The promotion of commercial livestock husbandry has long been seen as a means of destocking African rangelands and increasing livestock output through increased offtake. This paper argues that commercialization does exact a long-term downward pressure on African stocking densities, which will make many policy makers, administrators, and range scientists happy. However, the shift form subsistence to market-oriented forms of range livestock husbandry also exerts downward pressure on total rangeland output and undermines the capacity of rangelands to support human populations, a possibility that is no likely to be warmly welcomed by displaced pastoralists.