September
2015
PASTORALISTS
AS STEWARDS OF THE ENVIRONMENT
Cattle
farming is mentioned among the world’s worst environmentally destructive
activities: it devours resources, pollutes groundwater and is a climate
killer. These claims are all true – but not universally so. Pastoralists
have managed their livestock in harmony with nature for millennia
and actually help conserve ecosystems.
By
Cornelia Heine
The discussion on the environmental burden of ever-growing meat and
dairy production focuses mostly on the western world with its highly
developed, industrial- scale livestock farming and the methane emissions
associated with it. Two things tend to be forgotten:
·
First, a large share of global cattle, camel and goat farming is extensive
and has helped stabilise and diversify ecosystems for millennia.
·
Second, livestock is a vitally important resource for nearly 3 billion
people on the planet.
Livestock-farming supplies high-quality food in areas where there
is no or only little arable land. However, the people who rely on
it are barely considered in the meat consumption debate, which considers
mostly the industrialised world. It is wrong to judge cattle farming
exclusively on the basis of carbon intensity (the carbon emissions
generated per kilo of meat produced or per litre of milk). To the
800 million hungry people in the world – most of whom have no access
to essential, high-quality animal proteins – such a debate must seem
cynical.
The daily meat intake recommended by the World Health
Organization WHO is 90 grammes a day. While US citizens consume three
times that amount on average, the average Botswanan, for example,
eats less than half, according to Jimmy Smith (2015) of the International
Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) in Nairobi.
Many forums tend to neglect the role that small farmers
and pastoralists can – and should – play in the provision of animal
proteins, a vital requirement. This is so even against the backdrop
of steadily rising global demand for livestock products (Smith, 2015).
Moreover, pastoralism does not just supply meat and milk
for millions of people worldwide; it is also one of the most sustainable
and environmentally benign forms of livestock farming. It improves
soil quality, preserves biodiversity, keeps nutrient cycles intact
and helps maintain regional food security, especially in the global
South. This is increasingly acknowledged by international institutions
and actors. A recent study commissioned by the International Union
for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and the United Nations Environment
Programme (UNEP) concludes that pastoralism could play a key role
in the transition to a green, environmentally sustainable global economy.
Pastoralism helps protect the environment
The IUCN/UNEP report estimates that there are nearly 500
million pastoralists worldwide. In sub-Saharan Africa alone, nomadic
herders account for 16% of the population. In countries such as Somalia
and Mauritania, they even make up the majority of the people. The
billion animals they own supply meat and milk, horn and hides as well
as provide muscle power for haulage and transport.
J. Davies (2012) notes that pastoralists and their practices
have contributed significantly to food security and the agricultural
value added in many regions for thousands of years. This is because
they make productive use of both arid areas and inaccessible mountain
valleys. The savannah and steppe ecosystems that are used for grazing
make up nearly a quarter of the planet’s land area. Over time, those
ecosystems have developed with the ungulates grazing them. The herds
and the ecosystems have become interdependent: the animals have shaped
pastoral ecosystems and their biodiversity, and the rangelands have
shaped the evolution of the grazing animals.
Pastoralism itself has evolved over millennia. Nomadic
herders have developed complex management systems and cultural norms
that guarantee sustainable and efficient use of resources. Ultimately,
the pastoral lifestyle is so closely linked to the preservation of
biodiversity that pastoralists can fairly be described as stewards
of the environment.
Where pastoralism is practised efficiently, it protects
and maintains grasslands and savannahs (IUCN/UNEP, 2014). Even in
Europe, the traditional routes that wandering shepherds use are among
the continents’ most bio-diverse places. Nomadic pastoralists have
generations of experience in making sustainable use of pastures: they
know the limits of the rangeland, they know the effect of every forage
plant, and their lifestyle prevents lasting damage to the vegetation.
When foraging for food becomes difficult, they move on with their
animals.
Over the centuries, the selective breeding strategies
adopted by pastoralists have produced animals that suit local conditions
and have great resistance to certain diseases, drought or parasites.
Drylands, where most pastoralists live and work, maintain 46 %
of global livestock diversity.
By producing local livestock breeds, pastoralists preserve
not only regional biodiversity. They also pass on important traditional
expertise in livestock management, breeding and health. It is interesting
to note in this context that 82% of global livestock products come
from just 14 breeds.
Pastoral livestock breeds are uniquely adapted to the
environment and to the production conditions of pastoralism. They
remain productive under stress and adversity and supply a range of
useful products such as meat, milk, hides and dung. If one considers
those breeds only in terms of a single characteristic, they often
appear less attractive than they actually are. While there are other
breeds, for example, that yield more meat or supply more milk, they
would lack the ability to adapt to local conditions. They will cope
less well with drought, for instance, or have poorer defences against
pathogenic germs that are widely found in some areas.
The loss of animal genetic resources is more serious than
the loss of crop diversity because the gene pool is much smaller and
there are fewer wild relatives still around. The IUCN/UNEP report
points out that more than 200 breeds of cattle and around 180 breeds
of sheep have become extinct and a further 210 cattle and 179 sheep
breeds are considered “critical” or “endangered”.
Pastoral livelihoods are increasingly under pressure.
Urbanisation, privatisation of rangelands, political marginalisation
and conflicts are only a few of the problems that pastoralists have
to contend with all over the world. The problems are further compounded
– especially in the drylands of sub-Saharan Africa – by climate change,
which impacts negatively on the resilience of nomadic peoples.
Loss of pastoral land through conversion to arable farming
is also a problem. Patches of wetland in dryland areas and fertile
valleys in mountainous regions play a crucial role in pastoralist
systems; they are a vital source of water and a seasonal refuge. If
the resources they provide are not available at critical times, the
entire land use/livestock management system is jeopardised. In a paper
focusing on the issue of pastoralism versus irrigated agriculture
(IIED, 2013), the International Institute for Environment and Development
(IIED) concludes that the economic costs of the change of land use
are often much greater than the benefits derived from arable farming.
Furthermore, the IIED reports that the value added in such cases often
shifts – away from the local population and pastoral livestock keepers
to powerful landlords of large-scale holdings and international companies.
Smart and effective measures to support pastoralists are
also needed in the light of the steady increase in the consumption
of livestock products. Their land rights should be strengthened. Moreover,
they should be better connected to livestock markets and they should
be more involved in political discourses. – Third World Network Features.
References:
Davies,
J., 2012: Policies in support of pastoralism and biodiversity.
Pastoralism: Research, Policy and Practice 2012.
IUCN/UNEP,
2014: Pastoralism and the Green Economy – a natural nexus?
Status, challenges and policy implications.
https://portals.iucn.org/library/sites/library/files/documents/2014-034.pdf
IIED,
2013: Counting the costs: replacing pastoralism with irrigated
agriculture in the Awash Valley, north-eastern Ethiopia.
http://pubs.iied.org/10035IIED.html
Smith,
2015:
http://www.economistinsights.com/opinion/meat-we-eat-lives-we-lift
-ends-
About
the author: Cornelia Heine is a veterinarian and special advisor
on pastoralism with Vétérinaires Sans Frontières Germany.
cornelia.heine@togev.de
The above article is reproduced from Development and Cooperation
(D+C), 2015/08.
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