The Pastoral Development Network represents a world-wide network of researchers, administrators and extension personnel interested in the issues of pastoralism and rangelands. Between 1976 and 1996 the PDN was managed by ODI and published regular mailings including newsletters and a wide ranging series of papers on pastoralism and related issues. There were also a number of other related publications.
Pastoral Development Network
Pastoral Development Network Resources
With the introduction of rural reforms in the early 1980s, China broke with its
collectivist past and began the arduous transition from a centrally planned to a free
market economy. The People’s Communes – the institutional basis of
agriculture under Mao – were disbanded, and communal land was
Results from this study show that the over-used but under-researched association between grazing and land degradation in the Kalahari has been oversimplified. In typical Kalahari conditions, the ecological changes that have been brought about by grazing cannot be linked with more fundamental changes in ecosystem function.
Paper explores the relationships between the following concepts under the conditions of Middle Eastern semi-arid ecosystems. Paper states that there are two apparent contradictions in the title of this paper.
Assessing the challenges facing the sheep herders in the Kyrgyz Republic, this paper concludes:for the first time in recent history the future of the sector may be in the hands of farmer/herders themselvesalthough there are many constraints in the production system, the government's attempts to promote decentralisation (e.g.
This paper focuses on extracts from a recent comparative analysis of livestock and land use surveys across a range of agro-climatic conditions in sub-Saharan Africa, based on information from systematic low level aerial reconnaissance and complementary ground studies in Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Sudan and Tchad, between 1980 and 1993.
The paper begins with a literature review of the basic theories which underpin range science. Two major approaches for determining carrying capacity (CC) are described, animal or plant oriented.
Paper attempts to dispel some of the confusion surrounding the application of the range degradation concept in Botswana. It has three objectives. First, to present the current thinking of range ecologists vis-a-vis range degradation. Second, to dismiss recent arguments that range degradation in Botswana is insignificant.
A useful debate is developing over carrying capacity and the degradation of communal rangelands in sub-Saharan Africa. With a few lonely exceptions, scientists and policy-makers have in the past claimed that degradation is universal and livestock productivity lowered because of overstocking on communal range. This position has been mainly dogmatic.
Recent arguments have stated that the new livestock development policy will carry a high social cost, that the reality of range degradation in Botswana has been ignored, and that there is no basis for assuming that de-stocking would decrease the productivity of rangeland.
This article looks at the changes which are taking place in the Syrian semi-nomadic bedouin flocks' feeding and migration patterns, and the historical reasons for these changes.