The Ecology of Pastoralism

Paired comparison of visions for the future among young pastoralists and students in Samburu, Kenya

“…The motivations for herders was different; they expressed a motivation rooted in reliable income and poverty alleviation. This also shows the willingness of some herders to potentially supplement their income-earning options to include non-pastoral means of making of living, though research by Kardulias (2015) suggests that most pastoralists return to herding after settling temporarily to pursue other income-earning opportunities. Overall, the findings about participants' children attending school and a desire for a conservancy job show both groups are willing to adapt from some long-standing aspects of their prevailing culture.…”

“…Like pastoralism in other parts of the world, East African pastoralist societies have adapted to changes to remain viable throughout their history (Kardulias 2015). Changes to the social-ecological systems specifically in Samburu in northern Kenya are representative of the same challenges that exist in many rangelands around the world: human population growth, land tenure change, changing land use, land fragmentation, and climate change (Reid et al 2014).…”

“…Nomadic pastoralist cultures historically adapted to challenges to raising livestock by augmenting and diversifying their income. These strategies often involve temporarily settling in one place but resuming a nomadic pastoralist lifestyle when conditions allow (Kardulias 2015). Due to unprecedented changes affecting rangelands today, however, more pastoralists are forced to settle permanently and pursue wage-labour occupations (Galvin 2009), in crop farming, energy production, tourism or mining (Reid et al 2014).…”

Migration and livelihood constellations: Assessing common themes in the face of environmental change in Somalia and amongAgro‐Pastoralpeoples

“…Considering livelihoods is particularly important in understanding environmental migration that reflects deep nature‐society relationships in that many migrants depend on natural resources. In such cases, migration is related to ecosystem services, particularly where environmental migration has become a traditional part of commodity production and peasant or pastoralist livelihoods (Collins, 1988; Kardulias, 2015) or where people come from economies based on forestry, fisheries, or other natural resources. Clearly, for example, the seasonal migrations of agro‐pastoral peoples for water and pasture constitute long valued forms of environmental migration.…”

The Contribution of 21stCentury Pastoralists to Biodiversity Conservation and Emerging Bioeconomies

“…The social organization and traditions of pastoral communities have been the focus of anthropological inquiry since the 1950s (Dahl and Hjort 1980). More recently, anthropologists have sought to document the environmental and biological knowledge of pastoralists (Dong et al 2016;Kardulias 2015). An implicit and highly interdisciplinary ''ethnobiology of pastoralism'' has now emerged which documents pastoral knowledge of medicinal and food plants, indicators of environmental and vegetation change, and local craft traditions which rely on organic materials (…”