If you understand stabilization and expansion of herder outputs and outcomes — in particular household livelihoods — are central to pastoralism, then there are varieties of pastoralism. This is largely because efforts to achieve stable and expanding livelihoods vary with the critical infrastructures upon which the livestock-related activities depend.
Some pastoralisms depend on roads and vehicles for livestock transport and water provision. Others rely on helicopters from time to time. Veterinary health infrastructures are instrumental in various ways and it’s now a commonplace to say pastoralists rely on and configure around market infrastructures differently. Migration infrastructure for those leaving their households and remittance infrastructures for the migrants to send income back to the households are various as well.
This article is from PASTRES, a research programme that aims to learn from pastoralists about responding to uncertainty and resilience, with lessons for global challenges. PASTRES is co-hosted by IDS.