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Brochure, flyer, fact-sheetInnovative Pastoralism
Achieving productivity and sustainability for food security
2020Also available in:
No results found.‘“Business as usual” is no longer an option for a food-secure future. Pastoralism can be an innovative system: a time-tested, undervalued alternative to high-input and resource-intensive farming, and a valuable lesson for the much needed evolution towards ‘farming with nature’, with largely-untapped potential for income growth and employment in marginal areas. Two main points are made. First, pastoral systems are emblematic of farming with nature: they have evolved to function with the natural environment and therefore with variability; for this reason, pastoralism has great potential in addressing the Sustainable Development Goals in a climate-change scenario where variability is globally on the increase. Second, pastoral systems have been looked at with the wrong lenses: conventional modelling and economic analysis of livestock production are locked into a view of the animal in isolation from the natural environment, and a view of variability as a constraint. After almost a century of interventions, ‘poor understanding of pastoralism’ remains the most repeated cause of setback in pastoral development, often resulting in maladaptive practices that generate further misunderstanding in a vicious cycle. This paper starts from identifying an entry point in this entangled legacy, in order to help institutions effectively engage with the long neglected ‘first step’ of understanding the logic of pastoralism. -
Poster, bannerTop 10 benefits of investing in pastoralism 2020
Also available in:
No results found.‘“Business as usual” is no longer an option for a food-secure future. Pastoralism can be an innovative system: a time-tested, undervalued alternative to high-input and resource-intensive farming, and a valuable lesson for the much needed evolution towards ‘farming with nature’, with largely-untapped potential for income growth and employment in marginal areas. Two main points are made. First, pastoral systems are emblematic of farming with nature: they have evolved to function with the natural environment and therefore with variability; for this reason, pastoralism has great potential in addressing the Sustaibale Development Goals in a climate-change scenario where variability is globally on the increase. Second, pastoral systems have been looked at with the wrong lenses: conventional modelling and economic analysis of livestock production are locked into a view of the animal in isolation from the natural environment, and a view of variability as a constraint. This brochure highlights the top 10 benefits of investing in pastoralism. -
Book (stand-alone)Pastoralism in Africa’s drylands
Reducing risks, addressing vulnerability and enhancing resilience
2018Also available in:
No results found.Pastoral livestock production is crucial to the livelihoods and the economy of Africa’s semiarid regions. It developed 7,000 years ago in response to long-tern climate change. It spread throughout Northern Africa as an adaptation to the rapidly changing and increasingly unpredictable arid climate. It is practiced in an area representing 43% of Africa’s land mass in the different regions of Africa, and in some regions it represents the dominant livelihoods system. It covers 36 countries, stretching from the Sahelian West to the rangelands of Eastern Africa and the Horn and the nomadic populations of Southern Africa, with an estimate of 268 million pastoralists. The mobility of pastoralists exploiting the animal feed resources along different ecological zones represents a flexible response to a dry and increasingly variable environment. It allows pastoral herds to use the drier areas during the wet season and more humid areas during the dry season. It ensures pastoral livestock to access sufficient high-quality grazing and create economic value. The objectives of this report are to investigate the current situation of pastoralism and the vulnerability context in which pastoralism currently functions and to outline the policy, resilience programming, and research areas of intervention to enhance the resilience of pastoral livelihoods systems. Scholarly views of pastoralism’s ecological impact have grown more positive since the early 1990s, when a new understanding of dryland dynamics led to the so-called new rangeland paradigm. The new rangeland paradigm represents a shift in the wider discourse on pastoralism from the earlier debates based on the “tragedy of the commons.” The new rangeland paradigm has provided a more comprehensive understanding of the drylands and shown that mobility is an appropriate strategy to exploit the natural resource base in these areas. In recent decades, the adaptability and mobility of pastoralism in relation to resource variability have been undermined by factors that are embedded in the institutional environment and policy that shape the vulnerability context of pastoralism. The report analyzes five factors that undermine the pastoral livelihoods resilience and the implications of these factors for the viability of pastoralism. On the basis of the analysis of vulnerability contexts that shape pastoralism, the report identifies interventions for increasing pastoral resilience.
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