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Abstract:
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"Ten case studies from seven major pastoral regions across six continents were studied in this
paper by conceptualizing three factors (agro-ecosystem resilience, livelihood options, and institution
capacity) as the axes of a three-dimensional vulnerability framework. This analysis highlights the
vulnerability of agriculture-based livelihood systems to global changes and helps identify what institutions
have the potential to mobilize effective relief in different pastoral regions. In terms of results, this
vulnerability assessment shows that the vulnerability of pastoralism was very different in all the cases
across the globe. As such, a further analysis, based on the pressure-state-response (PSR) model was
undertaken to enhance our understanding of the ways that global changes put pressures on pastoral
livelihoods worldwide. From this we conclude that climate change and climate variability are driving fragile
pastoral ecosystems into more vulnerable conditions. Socioeconomic factors, such as changes in land tenure,
agriculture, sedentarization, and institutions are fracturing large-scale pastoral ecosystems into spatially
isolated systems. The implications of this analysis are that professionals, practitioners, and policy makers
should jointly develop a coupled human and natural systems approach that focuses on enhancing the
resilience of pastoral communities and their practices. This requires institutional developments to support
asset building and good governance to enhance adaptive capability. In addition, pastoralists’ adaptation
strategies to global change need to be supported by public awareness and improved by institutional decisions
at different scales and dimensions."
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