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

Holistically valuing a complex system is nearly impossible. Valuating the
importance of pastoralism through market value or monetary terms is difficult
<strong>and</strong> not doing justice to it simply because of the fact that pastoralism in its
traditional sense was not meant for market production <strong>and</strong> that pastoralism is
multipurpose <strong>and</strong> many roles or functions played by traditional pastoralism can
not be measured by monetary terms. Pastoral systems are more than simply a
mode of livestock production. They are also consumption systems that support
100–200 million mobile pastoralists globally: many more if extensive agopastoralists
are included (FAO 2001). They are natural resource management
systems that provide a wide range of services <strong>and</strong> products that are nationally
<strong>and</strong> globally valued, such as biodiversity, tourism <strong>and</strong> raw materials. Scholars
(Hatfield et al. 2006) have tried to assess the importance of pastoralism by taking
into its direct values, indirect values, optional values <strong>and</strong> existence values.
Another dimension to the values of pastoralism is that the major resources
exploited by pastoralists, that is, the rangel<strong>and</strong>s are often marginal resources
under harsh conditions that cannot be used by conventional agriculture.
<strong>Pastoralism</strong> is a socio-ecological mode of culture (Scholz 2008). It represents
a cultural adaptation to marginal environments, characterized by climatic uncertainty
<strong>and</strong> low-grade resources, <strong>and</strong> complies with the ecological principles
of rangel<strong>and</strong> ecosystems. It is the finely-honed symbiotic relationship between
local ecology, domesticated livestock <strong>and</strong> people in resource-scarce <strong>and</strong> highly
variable regions, often at the thresholds of human survival. It represents a
complex form of natural resource management, involving the direct interactions
between three systems in which pastoral people operate, i.e. the natural
resource system, the resource use system <strong>and</strong> the larger geo-political system
(Pratt et al. 1997).
For development agencies <strong>and</strong> policy-makers to support pastoralists, it is important
to keep in mind that:
(1) pastoralism represents a way of life showing how to make a survival under
harsh conditions by exploring marginal <strong>and</strong> heterogeneous resources that can
not be otherwise used, but pastoral way of life itself is far from satisfactory <strong>and</strong>
usually does not provide a quality way of life;
(2) pastoral use of rangel<strong>and</strong>s is more compatible to ecological conservation
objectives than most other l<strong>and</strong> uses of rangel<strong>and</strong>s; especially, many rangel<strong>and</strong>s
are non-equilibrial systems exhibiting high variability in primary productivity
<strong>and</strong> opportunistic <strong>and</strong> extensive pastoral use proves to be far more sustainable
<strong>and</strong> environmentally friendly than cultivated agriculture; we should therefore
not hold the view that pastoralism is “outdated” or something that needs to be
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