News from PASTRES: July 2022

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Policies and pastoralists: four new papers

How well do policy frameworks in pastoral regions respond to issues of uncertainty? Four new papers (on Europe, West Asia and North Africa, the Horn of Africa and Sahel, and Asia) reflect on the issues in global regions, identifying some major problems and challenges.

Find out more

‘Seeing Pastoralism’ exhibition

Our photography exhibition, Seeing Pastoralism, draws on work in all PASTRES countries. It includes both documentary photography and photovoice material, and is now being shown in various virtual and physical contexts.

It was recently shared at a feedback meeting in Isiolo, northern Kenya. It has since been exhibited as part of the Global Land Forum in Jordan together with the ILC Rangelands Initiative. The exhibition was part of the affiliate programme for the Stockholm+50 conference, and was shown at the Stockholm Resilience Centre, in partnership with the Stockholm Resilience Centre and the Stockholm Environment Institute. It was also part of the virtual programme at the European Development Days in June.

Book: Pastoralism in the Greater Horn of Africa

Free open access is now available for the edited book Pastoralism and Development in Africa: Dynamic Change at the Margins, published ten years ago. The book offers insights into how pastoralism has changed in the Greater Horn of Africa over the previous decades.

Pastoral systems continue to change, with new pressures and new uncertainties, as highlighted by the commentaries (PDF) offered by authors and others.

New studies by PASTRES affiliates and post docs

Small grants have been offered to PASTRES affiliates and post docs to undertake fieldwork and write up existing work. Six new studies are being supported, which will explore pastoralism in various settings around the world. The grants have been awarded to Matteo Caravani, Tapiwa Chatikobo, Giulia Gonzales, Greta Semplici, Fatih Tatari and Ryan Unks.

In addition, Matteo Caravani has also been awarded a Max Weber fellowship at EUI for his project, Accumulation by Certainty in the era of Surveillance Capitalism, which will begin later this year.

New working groups on Milk and Land

Following a workshop held at EUI in November 2021, two working groups have formed to exchange ideas and encourage collaboration. One focuses on milk and its marketing, while the other focuses on land use change in pastoral areas. We welcome expressions of interest from those who might wish to join or connect with either or both working groups.

Recent publications

Livestock, methane and climate change: The politics of global assessments by Ian Scoones, WIRES Climate Change

Providing social assistance and humanitarian relief: The case for embracing uncertainty by Matteo Caravani, Jeremy Lind, Rachel Sabates-Wheeler and Ian Scoones, Development Policy Review

Embracing uncertainty: rethinking migration policy through pastoralists’ experiences by Natasha Maru, Michele Nori, Ian Scoones, Greta Semplici & Anna Triandafyllidou, Comparative Migration Studies

High Reliability Knowledge Networks: Responding to Animal Diseases in a Pastoral Area of Northern Kenya by Alex Tasker and Ian Scoones, Journal of Development Studies

A New Politics of Uncertainty: Towards Convivial Development in Africa by Ian Scoones, in the book African Futures

Pastoral Care, by Ella Houzer and Ian Scoones The Land, Issue 30 (Who owns nature?)

Making way: developing national legal and policy frameworks for pastoral mobility. FAO Animal Production and Health Guidelines, No. 28. Rome. (FAO 2022; edited and coordinated by Natasha Maru)

PASTRES events

In May, Michele Nori participated in the launch of the new initiative PASTINNOVA, which explores models of sustainable futures of pastoral systems in the Mediterranean. He also presented at a webinar on Pastoralismes et consolidation de la paix au Sahel : défis et perspectives, organised by the office of the EUSR for the Sahel and the Timbuktu Institute. Michele spoke about de-agrarisation and depopulation in the Mediterranean at the AGROMED forum on Mediterranean Agricultural Policy and Demography in June, and will address the Foro Nacional de Caprino in early July on European pastoral systems.

In June, the European University Institute held a conference on Rethinking global knowledge production of ‘the local’: The role of political anthropology in international interventions. The organisers include PASTRES researchers Michele Nori, Greta Semplici and Giulia Gonzales, among others.