Climate change and pastoralism: impacts, consequences and adaptation

Herrero, M.;Addison, J.;Bedelian, C.;Carabine, E.;Havlik, P.;Henderson, B.;van de Steeg, J.;Thornton, P.K.

Abstract

The authors discuss the main climate change impacts on pastoralist societies, including those on rangelands, livestock and other natural resources, and their extended repercussions on food security, incomes and vulnerability. The impacts of climate change on the rangelands of the globe and on the vulnerability of the people who inhabit them will be severe and diverse, and will require multiple, simultaneous responses. In higher latitudes, the removal of temperature constraints might increase pasture production and livestock productivity, but in tropical arid lands, the impacts are highly location specific, but mostly negative. The authors outline several adaptation options, ranging from implementing new technical practices and diversifying income sources to finding institutional support and introducing new market mechanisms, all of which are pivotal for enhancing the capacity of pastoralists to adapt to climate variability and change. Due to the dynamism of all the changes affecting pastoral societies, strategies that lock pastoral societies into specified development pathways could be maladaptive. Flexible and evolving combinations of practices and policies are the key to successful pastoral adaptation.

Journal

Scientific and Technical Review

Publication Name

N/A

Volume

ISBN/ISSN

0253-1933

Edition

N/A

Issue

Pages Count

Location

N/A

Publisher

World Organisation for Animal Health

Publisher Url

N/A

Publisher Location

N/A

Publish Date

N/A

Url

N/A

Date

N/A

EISSN

N/A

DOI

10.20506/rst/35.2.2533