Mobility in pastoral systems: Dynamic flux or downward trend?

TLDR

Pastoralists have survived for centuries through mobility, diversity, flexibility, reciprocity, and reserves, but recent agricultural expansion, political boundaries, institutional usurpation, rising labor costs, and stationary services have curtailed mobility, prompting sedentary shifts, diversification, or institutional transformation, while historical patterns suggest mobility is cyclical rather than unidirectional. The study examines whether emerging political trends and technologies can sustain or enhance pastoral mobility and whether existing or new institutions will support sustainable practices. Keywords: nomadism, transhumance, sustainability, common property, pastoral development, institutions, practices, rangeland.

Abstract

Abstract Several interdependent strategies have allowed pastoralists to survive for centuries in patchy and unpredictable low-productivity environments while sustaining their resource base: mobility, diversity, flexibility, reciprocity and reserves. Recent decades have witnessed curtailed mobility due to agricultural expansion into rangelands, the establishment and enforcement of political and administrative boundaries, the usurpation of local institutional control and disruption of local practices, increased labour costs, and the development of stationary goods and services. Pastoralists have responded by becoming sedentary, diversifying or intensifying their production strategies, leaving the herding sector, or adapting and transforming their practices and institutions. While these trends may be significant, an historical precedence of ebbs and surges in mobility indicates they may not be new or unidirectional. Emerging political trends and technologies may provide an opportunity for pastoral populations to maintain or increase their mobility in the future, but will the customary pastoral institutions that support sustainable practices still be viable, or will new, viable institutions emerge? These institutions are often subtle, contextual, and norm-based; 'invisible' and easily dismantled or replaced by more authoritarian regimes. There is relatively little understanding of how they work or how to support them. Without them, the trend may be towards open access or privatization. Keywords: NOMADTRANSHUMANCESUSTAINABILITYCOMMON PROPERTYPASTORAL DEVELOPMENTPASTORAL INSTITUTIONSPASTORAL PRACTICESRANGELAND