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

9 Summary of Workshop
<strong>and</strong> Closing Remarks
Hermann Kreutzmann 58
The regional workshop on “<strong>Pastoralism</strong> <strong>and</strong> Rangel<strong>and</strong> <strong>Management</strong> on the
Tibetan Plateau in the Context of Climate <strong>and</strong> Global Change” has been held
at an appropriate time <strong>and</strong> in the right setting. Time-wise it is embedded in
a series of conferences held by InWEnt that were devoted in 2010 to recent
challenges <strong>and</strong> constraints in pastoralism <strong>and</strong> rangel<strong>and</strong> management. In
the same year, ICIMOD organised an international experts’ consultancy on
pastoralism <strong>and</strong> a new scientific journal emerged with the title “<strong>Pastoralism</strong>”. It
seems that the remote <strong>and</strong> extended rangel<strong>and</strong>s in the high mountain steppes
<strong>and</strong> deserts as well as the alpine pastures have returned to the core of academic
<strong>and</strong> developmental attention when it comes to addressing questions of climate
<strong>and</strong> global change. The Climate Change debate has vividly sensitised us that
all regions <strong>and</strong> habitats are somehow interlinked <strong>and</strong> interdependent. Some
areas on earth are expected to be more affected by global warming than others.
Deserts, steppes <strong>and</strong> especially mountain areas are at the critical edge of the human
habitat sphere where significant changes are anticipated in the near future.
Nevertheless, these regions have been continuously changing since the end of
the last glacial age. That might be another reason that makes it worthwhile
to look at these critical areas. Here we find resilient people that are masters in
adaptation.
58 Chair of Human Geography, Director of the Centre for Development Studies <strong>and</strong>
Institute of Geographic Sciences, Freie Universitaet Berlin
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