Regional workshop on Pastoralism and mountain land management concluded in Kashghar – Xinjiang

PT Report

Kashgar, July 22: The regional workshop on Pastoralism and Rangeland Management in Mountain Areas in the Context of Climate and Global Change, started in Khorog, Tajikistan

on July 14 and was concluded in Kashgar, China. The workshop recommended to take immediate steps for the sustainable use of the ecological assets in the pasture-land and improve the socio-economic conditions of pastoral communities living around the Pamir range. The participants highlighted the need for a cross-border information and knowledge sharing mechanism and regional projects and strategies to deal the impact of climate change and globalisation on mountain communities. The workshop was organised by InWEnt-Capacity

Building International-Germany with the support of Mountain Societies Development Support Programme (MSDSP)-Tajikistan and Xinjiang Academy for Agricultural Sciences (XAAS) under its mountain progrmme to support the ongoing reform processes in the Himalaya–Hindu Kush–Pamir region.

The main objectives of the regional event was to make a contribution to a deeper understanding of the trends of changes in pastoral system that effect the sustainable livelihoods of pastoral communities and recommend factors that contribute to resilience of pastoral systems and communities. More than 50 decision makers, professionals, scientists, and development practitioners from Tajikistan, Pakistan, PR China, Kyrgyzstan, as well as other parts of Asia and Europe belonging to different governmental, nongovernmental, research and environmental organizations participated the event.

The workshop was started with a two-day conference in Khorog, where keynote papers were presented on the theme with case studies of each participating countries. The second part of the workshop consisted of four days of field trips from Khorog via Ishkashim and Murghab to Kashgar. The participants visited relevant projects, pastures and pastoral communities for an analysis of the current situation and impacts of climate change and

globalisation. The participants shown concern over the Chinese Governments programme to resettle the Kirghiz nomad’s in cluster housing. They highlighted such projects could result in loss of the nomadic way of life developed over centuries.

In the final stage of the workshop, country groups formulated recommendations in order to support pastoral livelihoods and explore avenues for cross-border cooperation. The panel of delegation from Gilgit-Baltistan and Chitral region stressed on its Government to incorporate the interests of the indigenous mountain communities before approving the draft of the new rangeland policy. They called-upon the provincial Governments to develop

strategies and actions plans while respecting the customary laws of the local communities. They suggested to incentivise and professionalise pastoral activities in order to retain youth in this sectors. It was recommended that KIU should initiate mountain specific education and research programmes in order to fill the capacity and knowledge gaps.

Pamir Times

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Pamir Times is the pioneering community news and views portal of Gilgit – Baltistan, Kohistan, Chitral and the surrounding mountain areas. It is a voluntary, not-for-profit, non-partisan and independent venture initiated by the youth.

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