Pastoralism as a Global Herbivory Socio-Ecosystem

Data on the true extent of pastoralism are increasing in the last year, following interest by different stakeholders. However, such data are still incomplete and their effects on landscapes and biodiversity are still insufficiently known. This hampers any global analysis. For example, the evolutionary role of herbivores during the last million years has been ignored for natural baseline greenhouse gas emissions, immediately translating into potential use of this livelihood as a climate mitigation tool. Similarly, the maintenance of open landscapes by herbivores needs to be better understood, because pastoralism can be an ecological restoration option that will nuance current moves towards massive afforestation and help combining ecologically sound policies with sound development interventions. It is urgent to overcome the existing barrier between available data from different disciplines, especially combining evidence from biological, physical data and from socio-economic research.

Furthermore, advancing the monitoring of pastoralism towards a sustainable development path will require additional data in the form of suitable indicators. These indicators should capture well environmental, social and economic dimensions. The strengths and weaknesses of diverse sustainability indicators have been extensively discussed, yet such developments have overlooked the particular characteristics of pastoralism systems, hence their suitability to capture the vulnerabilities of these systems requires examination.

This program will foster a working network of core researchers that have been involved in the pilot phase, and extend this network to include academics and relevant stakeholders to have an adequate global coverage of diverse pastoralism systems. The program will utilize working groups and writing retreats to advance this network and develop a global understanding on the effects of pastoralism-mediated herbivory and landscape management that will encourage citizen participation through an online platform. The program will connect and practice two-way communication with relevant international stakeholders (e.g. FAO, IUCN, LPP, CELEP) to initiate changes in pastoralism awareness and its links to biodiversity globally.

It will capitalise on existing networks and knowledge, bringing together actors and regions not only to contribute data, but to ensure that diverse pastoralist contexts are considered. The chairs of the project have expertise and collaboration networks in East Africa and Central Asia, while other steering group members and participants cover well all other world regions. The steering committee will make sure that all regional voices are heard, and that pilot tests of the indicator framework will be carried out at each region. P. Manzano for Southern Europe and West Africa; M.Cabeza will be responsible for Scandinavia; N.C. Stenseth and Z. Zhong for Central Asia, N. Ghotge for South Asia, C. Turin for Latin America and Kathleen Galvin for North America and East Africa.

Global network: A number of global, regional and national networks on pastoralism exist (e.g. the League for Pastoral Peoples, the Pastoralist Knowledge Hub, or the Latin American Pastoralist network – Pastoramericas) although these networks have focus on the civil society and their rights, representing advocacy movements. Many of these networks hold the potential to act as nodes for facilitating understanding on pastoralism sustainability in a standard and accurate manner. Such a development is what the program aims to focus on (see action plan for the first year).

Characterization of herbivory indicators (2023-2025): The ultimate objective of the program is to develop a global understanding of herbivory as a global process with visual outcomes that facilitate the understanding of the importance of pastoralism in the wake of the International Year of Rangelands and Pastoralists. The program would focus on integrating physical, biological and socio-economic data. The program will structure work in two phases:

First Phase: climatic data will be integrated with available data on wild and domestic herbivores, productivity of pastures and structure of the vegetation, and further socioeconomic and policy data will be compiled at national levels (see detailed Action plan for the year) through the network, and progressively complemented with data at higher resolutions [Objective 1]. Second Phase: The available information on sustainability indicators developed during the last years by several researchers on pastoralism will allow for their systematization and use in various disciplines and the production of scientific publications and derived communication work [Objective 2]

The program will develop a website on the University of Helsinki servers that will serve as a) a portal for interaction of the core members, b) a platform to foster the global pastoralist network and c) a visualization and data-query tool for the global dataset. The webpage will also provide a tool for participatory data input.

A number of working groups will be sponsored through the program to advance decisions on evaluation of herbivory as a global process, and develop networking activities. We envision working groups with participation of core members (steering committee and collaborators involved during the pilot phase) and varying invited academics and stakeholders, with a maximum of 20 participants per working group. One working group on the correct characterization of global herbivory, and giving follow-up to the existing Pastoralist database, will be initiated in 2023 to address Objective 1. Another working group will be formed in 2024 to proceed with Objective 2. Additional working groups may be considered.

Writing retreats will be promoted to a) produce synthesis outputs in the form of articles and/or policy briefs, and b) write grant proposals to maximize the adoption and use of the outcomes of the program.

Additional funding to support the first year of the program is available to the Chair of the Program, Pablo Manzano, is available through the Ikerbasque Foundation – Basque Foundation for Science (10 000 €). To minimize travelling costs, meeting activities will be planned at nodal network points and when possible coincide with relevant international meetings (e.g. CELEP) which bring overseas participants to Europe. Online updating meetings of the steering committee will take place bimonthly.