Pastoral people in arid and semi-arid lands have, with time, developed rational sustainable land use systems based on the mobility of their livestock herds, and making optimal use of the land both geographically and ecologically. Historically such systems were self-regulating with periodic famines and disease outbreaks acting as controls. These self-regulating mechanisms are for various reasons, no longer allowed full play with resulting deterioration in land-use patterns, particularly in the settlement zones. Few people perceive the use of their land-use strategies as a soil and water conservation benefit, yet in preserving their land and vegetation this is exactly what it is. Likewise planners in soil and water conservation, in many cases, do not see the value of such strategies, preferring the use of structures in curing the problem rather than preventing the disease. There is considerable benefit in researching and incorporating such traditional values into soil and water conservation practice for arid and semi-arid lands.