 Pastoralists have lived on this land for nearly 4,000 years. Maasai people respect the mara because it provides everything our livestock needs. The world's drylands are exceptional lands that have excited people's imaginations for generations, for good reason. Drylands cover more than 40% of Earth's land surface, more than any other type of land, and are home to most of the Earth's savannas. Known as the Savannah Continent, Africa has more savannas than on any other continent on Earth. Close to 120 million people, about two-thirds of the rural drylands population across West and East Africa, depend on livestock for their income, nutrition and way of life. Many of these are pastoralists who herd their cattle, camels, sheep or goats across the drier parts of these savannas. Their animals feed off the seasonal, patchy vegetation that grow on soils where crop farming is difficult or impossible. In the past, we assumed that most drylands used in common by herders could become overgrazed and degraded. Now, we understand that climate has far more impact on these ecosystems than grazing. East Africa, unlike the rest of the world, has a twice a year wet and dry season. Because wet seasons can be short and dry seasons long, savanna plants must respond quickly to rainfall, as must the people and wildlife who depend upon them. When a savanna is lush and green, the animals and pastoralists grow rich and fat. When it grows parched and brown the next season, the animals and their people grow lean. The extraordinary productivity of grasslands is manifest by the vast and varied herds of wild animals that have always roamed the plains of East Africa. Natural grasslands generate a vast store of energy derived from the sun, the soil and water that animals exploit. The hidden secret of these landscapes is that while in forests, most of life is found on top of the ground. In African savannas, life teams below ground. Grasses survive by storing starchy food reserves in their underground stems. So even when straw above ground turns dry and yellow, the roots below remain alive, storing starch that stimulates new growth almost immediately when the first rains arrive. Unlike crop farmers, herders and their livestock can move to take advantage of patches of green grass and intermittent water sources to survive dry spells. Did you know that while a forest appears to have more plant food than a grassland, grassland often has the same amount or more of edible leaf biomass. Dryland pastoralists produce more than half of Africa's red meat and milk. In Kenya, 90% of the meat consumed by the population is supplied by the 16 million dryland livestock herders in the country. Most of these herders inhabit arid and semi-arid lands that cover most of Kenya and sustain both wildlife and livestock. Savanna grasslands are not fragile lands. They are built to survive periodic drought and flooding, grazing and burning. And because they are naturally resilient, drylands that do become degraded can return to health with appropriate land use. Africa is remarkable, not because there are many types of mammals, but because they are so big. No other place in the world supports the diversity of large mammals that live in Africa today. In East Africa, people and wildlife co-evolved together. An African conservation ethic for pastoral savannas is one that promotes conservation with development and development with conservation. Did you know that Tanzania has more land in protected areas than any country in the western world and the national government of Kenya spends more on protected areas per square kilometer than the United States does? In Kenya, about half the nation's wildlife still live outside wildlife preserves on pastoral lands. Where pastoralists share fairly in-the-profit stemming from wildlife conservation, conflicts between people and wildlife can be turned back into coexistence. But when farms cover a major part of a savanna, most wildlife disappear. New and accelerating political, economic and climatic stresses are challenging pastoral resilience and ability to adapt. Changing land tenure arrangements, ad hoc land use policies and increasing human population and agricultural demands are driving people onto formally open range lands. Human settlements in these areas are disrupting the traditional roots of mobile herders, livestock and wildlife. Further exacerbating this challenge is the increased frequency and severity of extreme weather events due to climate change. In response to these changes, pastoralists are creating new ways to manage range lands. Community-based range land management is one of the most promising means of achieving socially just, economically viable and environmentally sustainable management of range lands. Did you know, in Kenya, pastoralists are creating institutions such as conservancies and grazing associations to unify fragmented dry lands? Today, the Kenya Wildlife Service and local county councils and the Tanzanian National Parks Authority all share some of the proceeds from tourist fees with local pastoral communities. A novel, index-based drought insurance for dry land livestock keepers has been piloted and scaled up successfully in northern Kenya and southern Ethiopia. A more resilient and stable dry lands livestock economy is achievable. Some 30 years ago, saving the last rainforest from the acts of development caught the imagination of the world. As our understanding grew, so did our commitment to protect the indigenous peoples as well as biodiversity of the rainforests. The great savannah lands of eastern Africa, cradle of humankind, home to traditional nomadic pastoralists and the last refuge of some of the most spectacular wildlife populations on Earth should draw similar levels and kinds of global commitment. Thank you.