This is the third in a series of blog posts that bring together PASTRES work from 2018-2023 around a number of themes. In this post, we show the importance of mobility for pastoralists.
To read through our archive on this theme, click on the link at the end of this post.
The ability to move to respond to variable conditions is central to pastoral strategies. This takes many forms, ranging from daily to seasonal to inter-annual movements.
So what makes movement possible? As described in the research with the Rabari in Gujarat in India by Natasha Maru, movements are facilitated by social relations – amongst pastoralists themselves and with others, such as farmers – as well as technologies, including mobile phones, trucks, tractors and so on.
PASTRES research has highlighted many different types of mobility – from vertical migration from the summer to winter pastures in Amdo Tibet in China, to seasonal movement across the savannas of Kenya and Ethiopia, to the complex, changing transhumance patterns across Europe (in Sardinia, Spain or the Italian Alps), or Latin America (including Chile, Peru and Mexico).
