Challenges to the Bedouin Traditional Natural Resources Management Systems: The Case of the Bedouin Hadandawa’s of Eastern Sudan
Publisher: Sociological Demography Press
Author(s): Omer A. Hayati, Samir M. Ali Alredaisy, Mohammed Abu Elhassan Elgasim, and Mohamed Elnour Yassen
Date: 2025
Topics: Assessment, Climate Change, Conflict Causes, Renewable Resources
Countries: Sudan
This research investigates the customary natural resource management system of the Bedouin Hadandawa in Eastern Sudan and identifies the problems it encounters in comparison to the problems encountered by other Bedouin groups in the area. The study is grounded on fieldwork carried out in the research area from January to July 1996. Data were gathered using four questionnaires to survey rural households, with a sample of 300 respondents from Arkaweit, Sinkat, Khor Arabs, Rural Durdaib, and Haya Rural Council. Published sources were also utilized to analyse the problems facing this traditional system. The results point to two critical elements of the Hadandawa's resource management system: the economic system and the social Salif system. The findings reveal that the Hadandawa have maintained this traditional system over time, promoting fair allocation of water resources as well as agricultural holdings and contributing to food security. Yet, this system is failing increasingly to provide for more recent generations, since most families have moved to urban centres and left agriculture and livestock rearing. The greatest challenges to this conventional system are attributed to environmental degradation (70%), conflict (20%), and underdevelopment with state development policies (10%). These combined present a compelling threat to the system's continuity and long-term sustainability. By way of response, the study envisages a vision of coping with these challenges that comprises four interrelated components and their anticipated effects on maintaining the Hadandawa's customary system of resource management.