Pastoral Movements and Resource Claims in Southeastern Chad: The Interplay Between the Institutional Needs of Social Porosity and Connection

A major focus in pastoralism studies has been on the socially porous or open-access nature of pastoral tenure systems that allow herd movements to respond to shifting availabilities of water and pasture without social constraints. We address the important question of whether herd movements in socially porous tenure regimes are influenced by the social identities of encampment host and visitor, reflecting other needs of mobile pastoralism requiring social cooperation. We assessed pastoral tenure characteristics and the social identities of encampment hosts and visitors at 1014 mapped encampment points in southeastern Chad. We found that under a socially porous tenure regime, visitation is biased toward co-membership of Arab clans. Informants point to the importance of social connections at encampments that facilitate actions to maintain resource access and reduce security risks. Together, these findings support multi-level institutional hybrid structures often found in customary pastoral organization as an important component in transhumance governance institutions.