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

Only insignificant cultivation areas exist <strong>and</strong> those are concentrated in the
north-western part of the region (in Darwaz District in the Saghridasht <strong>and</strong>
in the eastern part of Murghab District on the banks of the rivers <strong>and</strong> lakes.
Pastoral l<strong>and</strong>s are represented mainly in dry valleys, 92 %.
Depending on the ecological conditions <strong>and</strong> the state of the economy, the vegetation
of natural grazing l<strong>and</strong> consists of thorny bushes <strong>and</strong> grasses of varied
composition, whereas in the highl<strong>and</strong> eastern part they consist of meadow
types <strong>and</strong> alpine thorny bushes.
Mountainous natural grazing l<strong>and</strong>s are characterized by unsatisfactory amelioration.
Up to 31 % of their area is covered with bushes <strong>and</strong> thorns.
The area of green grass cover in the region comprises 596,783 hectares, where
72 % is made up of remote eastern pastures (Oqtash of Rushan District, Burunkul
of Shognan District, Jawshangoz of Roshtqala District <strong>and</strong> Murghab
District).
During the Soviet Union, these pastures were intensively <strong>and</strong> widely exploited
according to the directives of the regime. On these pastures, more than 20
thous<strong>and</strong> head of big animals <strong>and</strong> 90 thous<strong>and</strong> small animals were maintained.
3 Adaptation of Mountain Herders to Change
There are differences in the means of exploitation of pastures <strong>and</strong> their management
between the Western <strong>and</strong> Eastern Pamirs, which are to be highlighted
here. In the eastern part of the Pamirs the herders spend the summer in permanent
buildings made of stone <strong>and</strong> called el. It is a Pamiri term, which means
kashar in Tajik or jaylo in Kirghiz, basically the place where herders keep their
livestock in the summer pasture during their stay there. The existence of these
small summer camping-type dwellings more or less indicate where the pastures
are located <strong>and</strong> can indicate a loss of importance as the people ab<strong>and</strong>on a
pasture <strong>and</strong> its el.
The el is used as a base for the production <strong>and</strong> maintenance of milk products to
be produced in the course of the summer season. For this reason considerable
efforts are spent in the labour process. During summers, women <strong>and</strong> children
often live with the herder in the el. In Saghridasht in the western part of the
GBAO, in contrast, the herder would spend the summer in a tent without his
family. Although this may significantly increase the freedom of movement, it
appears to imply that milk products must be processed by the shepherd himself
for the whole of the summer. This could perhaps explain why in some cases
milking cows are not driven to the summer pastures <strong>and</strong> instead form herds
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