Pastoralism

Pastoralism is a subsistence system centered on raising livestock for food, materials, and trade. It may involve seasonal movement to reach pasture and water.

Transhumance: Seasonal movement of livestock between fixed pastures, often at different elevations. It is one way pastoralists match grazing patterns to seasonal pasture.
Animal domestication: The process by which humans breed and manage animal populations for sustained use. Domestic herds make livestock keeping a durable subsistence strategy.
Bedouin: Arab communities historically associated with mobile livelihoods in the deserts of the Middle East and North Africa. Bedouin histories include pastoral mobility adapted to arid environments.
Overgrazing: Grazing pressure that reduces vegetation or impairs land recovery beyond sustainable levels. It is a possible outcome when livestock pressure exceeds local forage renewal.
Nomadic pastoralism: A livestock-based subsistence system in which households move recurrently with their herds. It shows how mobility can organize both herd care and household life.
Agriculture: The cultivation of plants and raising of animals for food and other products. Pastoralism is one broad way human societies organize food production.
Mongolian pastoralism: Livestock-based livelihoods in Mongolia, commonly involving seasonal movement across grasslands. It illustrates mobile herding in a strongly seasonal steppe environment.
Desertification: Land degradation in drylands that reduces biological productivity and ecological resilience. Pastoral land use is often discussed in debates about dryland degradation and recovery.
Pasture: Land covered with vegetation suitable for grazing livestock. Its seasonal availability determines where herds can feed.
Subsistence economy: An economy primarily organized to meet the basic needs of its participants. Pastoralism is defined by production that supports household or community needs.

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