ALT A glowing palette of browns, reds, golds and patchy greens stretches before us as the sun climbs in a cloudless sky. In the distance, a cloud of dust shimmers in the heat haze, churned by hooves as young men guide their hungry animals across the parched, rolling landscape. Low, denuded hillsides seem to bleed from the red scars of erosion gullies. These pastoralists are stoic but stubborn, clinging to an ancient way of life, eking out a meagre living on a tragically degraded terrain. Unrooted, driven by drought, poverty and growing resource scarcity, the search for ‘greener pastures’ is ever more challenging, inviting tension and conflict with farmers, with wildlife, and with state authorities… (AI image)