CELEP’s pastoralism film festival at Tropentag 2022

At the Tropentag conference held in Prague in Sept 2022, CELEP launched the second edition of the Perspectives on Pastoralism Film Festival. The first edition had been launched at Tropentag 2019 in Kassel, Germany. This festival seeks to deepen understanding of how diverse peoples across the world gain their livelihoods from extensive livestock production. The relationships of pastoralists, their animals and their food-production systems reflect an intimate intertwining of culture, economy and ecology in highly variable environments, such as drylands and mountains, where the mobility of the herds plays a key role. This film festival forms part of the initiative for the International Year of Rangelands & Pastoralists (IYRP), approved by the United Nations to be celebrated in 2026.

The theme of the Tropentag 2022 was Can agroecological farming feed the world? Farmers’ and academia’s views. The films selected for this occasion sought to raise awareness about pastoralism as a sustainable nature-based production system and thus a form of agroecology ideally suited for drylands and mountainous regions – and for the climatic and economic uncertainties of today. The films focused on ecologically appropriate use of natural resources, the rights of pastoralists to continue to use and steward these resources, and the challenges they face in doing so.

The film-selection team comprised people from CELEP as well as from the Regional IYRP Support Group (RISG) in Eastern and Southern Africa: Agrecol Association for AgriCulture & Ecology and the German Institute for Tropical and Subtropical Agriculture (DITSL) in Germany; Veterinarians without Borders (Vétérinaires Sans Frontières, VSF) in Belgium; the Centre for Research and Development in Drylands (CRDD) in Kenya; the Africa Wildlife Foundation (AWF) in Uganda; and the Agricultural Research Council (ARC) in South Africa.

Welcoming remarks and an introduction to the film festival were given by Hussein Tadicha Wario, Director of CRDD. After screening ten short films that shared perspectives on pastoralism in Canada, Hungary, India, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Turkey, Spain and Tanzania, several pastoralists and filmmakers responded to questions from the audience. The following day, a feature film from Argentina Arreo was screened, sharing the perspectives of a gaucho family during seasonal transhumance between the lowlands and highlands.

In addition, a member of the RISG in South America, Rogério Mauricio, Visiting Professor at the Thünen Institute in Germany, presented his short film on natural regeneration to develop a silvopastoral system in Brazil, and discussed this with a highly interested audience.

The Tropentag 2022 included a workshop on “Pastoralism, agroecology & climate change”, which revealed how family-based livestock production in pastoral systems has strong affinity with the principles of agroecology, which are embedded in pastoralists’ practices and strategies. This workshop included a presentation by Saverio Krätli on how pastoralism capitalises on variability, another by Zsolt Molnár and colleagues on how Hungarian and Mongolian herders perceive and manage change on their pastures, and presentations by Nasanjargal Garmaa and Raphael Mirriho Gurleyo on insights into the current situation of pastoralism in Mongolia and northern Kenya, respectively.

Agrecol and VSF set up a conference booth at the Tropentag to draw attention to the activities of CELEP and IYRP 2026, as well as activities of the Prolinnova network, of which Agrecol is the Northern Focal Point.

The films selected for the 2nd edition of the “Perspectives on Pastoralism” festival can be found on the film festival website. The next screening of films from this edition will be on 8 December 2022 in Brussels, in combination with a photo exhibit by the PASTRES (Pastoralism, Uncertainty and Resilience: Global Lessons from the Margins) research programme funded by the European Research Council (ERC).

Reported by Ann Water-Bayer, Agrecol Association / CELEP, 29 Sept 2022

Posted on 29 September 2022 in CELEP Documents, News, Videos about Pastoralism