Pastoralism

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Primeval grassland , dry steppe landscapes like the one shown in Mongolia, as well as tundras, dry savannas, semi-deserts and deserts are usually only suitable for extensive livestock farming.

Pastoralism (from Latin pastor "shepherd"; also natural pasture management or pastoral animal husbandry on natural pastures ) is a form of land use with extensive pasture management on naturally grown bush and grassland , whose other use is not attractive because of the climatic conditions, its barren vegetation or its remoteness or doesn't make sense. In pastoralism, a distinction is made between a mobile and a sedentary form. If the subsistence strategy of a local community is based on pastoralism and agriculture , it is called agropastoralism .

Around 25% of the global land area is pastorally cultivated. The herds consist of camelids , cattle or small ruminants such as sheep or goats.

background

The bison herds, which were originally widespread there, are much better adapted to the conditions of the North American steppes than cattle

As a rule, large herds of grazing ungulates have always been part of the "inventory" of all natural open landscapes . In many cases, the domesticated species replaced the ecological niche of the former wild animals. It follows from this that pastoral livestock farming is basically an ecologically adapted strategy. This applies in particular to the breeds in the dry belt of the Old World, which have been adapted for centuries and can be equated with wild animals.

Gnu herd, southern Africa (2014)

Recent studies show that abandoning pasture use (“overrest”) in dry areas often has more negative consequences for ecosystems than overgrazing . The short-term intensive grazing with cattle treads and dung of the animals, repeated at longer intervals, are extremely positive aspects of the dynamics of arid biomes, because on the one hand they promote the growth impulse, root growth and the resistance of the plants, on the other hand humus formation , soil fertility and water absorption and storage capacity.

Depending on the type of biome , roughly 5 to 16 (in the extreme <1 or up to 50) livestock units (= for example a cattle) per 100 hectares are considered to be extensive animal stocking . Recent studies show that ultra-dense tillering in dry areas with 2000 to 5000 livestock units per hectare, which imitate the natural herd behavior of wild herbivores (e.g. herds of wildebeest ) and are moved every few hours, leads to better soil fertility, water absorption and storage, CO2 -Sequestration through root formation in the soil and greening of the landscape.

Soil moisture is decisive for the vegetation of arid areas and thus for the load-bearing capacity of natural pastures. This allows the forms of pastoralism to be delimited by the amount of annual rainfall:

Mobile pastoralism

A special form of mobile pastoralism is Iceland's high pasture farming, in which horses and sheep spend the summer in the highlands without supervision

The mobile pastoralism includes the traditional forms of remote pasture (synonymous phrase) to mostly not inclosed pastures where repeatedly feeding grounds to be changed in the year, which also generally not be due to the permanent residence of the owner.

Mobile pastoralism is common in areas with strong climatic fluctuations (especially semi-arid climates ). It is most widespread in North Africa and Central Asia . The pastures are mostly in communal ownership ( commons ).

Nomadism

In the hot and cold deserts and semi-deserts, in the temperate dry steppes and tropical thorn savannahs with an annual rainfall of less than 100 to 250, up to a maximum of 600 mm, mobile animal husbandry with camels and goats is mainly used throughout the year . Until around the middle of the 20th century, whole peoples lived from a pastoralist pastoralism based on far-reaching subsistence farming (self-sufficiency). The technical term for this type of economy and the associated traditional form of culture is " nomadism ". Today there are very few fully nomads left.

Reindeer Pastoralism

In Lapland, the reindeer are rounded up twice a year to mark the calves or to select the animals that are ready for slaughter

A special form of nomadic pastoralism, in which one follows the natural migration of the animals, is the reindeer pastoralism of Northern Europe. Since the animals in most regions of Eurasia are relatively stationary in midsummer in the tundra and in winter in the forest, modern reindeer herders now generally live in permanent homes during this time. One should therefore rather speak of semi-nomadic pastoralism, although the terms are often not used in a differentiated manner. The habitat of the reindeer herding peoples , which stretches from the Lappish Fjell Mountains over the North Russian tundras and forest tundras to the Chukchi Peninsula , is sometimes referred to in ethnology as the “Siberia” cultural area. The reindeer herding today subsistence and market-oriented. One can say that the share produced for the market is continuously decreasing from Northern Europe eastwards.

Transhumance

In subtropical mountains with dry steppes and in the driest areas of the Mediterranean hard-leaf vegetation between below 300 to 550, a maximum of up to 900 mm precipitation is the main distribution area of ​​classic transhumance - the seasonal migrant grazing with goats and sheep, also known as "Yaylak pastoralism". It was originally carried out by employed shepherds while the owners of the herds ran sedentary agriculture. In winter, the shepherds supervised the animals on pastures near the residential areas in order to drive them to the high pastures in spring - when the food supply declined - which now offered sufficient food for the summer. This original transhumance is seldom practiced today in the Mediterranean countries and the Middle East, as the climatic conditions in the plains already allow more productive agricultural uses. In marginal areas, however, it is partly financially supported as a sustainable and environmentally friendly form of economy and for nature conservation reasons . In principle, transhumance is already a more market-oriented economic system.

Mobile animal husbandry

Mongolia is one of the very few countries where attempts are being made to transform subsistence-based nomadism into a modern form of mobile animal husbandry that leaves enough space for the old traditions

Today, due to a dramatic cultural change in their way of life (with an increasing market orientation) , many former nomads have switched to "degraded" forms of pastoralism, some of which are similar to Yaylak pastoralism. However, this is not sustainable, as unsuitable regions with a maximum of 300 mm annual precipitation are affected. This form is mostly practiced in a semi-nomadic way, with part of a local animal-keeping community migrating with the herds seasonally, while the other is sedentary and pursues other jobs. Such “modernized” migrant pasture management and other post-nomadic forms are called “ mobile animal husbandry ” today.

(Note: "Mobile animal husbandry" is therefore also "mobile pastoralism"; however, "mobile pastoralism" is not only (modern) "mobile animal husbandry"!)

Alm, Seter and Hochweide

The Serviced Alpine does have "pastoral roots" is, however, today the majority of anthropogenic grassland operated. On the other hand, the very similar Seterwirtschaft in Scandinavia can still be counted as natural pasture farming.

The Icelandic high pastoralism with sheep and horses is a real form of mobile pastoralism , in which a winter pasture or stables in the lowlands and a natural summer pasture in the highlands are used. The animals roam freely during this time. In the autumn they are found on horseback and driven back. All of these forms of pasture farming produce largely market-oriented.

Stationary pastoralism

In the so-called “Cattle Complex” from South Sudan (picture) to South Africa in particular , sedentary cattle breeding has a long tradition

In natural open landscapes with more than 450 mm (better than 600 mm) annual precipitation (short grass steppes, hard-leaf bushes or dry savannahs), which for various reasons are not used for arable farming, on the one hand significantly more animals can be kept on the land and on the other hand they are only relative Short fallow periods are necessary until the pastures have recovered. Therefore a stationary pastoralism could develop in these areas, in which the owners are sedentary (for a few years) and the cattle can be kept relatively close to the place of residence for most of the time. Such traditional and predominantly subsistence-oriented forms - mainly known from Africa - are, however, almost always associated with agriculture and therefore belong to agropastoralism. Usually no more than 10% of the products are offered in local markets.

The exclusively market-oriented stationary pastoralism has developed in the dry areas of former colonial areas , such as in the western USA , in Australia and New Zealand . The so-called “ranches” are at the center of the pasture land, which is why this form of ranching is used . In addition, the terms sheep stations or cattle stations are used in Australia . This pastoralism is integrated into market economy structures, ie the pastureland is privately owned. Among other things, this can increase the willingness to invest in irrigation or amelioration of pasture land. There are also joint measures by pastoralists such as the dingo fence in South Australia. The key differences to the mobile forms of livestock farming are pasture management, large-scale fencing and feeding in winter or dry seasons. Such measures are imperative if the modern stationary forms are also used in drier areas with less than 400 mm of annual rainfall.

literature

  • Ryan R J. McAllister, Nick Abel, Chris J. Stokes, Iain J. Gordon: Australian pastoralists in time and space: the evolution of a complex adaptive system. In: Ecology and Society . Vol. 11, No. 2, 2006, Article 41, Online .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Tobias Kühr: Traditional diets in developing countries - typical nutritional deficiencies and approaches to improving the nutritional situation using the example of Africa. Diploma thesis to obtain the degree of a qualified nutritionist, Friedrich Schiller University Jena. Jena 2007, pp. 10-13.
  2. ↑ Erle C. Ellis, Navin Ramankutty : Putting people in the map: anthropogenic biomes of the world. In: Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment. Vol. 6, 2008, pp. 439-447, doi: 10.1890 / 070062 , digitized version (PDF; 3.92 MB) .
  3. ^ Allan Savory: Holistic Management in Grassland Management , August Publications. July 8, 2013. Retrieved November 27, 2015. 
  4. ↑ Allan Savory, Sam Bingham, Jody Butterfield: Holistic management handbook healthy land, healthy profits , [online edition]. Edition, Island Press, Washington [u. a.]: Island Press 2006, ISBN 978-1559638852 , pp. 70,133,240 (accessed November 27, 2015).
  5. ^ A b Allan Savory, Jody Butterfield: Holistic management a new framework for decision making , 2nd ed. Edition, Island Press, Washington [u. a.]: Island Press 1999, ISBN 155963488-X , pp. 243, 396 ff. ( Accessed November 27, 2015).
  6. ↑ Jody Butterfield, Sam Bingham, Allan Savory: Holistic Management Handbook. Healthy Land, Healthy Profits. Revised edition. Island Press, Washington, DC et al. 2006, ISBN 1-55963-885-0 .
  7. ↑ Fred Scholz : Nomadism is dead. In: Geographische Rundschau . No. 5, 1999, pp. 248-255.
  8. ↑ a b Jürgen Schultz: The ecological zones of the earth (= UTB 1514). 4th, completely revised edition. Ulmer, Stuttgart 2008, ISBN 978-3-8001-2894-5 , pp. 280-289.
  9. ^ A b c Christian Lauk: Socio-ecological characteristics of agricultural systems. A global overview and comparison. In: Social Ecology Working Paper 78. Institute of Social Ecology, Vienna 2005. ISSN  1726-3816 , p. 41.
  10. ↑ Rolf Kjellström: Samernas live. 2., utökade upplagan. Carlsson Bokförlag, Stockholm 2003, ISBN 91-7203-562-5 .
  11. ↑ Elena Mis'kova: Bievanie as a way of life Transformation problems in Siberia in the 20th century. In: Stefan Bauer, Stefan Donecker, Aline Ehrenfried, Markus Hirnsperger (eds.): Fault lines in the ice. Ethnology of the Circumpolar North (= Contributions to the Circumpolar North. Vol. 1). Lit-Verlag, Vienna 2005, ISBN 3-8258-8270-5 , pp. 87-102, here pp. 92-100.
  12. ↑ Stephan Dudeck: The day of the reindeer herder. Representation of indigenous lifestyles between taiga living area and oil town in western Siberia. Kulturstiftung Sibirien, Fürstenberg / Havel 2013, ISBN 978-3-942883-17-7 (also: Leipzig, University, dissertation, 2011), digitized version (PDF; 3.44 MB) . Retrieved May 25, 2015.
  13. ↑ Russian indigenous people threatened by exploitation of raw material deposits! ( Memento of the original from February 21, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Society for Threatened Peoples website. Article dated July 26, 2010. Retrieved May 25, 2015. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.gfbv.de
  14. ↑ Burkhard Hofmeister: Essence and manifestations of transhumance: For the discussion of an agro-geographical term. In: Geography. Archive for scientific geography. Vol. 15, No. 2, 1961, pp. 121–135, doi: 10.3112 / geography . 1961.02.04 .
  15. ^ European Natural Heritage Foundation: Transhumance - Natural wealth through tradition. In: Euronatur . No. 2, 2007, pp. 12-13.
  16. ^ Wolfgang Taubmann: Iceland's agriculture. Basic features and recent changes. In: Geography. Archive for scientific geography. Vol. 23, No. 1, 1969, pp. 30-47, here p. 39, doi: 10.3112 / geography . 1969.01.04 .