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Vulnerability and Resilience of Human-Natural Systems of Pastoralism Worldwide

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Building Resilience of Human-Natural Systems of Pastoralism in the Developing World

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Abstract

This chapter describes the definitions of resilience, vulnerability, and human-natural systems, presents general views on vulnerability/resilience of pastoralism, provides the framework for assessing vulnerability/resilience of pastoralism, and identifies vulnerability/resilience of human-natural systems of pastoralism worldwide. Resilience is defined as the capacity of a system, community, or organization to withstand loss or damage and to recover from the impact of an emergency or disaster. Vulnerability is defined as the sensitivity of people, places, ecosystems, and species to contingencies and stress, and their capability to cope with them. A human-natural systems is defined as the integrated system in which people interact with natural components. Human–environment systems, social–ecological systems, ecological–economic systems, and population–environment systems are different forms of human-natural systems. The resilience/vulnerability of the human-natural systems concerns the resilience/vulnerability of interdependent systems of people and nature. The human-natral systems of pastoralism worldwide are reducing their resilience and enhancing their vulnerability to natural stress and human-induced shocks. An agroecosystem–livelihood–institution three-dimensional “vulnerability/resilience” framework and a pressure–state–response model can be used to examine the vulnerability/resilience of pastoralism worldwide. Ten case studies from seven major pastoral regions across six continents show that the vulnerability of pastoralism is very different across the world. Climate change and climate variability have driven fragile pastoral agroecosystems into more vulnerable conditions in the Great Plains of North America. Socioeconomic drivers such as land tenure change, agriculture policy reform, and human and livestock population growth have disrupted the pastoral institutions at local and national levels into marginalized ones in Central Asia, the South American Andes, the European Alps and highlands, Queensland in Australia, and the Arctic. Combined natural and human factors have driven pastoral agroecosystems and institutions into more vulnerable situations in the African Sahel and the Asian highlands. Social–ecological learning, technical and management innovations, social–ecological system renewal, and reorganization of institutions are pathways to mitigate the negative causes and effects of the pastoralism’s vulnerability.

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Acknowledgments

The authors express their great thanks to the funding organizations including Ministry of Science and Technology of the People’s Republic of China, National Natural Science Foundation of China, and Asian Scholar Foundation, India China Institute of New School, Beijing Normal University for their financial supports. The authors are most grateful to the scholars whose articles, tables and figures are cited in this chapter.

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  1. School of Environment, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, 100875, China

    Shikui Dong & Shiliang Liu

  2. Inner Mongolia University, Hohhot, 010021, China

    Lu Wen

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  1. Beijing, China

    Shikui Dong

  2. Ithaca, New York, USA

    Karim-Aly S. Kassam

  3. Montpellier, France

    Jean François Tourrand

  4. Fort Collins, Colorado, USA

    Randall B. Boone

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Dong, S., Liu, S., Wen, L. (2016). Vulnerability and Resilience of Human-Natural Systems of Pastoralism Worldwide. In: Dong, S., Kassam, KA., Tourrand, J., Boone, R. (eds) Building Resilience of Human-Natural Systems of Pastoralism in the Developing World. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-30732-9_2

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