For thousands of years, pastoralism was the primary economic resource of millions of people, and today it is one of the major activities in many rural communities. This case study uses Elin Ostrom's (2009) eight principles to analyse the impact of the Kyrgyz pasture law on nomadic communities and promote sustainable and equitable management of livestock and pastures. The results show that the pasture-user unions have contributed significantly to the good governance of common-pasture resources, the improvement of the condition of pasture users and the reduction of pasture degradation (0.75±0.09). However, the case study also reveals that there is a need to enhance the use of remote pastures, to improve rotation plans, to ameliorate the monitoring and assessment mechanism (0.65±0.10) and to increase animal health conditions. To further improve pastoral livelihoods, relevant authorities and institutional stakeholders should make increased efforts to ameliorate governance (0.55±0.11) and trust among pasture users, pasture-committee members, veterinarians and local and national institutions.