Review of “The future of pastoralism”

The World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) devoted an entire issue of its Scientific and Technical Review (Vol. 35, Issue 2, 2016, 720pp) to the topic of pastoralism – its history, pastoral systems in different parts of the world, recent developments in policy and practice, and opportunities for the future. The editors – Jakob Zinsstag and Esther Schelling from the Tropical and Public Health Institute in Switzerland and Bassirou Bonfoh from the Swiss Centre for Scientific Research in Ivory Coast – compiled 28 papers by over 70 authors. The papers are mainly in English, with some – at least the abstracts – also in French and Spanish. They are structured in five sections: (i) pastoralism and its constraints; (ii) opportunities for pastoral development; (iii) improving the economic viability and social aspects of pastoralism; (iv) tools for development of pastoralism; and (v) human and animal health in pastoralist communities.

This book will be a useful reference for scholars of pastoralism and also for advocates compiling arguments to convince policymakers and decision-makers in development agencies about the merits of mobile pastoralism and examples of how local livelihoods and pastoral ecosystems can be enhanced. This includes advocacy for new methods and tools of assessing pastoral systems that reflect an understanding of the rationale behind them in the highly (and increasingly) variable conditions in rangeland areas.

The Rangeland Journal (Vol. 39, Issue 3) has published a detailed review of “The future of pastoralism / L’avenir du pastoralisme / El futuro del pastoreo”. As it is not easy to find the paper on the journal website, a pre-publication version is inserted here.

All the individual chapters of the publication can be found here on the OIE website.

We bring here the PDFs of the Introduction and of the chapter by Saverio Kraetli on “Discontinuity in pastoral development“.

Posted on 3 July 2017 in Pastoralism & Natural Resources, Pastoralism, Mobility & Land Tenure, Pastoralism, Policy & Power, Pastoralist Livelihoods & Nutrition, Value of Pastoralism