Africa, this sector accounts for more than 70% of Kenya's land area and 50% of Ethiopia, Somalia, Sudan, Tanzania, and Uganda (Mellisse and Wassie, 2014). This ranges from 95% in Somalia and Djibouti to more than 80% in Kenya, 60% in Uganda, and 30-60% in Tanzania