Farming Matters: Listening to Pastoralists
This issue of Farming Matters (PDF) by ILEIA explores the different ways pastoral societies are joining forces to challenge the policies that undermine their culture and way of life. For millennia, pastoralist societies have managed the rangelands of the world’s most challenging environments, producing food and providing ecosystem services for millions of households. The experiences, opinions and perspectives presented in this issue highlight the importance of pastoral societies for agroecology and the transformation of entire food systems. For example, the Pastoral Parliament in India is discussed. The Pastoral Parliament is a two-day discussion forum organised annually where pastoralists from across Gujarat meet to set a political agenda and address the issues that impact and affect them, without political, religious or caste-based segregation. Also participatory and inclusive processes for land management and land policy development in Somalia are discussed. Traditional common property regimes, vital for local pastoralists, are under pressure from enclosures, population growth and charcoal production.Arabian Pastoralist. In the Middle East the Arabian Pastoralist Communities Network emerged from one community’s struggle to assert their land rights. A case study in Tanzania shows that women are most impacted by each case of land grabbing and therefore more active in claiming their rights.