We presented “Mobile Pastoralism and the Climate Crisis” at the Parliamentary Research Committee meeting on June 23, 2021. Our discussion highlighted how mobile pastoralism sustains rangelands, minimizes fossil fuel use, reduces industrial inputs, prevents forest fires, and supports ecosystem resilience and water cycles.
We attended the meeting of the Parliamentary Research Committee on the Impact of Global Climate Change on June 23, 2021, with our presentation titled “Mobile Pastoralism and the Climate Crisis”. At the meeting, we explained the contribution of mobile pastoralism to the fight against the climate crisis under the following headings:
- Sustaining Rangelands: Rangelands are among the largest carbon sinks on the planet. Mobile pastoralism plays a crucial role in maintaining these carbon-rich ecosystems.
- Minimal Fossil Fuel Use: This livestock farming system requires the least amount of fossil fuel energy, thereby reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
- Reducing Industrial Inputs: By reducing the demand for industrial feed and other inputs, mobile pastoralism helps decrease the overall greenhouse gas emissions associated with livestock farming.
- Forest Fire Prevention: Grazing by livestock helps control biomass accumulation, thus preventing and controlling forest fires.
- Ecosystem Resilience: Mobile pastoralism increases the resilience of ecosystems to the impacts of the climate crisis.
- Supporting the Water Cycle: This practice has a low water footprint and does not cause water pollution, supporting a sustainable water cycle.
- Climate-Friendly Food Production: Mobile pastoralism produces healthy, safe, and climate-friendly food.
- Seed Dispersal: It aids in the adaptation of plants to the climate crisis through its role in seed dispersal.
- Adaptable Animal Breeds: Native animal breeds involved in mobile pastoralism have a high capacity to adapt to changing climatic conditions.
- Mobility and Adaptation Strategies: The inherent mobility of pastoralists allows them to adapt to changing environmental conditions effectively.
Despite being the most climate-friendly livestock farming system, mobile pastoralism today faces many problems. The major ones are the restriction and/or prevention of their access to pastures and migration routes, the allocation of pastures and migration routes to other land uses, and the degradation and loss of rangelands and water resources by drought caused by climate change.
It is of great importance to include the important role of mobile pastoralism in the fight against climate change and the necessity of taking legal and administrative measures for the protection of nomadic pastoralism and therefore rangelands within the scope of the climate change report to be prepared by the Parliamentary Research Committee on the Impact of Global Climate Change.
On this page