Transhumance in the Kyrgyz Pamir, Central Asia

Shirasaka, Shigeru; Watanabe, Teiji; Song, Feng; Liu, Jie; Miyahara, Ikuko

doi:10.7886/hgs.88.80

Cited by 8 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 10 publications

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“…The Kyrgyz people take their herds to different pastures for grazing according to the different seasons [18]. Historically, Kyrgyz people were pure nomadic herders and travelled from one pasture to another in a group [57]. However, they have adopted various coping strategies in their transhumant livestock herding after the end of state support for semi-nomadic herding such as changing migration pattern, remaining in large herding groups, migration as an extended family unit, or partnership with friends and neighbors, diversifying income-generating activities [56].…”

Section: Kyrgyzmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ethnic and Cultural Diversity amongst Yak Herding Communities in the Asian Highlands

et al. 2020

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Yak (Bos grunniens L.) herding plays an important role in the domestic economy throughout much of the Asian highlands. Yak represents a major mammal species of the rangelands found across the Asian highlands from Russia and Kyrgyzstan in the west to the Hengduan Mountains of China in the east. Yak also has great cultural significance to the people of the Asian highlands and is closely interlinked to the traditions, cultures, and rituals of the herding communities. However, increasing issues like poverty, environmental degradation, and climate change have changed the traditional practices of pastoralism, isolating and fragmenting herders and the pastures they have been using for many years. Local cultures of people rooted in the practice of yak herding are disappearing. Therefore, it is very important to document the socioeconomic and cultural aspects of yak herding. The broad aim of this paper was to provide a brief overview on the geographical distribution of yak in the Asian highlands and to provide in-depth information on yak-herding ethnic communities, the sociocultural aspect associated with yak herding, and challenges and emerging opportunities for yak herding in the Asian highlands. Altogether, 31 ethnic groups in 10 different countries of Asia and their cultures are documented herein. Yak was found to be utilized for many different household purposes, and to have cultural and religious aspects. Unfortunately, yak rearing and related traditions have been losing their charm in recent years due to modernization and several other environmental issues. Lastly, we suggest that there is an urgent need to take action to minimize the challenges faced by yak-herding mountain communities to conserve the traditional pastoral system and associated cultures of these ethnic communities.

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Section: Kyrgyzmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ethnic and Cultural Diversity amongst Yak Herding Communities in the Asian Highlands

et al. 2020

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“…Pastureland is regarded as the residents’ joint stewardship, namely as the commons. A local community’s head assigns some of the residents to make Jaiyt Komitet, a local pasture committee, in every settlement to manage their pastureland [11,12]. However, the committee members are often selected because they are relatives or close friends of the community’s head, not because they are capable of management.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In the eastern Alai Valley of the Kyrgyz Pamirs, the relationship between overgrazed pastureland and the grazing intensity was discussed [9,10]. Pastoralism above the cultivation limit was described in the same area [11,12], and diversified pastoralism as a survival and adaptive strategy was examined [13].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pastoral Practices and Common Use of Pastureland: The Case of Karakul, North-Eastern Tajik Pamirs

Watanabe

Shirasaka

2018

IJERPH

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This study describes pastoralism practiced in the Karakul village, Northeast of Tajikistan, and discusses its sustainability. Tajikistan introduced a market economy at independence in 1991, and pastoralism is now practiced on a family-unit basis. The families in Karakul graze livestock in their summer pastureland (jailoo) and move their livestock to winter pastureland around the village (kyshtoo). They make groups for pasturage with several families in jailoo and also in kyshtoo. Each group pastures their livestock every day, using a system called novad. In addition to jailoo and kyshtoo, they also practice pastoralism on two additional kinds of pastureland: küzdöö (spring pastureland) and bäärlöö (autumn pastureland). Still, now, the Karakul villagers use their pastureland as the commons: the Karakul village has not established private possession of pastureland even after a law enabled the division of common pastureland among individual families. Using the pastureland as the commons would be preferred by the local pastoralists. However, the free pasture access as the commons may result in a loss of sustainability as a trade-off. Regardless of privatization or the continued use of the commons, the possible development of the uneven use of the pastureland is inferred and should be avoided, and the introduction of a local management structure is urgently needed.

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“…Castrated yak bulls are used as pack animals for transportation and traction. The transhumance yak farming system is a cyclic process and follows a vertical migration (Krishnan et al, 2016;Shirasaka et al, 2013;Tiwari et al, 2020). The yak herders with their herds migrate between summer (high altitude) and winter rangelands (low altitude) depending on forage availability and weather conditions.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Transition towards sustainable yak farming in Bhutan: stakeholders’ viewpoints and recommendations for future steps

Dorji

Derks

Koerkamp

et al. 2021

International Journal of Agricultural Sustainability

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The Bhutanese government initiated a highland development programme in the year 2016 to promote yak farming because the number of yak farming families is declining. However, there are several cross-cutting policies and issues that affect successful implementation of interventions to support yak farming in transition. We studied the challenges and opportunities to sustain yak farming and related trade-offs around problems and solutions through individual and focus group interviews with six stakeholder groups (i.e. herders from two regions, extensionists, park rangers, livestock officials, and forest officials). Overall the herders rated forage availability and yak mortality as the main threats to yak farming, while government officials rated labour availability as the main threats. Most problems and solutions that were identified in the focus group interviews had diverging views among the stakeholder groups. There is clearly a need for a multistakeholder dialogue aiming to discuss problems and solutions together. This should take away misleading and disputed claims, and provide understanding about the approach to cope with risks and uncertainty around transhumance yakbased communities. A strong collaboration should lead to appropriate policy, which would reduce challenges and barriers, and simultaneously give opportunities to herders and their children to stay in yak farming in future.

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Transhumance in the Kyrgyz Pamir, Central Asia

Cited by 8 publications

References 10 publications

Ethnic and Cultural Diversity amongst Yak Herding Communities in the Asian Highlands

Ethnic and Cultural Diversity amongst Yak Herding Communities in the Asian Highlands

Pastoral Practices and Common Use of Pastureland: The Case of Karakul, North-Eastern Tajik Pamirs

Transition towards sustainable yak farming in Bhutan: stakeholders’ viewpoints and recommendations for future steps

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