Pastoralism

Pastoralism is a way of taking care of animals like cattle, camels, goats, yaks, llamas, reindeer, horses, and sheep. People who practice pastoralism, called pastoralists, let these animals graze on large open lands called pastures. This way of life is common in places where it is hard to grow crops because of dry weather, poor soil, or extreme temperatures.

Pastoralism can be found all over the world, from Africa to the Tibetan Plateau, the Eurasian Steppes, the Andes, Patagonia, the Pampas, and Australia. As of 2019, between 200 million and 500 million people practiced pastoralism, and it was part of life in 75% of all countries.

People who practice pastoralism may stay in one place or move around. Some move their animals just a little bit every day to find fresh grass and water. Others, called nomadic pastoralists, travel with their animals to wherever they can find grazing land. In some places, grazing animals helps keep the land healthy by stopping forests from growing too thick.

Origins

One idea is that pastoralism grew from mixed farming. When farmers started using irrigation, they began to focus more on growing crops and raising animals separately. This helped them spread out their work and reduce the chance of losing everything if one part failed.

Another idea is that pastoralism came from hunting and gathering. People who hunted wild goats and sheep learned a lot about how animals move and what they need. These hunters moved around with the herds. Over time, they began to tame and domesticate the animals, turning wild herds into animals they could control. Hunter-gatherers used many different ways to survive, such as hunting large and small animals, fishing, and gathering plants. These skills helped them become nomadic pastoralists.

Resources

Pastoralism happens in areas where crops cannot grow. Wild animals eat the plants there, and people live by getting milk, blood, and sometimes meat from their herds. They also trade things like wool and milk for money and food.

Pastoralists are more than just surviving; they build wealth and trade with others, like farmers and garden growers. They do not only rely on their herds for food. When communities work together to share resources, they can take better care of the land, as seen in the East African grasslands. But many factors affect how well resources last, not just who owns the land.

Some pastoralists also hunt, fish, or grow a little food besides raising animals. Even though these communities are strong, recent problems like changes in the weather, the COVID-19 pandemic, and dry periods have made life very hard for pastoralists in northern Kenya.

Mobility

Mobility helps pastoralists adjust to different environments, allowing both fertile and less fertile areas to support life. Key parts of pastoralism include having few people, moving around, staying healthy, and using good information systems. Instead of changing the land to fit their needs, pastoralists change their ways to fit the land. Mobile pastoralists can travel within a range of one hundred to five hundred kilometers.

Pastoralists and their animals have changed the land over time through grazing and using fire to keep pastures healthy and prevent forests from growing back. Fire helped them care for the land where their animals fed. Borders between countries often follow natural features shaped by these activities. Nomadic pastoralists rely on their animals for food, clothing, wool, milk, and other needs, moving daily and seasonally. They are very flexible and can protect their animals and families when needed.

Pastoralists carefully watch the weather and move their animals to the best places depending on the seasons. In the Himalayas, pastoralists have traditionally used lands that cross country borders, but modern countries have made it harder to move across these borders. This has caused problems between pastoralists and new projects like forests and dams. Some pastoralists move all the time, which can lead to disagreements with people who live in towns. Others stay in one place, building more permanent homes. Different groups of pastoralists have developed unique ways to live, like the Somalis, who have a rich culture and poetry that reflect their life with animals and nature. However, changes like growing populations, droughts, and new farming or ranching operations have sometimes forced pastoralists to leave their traditional ways and move to towns.

Environment knowledge

Pastoralists have a deep understanding of the land and its changes throughout the year. They share information to help each other, creating valuable knowledge across their communities.

These animal herders produce food in some of the toughest places on Earth, supporting many people who live in rural areas. Hundreds of millions of people around the world, especially in Africa and Asia, depend on pastoralism to survive. They care for large areas of land where growing crops is difficult, helping feed many.

Farm animal genetic resource

Different farm animals have different genetic makeups, shaped by both nature and human choices. In many parts of Sub Saharan Africa, pastoralists prefer animal breeds that can survive in tough conditions like droughts and diseases. However, in other animal production systems, these local breeds are often replaced with more productive exotic ones. This difference matters because changes in markets and climate can affect diseases and the quality and availability of food for animals. By keeping local breeds, pastoralists help protect valuable farm animal genetic resources. This approach is reliable and often costs less in the long run.

Tragedy of the commons

Garrett Hardin's Tragedy of the Commons (1968) explained how shared lands, used by people who raise animals, can become damaged when too many use them. Hardin said this happened because people could not talk to each other or make plans together.

But many experts say this idea is not realistic. They point out that communities have managed these shared lands well for thousands of years. Elinor Ostrom showed in her book Governing the Commons that groups of people can take care of shared lands better than if the land were owned by one person or controlled only by the government. Ostrom won a Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for this work.

In places like the Sahel in Africa, some people thought those who raise animals were hurting the land. But the real reasons were things like changes in the weather and other outside influences. Suggesting that land should be owned by individuals has sometimes taken land away from communities, making life harder for them and harming the environment.

Conflicts between people who raise animals and those who farm have grown worse in countries like Nigeria, Mali, Sudan, Ethiopia, and others in the Horn of Africa. This is made harder by changes in the climate, damage to the land, and more people living in these areas.

Pastoralism helps people live in tough places and can be a way to use land that does not harm the environment.