Pastoralism and Rangeland Management on the Tibetan Plateau in ...

�� Major owners keep their animals in good shape. They have permanent
usage rights to the pastures <strong>and</strong> they reduce the number of heads of
animals they have in the autumn in order to be able to feed them during
the long winters.
�� Shepherds of public herds are not always passive participants receiving
pasture animals. In some cases, it is the shepherd who organizes the rent
of the pastures, collects taxes for the use of pastures <strong>and</strong> controls the
overall size of the herd. He controls the numbers because if he does not
bring back the animals in sound condition he will not be trusted with the
herd next year.
�� In the Eastern GBAO, especially in Jawshangoz, the herds are still small
in size. During the Soviet times, the average size of a herd in the summer
season was around 1,000 heads of small domestic animals, while the
average number today is 450 heads.
�� Generally, the pastures are used as follows: in the summer animals are
brought from Khatlon Region to Taweeldara District <strong>and</strong> in the winter
the herders of Taweeldara move back to Khatlon Region. In the Village
Council of Saghridasht, in the Western part of the region, state farms <strong>and</strong>
major farming households conducted negotiations about l<strong>and</strong> use with the
Local Government of Darwaz District, GBAO. Private economic units
from individual districts such as Muminobod <strong>and</strong> Panj have access to
pastures only with the authorization of the State Farm Administration.
Communities often create special agreements with individual herders <strong>and</strong>
private owners in order to have access to the pastures in the Eastern or
Western Pamirs. In the majority of villages, access to the pastures of the
nearby valley is easy.
2.2 Factors threatening the good management of pastures
�� In the western part of the GBAO, particularly in Saghridasht the size of
the herds are still somewhat large, corresponding to the norms of Soviet
times, despite the fact that the total number of animals is low.
�� Some of the animals that are used for milk are grazed on the pastures
around the village all year-round, which has resulted in serious degradation
of the pastures, as was observed in Saghridasht. This is despite the high
degree of mobility of the domestic animals that is normally seen.
�� In some areas of the Eastern Pamirs, the number of locations used as
grazing grounds throughout the year decreased because the animals
remained in the spring-autumn pastures throughout the year without
moving to the highl<strong>and</strong> pastures in June. Additionally, a relatively
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