A case of benign neglect: knowledge gaps in the sustainability of pastoralism and rangelands

Pastoralism is practiced by millions of people worldwide. It has roots in every part of the world and back thousands of years to the beginning of agriculture. But while pastoral societies have existed for millennia, we still don’t know that much about the interlinkages between pastoral practices and the rangelands these depend upon. It’s as if they are invisible in a lot of research about the global environment. There are many questions we cannot answer today with confidence because of widespread gaps in understanding rangelands and pastoralists. Yet, the answers to these questions have profound implications for national and global policy – and influence on how we will deal with climate change.