Pastoral regions are challenged by social and ecological changes. Yet, there is increasingly robust evidence that pastoralism is a viable and sustainable livelihood and that pastoralists play a role in attaining the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In this issue of the Scientific and Technical Review of the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE), the authors take a broad view of pastoralism and pastoral livestock production from a number of different perspectives, taking into account societal and ecological viewpoints as well as issues of animal and human health. Thematic reviews are complemented by regional perspectives from Central Asia, China, Europe, East, Central and West Africa, and Latin America. The broader issues of pastoral livestock production and its potential for improving and sustaining animal health are of great interest to the OIE. Summarising the diverse contributions, it appears that pastoral socialecological systems are hotspots of cultural and biological diversity. They are multifunctional in that they generate diversified sources of income and contribute to sustained natural resource management. Pastoral populations require favourable institutional and legal frameworks, so governance structures must be improved and reformed through effective participation and the empowerment of pastoralists. To sustain functional pastoral production systems, the key ingredients are decentralised governance of natural resources, better locally adapted social services, and high flexibility for maintaining mobility. Young people should be actively encouraged to engage in pastoral livelihoods, which should be supported by improved legal systems for land use by all interested parties. There is still untapped potential to optimise extensive livestock production through adapted genetic improvement and better transformation, stocking and marketing of animal-source food. Modern concepts of disease surveillance and response, combining human and animal health as 'One Health', are particularly suited to pastoral systems. The OIE's interest in pastoralism is highly justified given its economic and environmental importance and its significance for livelihoods. Sustainable improvements require understanding and discussion of diverse social and ecological interactions, and it is to this discussion which the authors and editors of this issue of the Review have endeavoured to contribute.

Pastoralism is rarely viewed as a major future form of land use, because of well-documented cases of rangeland degradation, attributed to irrational overstocking by pastoralists, and the subsequent losses of ecosystem services. However, pastoralists were actually encouraged to settle and adopt such strategies, copied from rangelands with higher and more reliable rainfall. This curtailed mobility resulted in a shift from opportunistic and extensive land use to more intensive and settled forms of use. The purpose of this review is to examine the link between pastoralism and the provision of ecosystem services by rangelands, focusing on biodiversity conservation and carbon sequestration. Pastoralists employ several techniques to manage rangeland resources, including mobility, herding, corralling, grazing reserves and the use of fire. With these strategies, pastoralists have contributed to the enhancement of rangeland biodiversity and the long-term conservation of important wildlife habitats. Pastoralists also possess detailed knowledge of rangeland plants and their uses, which could be valuable in the assessment, conservation and utilisation of rangeland biodiversity. Similarly, traditional pastoral rangeland management practices, such as the use of seasonal grassland reserves and livestock mobility, influence vegetation composition, coverage and abundance in rangelands and offer tools for biomass and soil carbon restoration, contributing to the mitigation of climate change. However, various internal and external factors have curtailed traditional management practices and livestock mobility, breaking the co-evolved balance of vegetation, wildlife and land use, thus exposing rangeland to continued livestock pressure, which often leads to degradation. Rather than abandoning pastoralism, the revitalisation of traditional practices and indigenous knowledge is vital to secure sustainable livelihoods for millions of pastoralists and to maintain rangeland biodiversity and ecosystem services.

Communication is vital for the socio-economic and cultural development of pastoralists. If used constructively, communication can help to create a favourable environment for change and modernisation. This paper tries to uncover trends in communication as part of pastoral development, emphasising both indigenous and current methods of communication and prevailing constraints. This study reveals that pastoral development interventions in the past have often failed to achieve their goals, due to the centralised, 'top-down' approaches adopted and to reliance on external strategies and channels which ignored the indigenous knowledge and communications systems of pastoralists. Pastoralists have their own well-established communications systems for sharing information on climatic conditions and ecology, as well as economic, social and political issues. Modern communication technologies, especially radio and mobile telephones, are increasingly being used by pastoralists to access current regional information. However, pastoral development in the communications area is currently constrained by the failure of various development agencies and stakeholders to use participatory approaches, and by poor infrastructure and weak capacity. The authors therefore call for the adoption of more participatory and integrated approaches towards communication, the expansion of infrastructure and building of capacity.

Article InfoIn flawless speaking, National parks are considered as most important instrument for the conservation and protection of biodiversity, particularly for rehabilitation of critically endangered species in Ethiopia. However, the management of most of the national parks is threatened by complex socioeconomic and political factors. This paper, thus, was designed to assess the socio-economic and political factors that threaten the management of Nech Sar National Park. Document analysis; previously conducted empirical research and d reports were utilized as main sources of data. Apart this, interview and personal observation were applied as tool to generate supplementary data. The analysis indicates that there are enormous socioeconomic and political factors that limit and challenge the management and sustainable use of the park: using of the park as primary source of livelihood: using it as grazing land, expansion of agriculture, establishment of settlement, and investment center are the most important factors that are threatening and challenging the management of the park., conflict of interests, lack of political commitment, lack of clear demarcations, and capacity problems were also other factors that constraint the sustainability of the park. Therefore, in order to use the park for its primary management objectives, overcome the chronic threats of the management, and reap the benefits in a sustainable way, all stakeholders should work hand in hand rather than starving to meet its own individual interest with the expense of the park and its objectives.

Ethiopia is one of the richest countries in natural resource endowment. Nevertheless, due to pressures from socioeconomic changes coupled with improper governance practices the country has been threatened by prolonged resource degradation with subsequent results. This paper was sought to assess paradigms, approaches, and strategies for sustainable development in case of environmental governance in Ethiopia. To achieve this objective, published and unpublished professional literature including important policy documents were reviewed. The institutional based environmental governance for sustainable use of natural resources in Ethiopia was started at the late of 19 th C while Minilik II established central Government. The natural resource laws during Italian occupation (1936-41) focused on selection of economic forest and use-oriented paradigm. As a result natural resources were exploited in destructive way under a condition where there was no ownership. The environmental governance thinking/paradigm/ during the Haile Silassie regime was almost similar to previous one; frontier economics, rather than being ecological oriented. The misperception to natural resources; misguided intervention and irrational land distribution and tenure insecurity have led intensive natural degradation. After the Derg regime took the power, all natural resources were nationalized and governed through application of centralized frontier economics based on socialism ideology. Frequent redistribution of land, resettlement and villagization; involuntary participation of community weakened the effects of natural resource management practices applied during Derg regime. Political instability and civil war had its own sizable challenge on environmental governance. The environmental governance ideology, during EPRDF has been veered from pure frontier economics to Eco-development. Environmental issues have been handled by independent institutions through decentralized and local-community based approaches. Additionally, different bylaws and sustainable development strategies have been adopted by current government to handle environmental issues and have environmentally sustainable and green economic growth. However, still now, environmental governance is not successful and faces challenges from institutional instability; inadequate capacity and political commitment, feeble policy implementation &geophysical variables. Thus, all responsible bodies and key actors must work jointly to overcome challenges of environmental governance and realize environmentally sustainable development.