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This paper aims to theoretically and empirically test whether the Weather Index Insurance for Mutton Sheep (WIMS) which protects the herders from increased feeding costs resulting from drought and snow disasters promotes the income of herders in China's Inner Mongolia or not. We have applied the OLS, PSM, and quantile regression models using field survey data from 261 herders in Xilin Gol, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region for our objective. The findings demonstrate that the WIMS significantly increases the overall and high-income herders' income, but has no significant effect on herders' income at other income levels. According to the results, we recommend that as the subsidized agricultural insurance product, the government should expand the pilot region of WIMS to furtherly test its income effect and consider reducing or exempting insurance premiums for low-income herders to reduce their financial pressure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Grassland Ecological Compensation Policy (GECP) is a key set of policy instruments designed to alleviate grassland degradation and increase herdsmen's income. However, considering the various constraints and obstacles that policies often face in actual operation, it may not be able to achieve the expected goals. In order to test the real income effect of GECP and clarify its mechanism, based on the data of 499 counties in Chinese pastoralist provinces from 2000 to 2019, this paper uses the difference-in-differences (DID) model to empirically test the impact of GECP on herdsmen's income from the dual perspective of income growth and income gap. This analysis not only evaluates the impact and mechanism of GECP on income growth in more detail, but also broadens the existing research perspective from the perspective of the income gap. The major study findings are as follows: (1) GECP significantly promotes income for herdsmen, with a marginal effect of 0.078. (2) The mechanism analysis indicates the GECP improves the income of herdsmen through the direct effect of increasing transfer income and the indirect effect of optimizing the allocation of labor, and promoting the livestock scale of barn feeding. (3) With respect to the income gap, this paper finds that areas with relatively high levels of development benefit more from GECP, which will widen the income gap between regions for herdsmen. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Farmer-herder conflicts have been long standing in Mali's rural areas. It has been shown that it is mostly herders who support and join jihadist groups. By analysing land regimes in farmer-herder contexts and merging studies on different scales of violence, the paper investigates how local dynamics interact with national political violence. It argues that historical precedents and pastoralist grievances related to land governance have created a fertile breeding ground for jihadism to take root and spread. It also contends that local land-related issues can have a considerable impact on state fragility and the eruption and dynamics of violence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Agatu "Massacre" is a conflict between pastoralists and farmers in the Agatu area of Benue State, Nigeria. The conflict is significant because of the event's gravity, but no scholarly inquiry that involves thoughtful and reflective methodological and theoretical approaches has been made. This paper investigates how the farmer-herder relations in Agatu became a violent crisis and situates it within relevant literature to fill gaps in farmer-herder conflicts literature in Africa. Existing literature demonstrates the pertinence of moral economies for resource use, spatial pattern, and manifestations of conflicts in developing and developed worlds. However, studies have yet to use the moral economy concept to explore the African farmer-herder conflicts from a political ecology perspective. This paper demonstrates that the Agatu crisis emerged due to reterritorializations in the moral economy of farmers and herders, disrupting their social ties. It further illustrates that the violence in Agatu was caused by the deviation from the traditional approach to addressing the damage done to crops by herding livestock. Nevertheless, the paper argues that this deviation is the consequence of modifications in the moral economy of farmers and herders driven by the aspiration for financial gain rather than the subsistence of agro-pastoral relations. The paper argues that changes in moral economies can disrupt social relations and lead to farmer-herder conflicts, leading to the exclusion of pastoralists from resource access through policy and legislation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The general requirements of China's rural revitalization strategy are industrial prosperity, ecological livability and rich life. However, the traditional livestock breeding model has struggled to balance the dual requirements of production development and ecological protection, and it is urgent to inject new impetus and explore new development paths. At present, e-commerce has become a bridge between pastoral areas and cities, herdsmen and consumers. E-commerce participation is not only an important starting point for herdsmen to increase the added value and profit space of livestock products, but also an effective way to change the original breeding behavior based on the premise of destroying grassland. Therefore, this paper presents an in-depth study on the issue of e-commerce enabling grassland ecological restoration, aiming to provide more scientific and effective guidance for e-commerce to be used to achieve a win–win situation in economy and ecology. Therefore, based on the data of 271 herdsmen in pastoral areas of Inner Mongolia, we used the OLS model and the two-stage least squares (2SLS) method to identify the direct impact of herdsmen's e-commerce participation on grassland utilization pressure. The empirical results show that e-commerce participation can significantly decrease the grassland utilization pressure. The conclusion was still valid after alleviating endogeneity and conducting a robustness test. The results of a mechanism analysis suggest that the reduction effect of e-commerce participation on grassland utilization pressure is mainly due to price incentive, reputation incentive and place identity. Subjective norms can strengthen the inhibitory effect of e-commerce participation on grassland utilization pressure. Furthermore, a heterogeneity analysis demonstrates that e-commerce participation has a better, decreased impact on the grassland utilization pressure on the banners of China's rural e-commerce demonstration county program. Under a counterfactual assumption, if herdsmen who can participate in e-commerce choose not to do this, their grassland utilization pressure will increase. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Improving the operating income of farmers and herdsmen is an important starting point for achieving common prosperity. As a common form of learning and an important source of skills training, informal learning has a certain impact on the economy and income level of farmers and herdsmen. This paper takes 439 herdsmen in three cities of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region as the research object and tries to explore the comprehensive influence, subdivision difference, and mechanism of informal learning on the operating income of herdsmen on the theoretical and empirical levels. The results show that the impact of informal learning on the operating income of herdsmen is "inverted U-shaped", and there is an informal learning balance point of 2.9776 h, which maximizes the effect of informal learning on the increased operating income of herdsmen. After using the instrumental variable method to deal with endogeneity and conducting robustness tests through winsorizing, quantile regression, and substitution variables, the research conclusions were still valid. Heterogeneity analysis found that informal learning has a significant impact on the increase in operating income of herdsmen in the low human capital group, reflecting the role of "sending charcoal in the snow". However, it has no significant effect on the increase in operating income of herdsmen in the high human capital group, and the effect of "icing on the cake" is not obvious. In view of this result, government departments should speed up the planning of Internet infrastructure construction in pastoral areas, and accurately push the knowledge and skills needs of herdsmen to help increase the operating income of herdsmen. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the relationship between linguistic expression and human reason in Herder's Treatise on the Origin of Language. I argue that additive theories of human language, which contend that the linguistic capacity is in principle separable from the other cognitive faculties of the linguistic being, cannot be brought into agreement with Herder's distinctly transformative account of human language and reason. For Herder, the transformation of our sensible faculties through language is required in order to guarantee the unity of human cognition, and hence reason itself is understood as fundamentally linguistic. This positing of a strong unity between language and reason makes Herder an important, if still under-appreciated, precursor of the twentieth-century linguistic turn. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper concerns itself with the study of changing dynamics of herder-bovine relationships in the South Indian state of Tamil Nadu. By exploring the affective lives of Tamil-speaking herders of South India in their interaction with native Pulikulam breed bovines and foreign bred milch cows, this paper maps the sensuous ways in which these three beings make and unmake each other. At a more abstract level, this paper intends to improvise dialogue between new materialist and deconstructive techniques by exploring Karen Barad's conception of intra-action, and Derrida's hauntology in the context of human-animal relationships. The central argument this paper exposes is that our nuanced moments of interactions with animals are already mediated by visceral absences which we fail to take into consideration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to address the violent disputes between herders and farmers in Northern Nigeria, this article looked at the establishment of ranches, cattle routes, and grazing reserves. It also looked at how conflict is a social reality that exists in all human social systems, whether they are in cities or rural areas. It observes that disagreements are a common cause of conflict, particularly between the two opposing factions, the "herders," who are primarily Fulani and Muslim migrants seeking better pasture for their livestock, and the crop farmers, who are primarily from agrarian backgrounds. For data gathering, the paper used secondary sources such books, journals, articles, newspapers and other internet sources. The study discovered that there are a number of reasons why farmers and herdsmen in Northern Nigeria clash. Climate change badly executed government policies, illiteracy, a lack of a solid Alternative Dispute Resolution Mechanism (ADRM), anger and hostility brought on by the loss of life and property, and so forth are a few of these. The report suggested that pasture areas, livestock routes, and ranches be established in order to settle the disputes. The report also suggested that in order to stop the threat, the Federal Government of Nigeria should set up a practical ADRM and make sure that policies are implemented effectively. Additionally, it recommended a broad education campaign to inform the opposing sides of the risks their ceaseless fighting poses to Nigeria's progress as a developing nation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Farmer-herder conflicts are widespread in many parts of Africa. Scholars disagree on their causes. One strand associates conflict with absolute scarcities caused by for example population growth and climate change. Other scholars emphasize politically established scarcities: scarcities caused by policies, legislation, and development programs. This paper examines the causes of farmer-herder conflict in the case of Asante Akim North Municipality of Ghana; an area that has suffered from severe conflicts for the past two decades. The study relies on documentary materials and interviews with 53 respondents representing all main agents with a stake in the conflict. The paper argues that absolute scarcity (population growth and climate change) may play a role in conflict, but the key driver of conflict is political. The paper shows how the traditional authorities have allocated land to outside cattle owners without effective institutions to guide cattle herding. This has created conflicts between traditional farming and new herding interests. The paper contributes to the literature on farmer-herder conflict and political scarcity by presenting a case where scarcity is not produced by state-led policies and interventions at large-scale but by local-level traditional authorities and small-scale enclosures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The reasons for and possible consequences of so-called gender displacement— the outflux of young women from the communities of native northerners leading traditional ways of life, which turns tundra and taiga into a specific “male space”—represent a topic of great concern and interest in modern Arctic anthropology. The fieldwork data on Komi reindeer herders presented in this paper suggests, however, that there is also an opposite process: some girls from settled families choose to marry reindeer herders and join them in their migrations through tundra and taiga. Based on ethnographic interviews, this paper explores the reasons and possible cultural consequences of this process, for which the term “gender replacement” is suggested. The interviews indicate that these girls were attracted by the relative economic stability of the reindeer herding way of life and the relatively low risk of divorce, infidelity, and alcoholism as well as by the romantic image of the nomadic way of life. Although the rate of gender replacement is certainly insufficient to offset the consequences of gender displacement, the influx of “settled wives” to the tundra effects important changes in the life of reindeer herders. It can be supposed that the phenomenon of gender replacement also exists in other regions and ethnic groups, which makes it an important object for anthropological research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Dwelling well, for the Dörvöd herders with whom I have interacted over the years, involves getting a few things right about the invisible. On the one hand, they need to navigate spaces that are teeming with 'things' that not everybody can see plainly, and which are best left undisturbed. On the other hand, behaving properly towards spiritual 'land masters' that constitute the places through which herders circulate involves them conforming to a certain regime of marking, i.e. a geography that implicitly values discretion and disappearance. Considering two apparatuses with which the invisible is either taken care of or produced – saddled horses and gravesites –, this paper explores a concern, and a talent, that people in Mongolia exhibit for things that exist by virtue of (dis)appearing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

More than ever, the contemporary Nigerian social landscape is characterised by civil aggression and violent attacks by many (known and unknown) violent groups. The activities of these groups have created insecurity crises of unparalleled intensity in the country. This paper examined the implication of insecurity (or these violent attacks) for the tourism industry in Nigeria. The study used a desk research approach to generate secondary data following a time series design. It descriptively analysed the information using line graphs, bar charts and simple percentages, using the theory of 'failed state' as a framework for the interpretation and discussion. The study found a relationship between recurrent insecurity and prevailing challenges facing the tourism industry in Nigeria. Since 'all crime is local', it is recommended that the conventional approaches to solving the insecurity problems in Nigeria should be complemented with the help of members of local communities and mass media using state-of-the-art technology to expose criminals and ensure constant checks on local migrants, international emigrants and business people that deal in small arms and light weapons. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper attempts to analyse diverse forms of reindeer pastoralism that exist in the European part of Russia from the viewpoint of landscape approach, that is as unique localized and historically developed interaction between people, reindeer and the natural landscape. The analysis starts with a short overview of the history of reindeer herding in the two reindeer herding regions of European Russia: the Archangelsk tundras and the Kola Peninsula. The developments of the last 300 years related to the transition from pre-pastoralist reindeer herding to reindeer pastoralism and the development of reindeer pastoralism during the late Imperial and Soviet periods are shown as particularly important. During this period, the particular form of reindeer-animal interaction developed in the Archangelsk tundras and characterized by intensive control over the herds and long linear interzonal migrations became dominant throughout European Russia before disintegrating again into a set of more localized forms by the late Soviet to early Post-Soviet periods. The discussion proceeds by analysing interactions between herders, reindeer and environment in the two main forms of reindeer pastoralism present in European Russia now in the most part of the Kola Peninsula and the most part of the Archangelsk tundras respectively. It is demonstrated that these two forms essentially depend on the interactions between reindeer, people and environment that existed in previous periods and have left traces in the physical landscape as well as in reindeer behaviour. The current modes of interaction between the elements of reindeer landscape build on them in different ways. Besides the two main forms, there are three small localities in European Russia where other forms of landscape interactions can be found. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Existing studies of the farmer-herder conflicts (FHCs) in Nigeria have not explored the political ecology of the conflict in South-Eastern Nigeria (SEN). Using the political ecology framework (PEF), the paper examines the nature of the FHCs in Nimbo and Awgu areas in SEN. Data were collected through field observations and in-depth interviews. The paper shows that resource scarcity or reduced farming and grazing spaces did not engender violent FHCs in the study area. Instead, actions of the actors that are perceived to be morally wrong are critical. Allegations of moral transgression such as rape, kidnapping by herders and claims that a herder was used as a sacrifice by villagers triggered the violent episode. The pastoralists are discriminated against on the ground of indigenous belonging only after being alleged to have morally transgressed by kidnapping and raping women. However, on the ground that a herder was allegedly used as a sacrifice, they felt also wronged. While the herders are discriminated against based on their non-belonging in the community because they are not indigenous, they have mount resistance by emphasising their citizenship rights and using force to maintain access to grazing spaces, thereby amplifying the farmer-herder tensions. Thus, while identity has contributed to the FHCs violence, moral wrongs enacted and amplified it. The paper contributes to the literature by arguing that while what triggers FHCs may be moral wrongs, moral transgressions can heighten identity constructions that get implicated in practices of exclusion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article critically examines the politics of socio-political exclusions, with particular reference to the recurrent surges of herdsmen/farmers' skirmishes that are currently ravaging many states in Nigeria. Owing to their occupation and prejudiced history, the Fulani herdsmen have not enjoyed full assimilation into mainstream cohesion, and the enactment of laws proscribing 'open grazing' by some states, in a bid to protect farmers and farmlands, appears to have further entrenched this supposed exclusion. Consequently, the group, through its Miyetti Allah Cattle Associations, has urged state governments to refrain from enforcing these laws. The implementation of the laws by Benue and Taraba States has caused herdsmen to react angrily by killing hundreds of people in the states. To what extent are these states justified in prohibiting open grazing? Can a group justifiably warn a sovereign, federating, state against implementing a law duly passed by its State Assembly? Using critical analysis, the paper proffers answers to these questions by drawing insights from philosophical arguments of social justice, particularly Nozickian justice as entitlement. Given that what is at stake is the economic livelihoods of both farmers and cattle herders, the paper also provides an objective analysis of the conflict by pointing out the central claims of both parties in the dispute. It concludes that solution to these skirmishes inheres in an approach that emphasizes social justice and inclusion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nigerian media reports on herdsmen's violence present dehumanised images of a slaughterhouse in which farmers are represented as animals being slaughtered by herders. Using a critical discourse analysis and appraisal framework, with a focus on the systems of attitude and graduation, this paper critically examines media representation of herdsmen's violence as "butchering" in the form of carnism. Analysis reveals that carnist representation is reinforced through death-dealing socio-cognitive labelling, attitudinal lexicalisation and strands of carnism. Also, using attitude and graduation resources, a one-directional and horrific image is painted. The study concludes that the creation as well as consumption of such scary news cultivates cognitive prejudices and stereotypes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent times, Nigerians have been grappling with the problem of insecurity, ranging from the marauding criminal herdsmen maiming, killing and kidnapping of harmless and innocent citizens to cult clashes destroying lives and properties. In the midst of all these, there has been a seeming negligence on the side of the government to provide the needed security which ordinarily constitutes the primary aim of forming a government; thus, the calls from different quarters for people to defend themselves. The paper seeks to ethically investigate and establish the justifiability of such calls for self-defence and its possible implications. The research exposes the concept of self-defence, its call in Nigeria, addresses the ethical concerns with self-defence vis-à-vis its accompanying legal provisions; it then, raises concerns with the tenability of such calls considering the level of poverty in the country and other factors that may impede the call for selfdefence in Nigeria such as the possibility of slippery-slope and concludes that, in the light of obvious negligence of the government to tackle the menace of insecurity and in accordance to the principle of self-preservation, it is indeed behooves of Nigerians to resolve to self-defence as a last resort but this must be well planned and coordinated considering the legal bottlenecks such as the bureaucratic and tedious nature of obtaining license to own firearm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines whether descriptive social norms affect one's intention to participate in voluntary social insurance in Mongolia. It reports the results of a survey experiment conducted in September 2020 among herders, whose rate of participation in voluntary social insurance is low and who presumably lack information about others' behaviours with respect to social insurance enrollment. Building upon prior research on descriptive social norms, we hypothesise that herders would be more willing to participate in voluntary social insurance when given information that many others are participating. The respondents were randomly assigned to two groups: one group received information that many others were participating in social insurance, and the other received information that the participation rate was low. We find that those who were given information on the high participation rate expressed a greater willingness to participate in social insurance in the future than the other group. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper attempts to study the age structure of the stock breeders of the Nâama region located in the west of Algeria, and to interpret the dynamics of the classes of these ages according to breeding techniques, to know the trend of this activity that characterizes the region of Nâama recognized for its pastoral vocation. Like the other Algerian steppes, the herders of the western regions suffer from a real upheaval that has strongly impacted their lifestyle and consequently their livestock systems, under the combined effect of a number of natural and anthropogenic factors in a political, economic and social context. In order to gather the information necessary for this work, we selected a representative sample of 364 livestock holders randomly distributed across the study area, from a total number of the targeted population estimated at 6.700 breeders, setting a margin of error of 5% and a confidence rate of 95%. It emerges that the mobility of herds is in clear decline, especially transhumance, giving way to practices which present interdependence between livestock breeding and land appropriation, where sedentarization, the intensification of livestock farming and its association with some agricultural practices follow a growing trend. In addition, the mixed profile, which includes those who are both breeder and fattener, seems preferable to young breeders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the implementation of herding in the Neolithic period, specialized areas for livestock activities have emerged in the Western Mediterranean region, such as some caves and shelters, which were systematically used for the stabling of herds. By definition, this type of sites has a great potential for the study of the beginning of livestock practices and offer high-resolution information on the exploitation and management of herds. Different disciplines analyze these activities through the analysis of faunal, archaeobotanical or sedimentological remains from these sites. In this paper, we offer a state of the art on the contribution to the study of early husbandry practices of zooarchaeological studies of faunal assemblages from sheepfold caves. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The fundamental necessity of every society is the security of her citizens against internal and external aggression. A secured society promotes development and attracts investors thereby promoting socio -economic wellbeing of the citizen and building responsible and responsive citizens. The high rate of insecurity has denied Nigeria government and citizens of peaceful atmosphere and socio-economic prosperity is at the low ebb. The intermittent conflicts such as ethno religious, communal, insurgency, farmers – herdsmen conflict has weakened Nigeria security architecture. The emergence of ethnic militias and non-state actors contributed immensely to the insecurity in Nigeria. The complex security situation in Nigeria ranging from insurgency, ethno religious, oil theft, farmers- herdsmen, kidnapping, drug, and human trafficking coupled with the porous borders and associated criminal activities among others were critically examined and posed that socio-economic development and livelihood of Nigeria are at risk, except proactive measure designing to incorporate bottom- top approach, Nigeria will soon slide into failed or collapsed state. This paper, therefore, recommends promotion of socio–economic, collaborative intelligence approach as well as empowerment will contribute in no measure to degrade insecurity and ensure peaceful coexistence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on a collaboration between two anthropologists specialising in China and Siberia, an Evenki reindeer herder and co-researcher from Russia and Evenki reindeer herders from China, as well as on fieldwork data gathered separately from the 1990s and collectively in 2014, this paper examines the cross-views of the Evenki from both sides of the Sino-Russian border. Using what we call a 'cross-view methodology', we explore what emerged when this transborder people gather for the first in China after decades of separation. After our methodology, we present the Chinese and Russian Evenki's recent ethnohistory, their specificities, and common features. We then analyse the intellectuals' meetings of the 2000s and the reindeer herders' mutual interests. We explore some cross-views allowed by the pan-Evenki encounters we organised in 2014: the role of Evenki language, human-nature relationships, hunting and reindeer herding, identities, and a real or symbolic 'porosity' of a border. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the significant contextual differences between semi-nomadic herders in Kyrgyzstan and sedentary peasants in Mexico, a comparative study, based on ethnographic fieldwork, of the impact of patrimonialization on the two groups reveals similar processes of heritage marking. However, within this similarity this cross-analysis identifies two contrasting modes of domination that occur as a result of this analogous heritage process. By examining the local application of the heritage concept, as well as the connections that exist between the type of society, its history and the ethno-cultural management at work, this paper demonstrates how patrimonialization can stimulate divergent political mechanisms in the relationship between the State and the social groups concerned. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Predation is a powerful selective pressure and probably a driver of why many animal species live in groups. One key explanation for the evolution of sociality is the 'selfish herd' model, which describes how individuals who stay close to others effectively put neighbours between themselves and a predator to survive incoming attacks. This model is often illustrated with reference to herds of ungulates, schools of fish or flocks of birds. Yet in nature, when a predator strikes, herds are often found fleeing cohesively in the same direction, not jostling for position in the centre of the group. This paper highlights a critical assumption of the original model, namely that prey do not move in response to position of their predator. In this model, I relax this assumption and find that individuals who adopt 'selfish herd' behaviour are often more likely to be captured, because they end up at the back of a fleeing herd. By contrast, individuals that adopt a rule of 'neighbour to neighbour alignment' are able to avoid rearmost positions in a moving herd. Alignment is more successful than selfish herding across much of the parameter space, which may explain why highly aligned fleeing behaviour is commonly observed in nature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Grassland degradation has become one of the most important ecological and environmental problems in the world, affecting the ecological balance of grassland and the welfare of residents. To reveal the impact mechanism of herders' livelihood constraints on grassland degradation, and to explore the comprehensive management methods to ensure herders' livelihoods and grassland ecological restoration, this paper constructed an evolutionary game model considering local governments and herders. It is found that the ideal stable equilibrium game can be achieved when certain conditions are met, that is, when the local governments actively regulate and herders moderate grazing, the grassland degradation caused by overgrazing can be reduced. The livelihood differentiation of herders significantly affects the stable equilibrium state of the evolutionary game. The local government's regulation is the key to promoting moderate grazing of herders. The effect of incentive measures on the moderate grazing of herders is limited, while punishment measures can significantly restrict the excessive grazing behavior of herders. Policy support for household livelihood differentiation can effectively motivate herders to moderate grazing and achieve their survival and development needs to a greater extent through a non-grazing livelihood. The research results help decision-makers to formulate policies to combat grassland degradation, and promote the improvement of herders' lives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Top-down grassland conservation policies are widely used to protect grassland ecosystems from degradation in developing counties. However, an inability to meet local herders' preferences when implementing such ecological policies may weaken their outcomes. Using a choice experiment design, this paper evaluated herders' willingness to accept (WTA) different possible implementations of a grazing ban policy, which is an ongoing but inflexible grassland protection policy in China. The results showed that herders were more likely to accept a grazing ban policy that targets private benefits rather than public benefits. In particular, herder's WTA decreased when the policy objective changed from improving private grassland productivity to protecting grassland wildlife (or preventing sandstorms). Additionally, broader coverage and a longer duration also increased herders' WTA a grazing ban policy; i.e., herders preferred a grazing ban policy with less coverage and a shorter duration. Our heterogeneity analysis showed that herder's WTA is not only associated with their socioeconomic characteristics, but also with their altruism. Herders with higher altruistic tendencies were more willing to engage in a gazing ban policy targeting public benefits. These findings offer valuable insight into potential methods of redesigning top-down grassland protection policies and incentivizing small herders to adapt to environmentally friendly practices in China or other countries with similar backgrounds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discourses on herding have focussed on the "exact" representations of the social actions of itinerant herders who clash with farmers while grazing on supposed cattle routes. Media coverage on the herdsmenfarmers conflict has deployed ideologically laden terms to represent herding as trespassing on farmlands and herders as foreigners and trespassers. Using van Leeuwen's Representation of Social Actions and Actors model and Martin and White's Appraisal Framework, this paper examines how different trespassing-related terms (i.e. invade, attack and destroy) were deployed in the Nigerian newspaper headlines to represent herders and their activities with a view to discussing the kinds of representations that were constructed of the nomads through the texts. Findings revealed that using transactive role allocations, nominalization, descriptivation, identification, aggregation and attitudinal lexicalization, these social actors were evaluated negatively as intruders, raiders, and destroyers. The negative othering underscores the general perception and suspicious treatment of nomads in their host farming communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There are a plethora of development economics literatures shedding causal insight into why nations fail. But in Nigeria, there are little or no works explaining how state failure impedes development economics. This includes the formulation of plans, policies and strategies aimed at pushing back underdevelopment and resolving conflicts. This is because economic development needs industrial and social harmony to thrive. Nigeria’s farmersherders conflict is a classic example of how intra-sectoral and social conflict can impede development. Hence, this paper explored this problem in the context of state failure. It problematized Nigeria’s plan to import grass from Brazil as a farmer-herder conflict remedial impossibility and economic development illusion caused by state failure. The objectives of the paper are to demonstrate that sustainable agricultural development in Nigeria can only take place in an atmosphere of peace between herders and farmers; and to investigate the fingerprints of state failure on the public disaffection and distrust that undermined Nigeria’s plan to import grass from Brazil. The paper adopts the historical research methodology. Using the qualitative method of data analysis, it interpreted secondary materials. The findings of the study are: Nigeria’s neglect of its agricultural sector because of crude oil has a hand in its farmers-herders conflict; there was nothing economically wrong with Nigeria’s plan to import grass from Brazil as a farmer-herder conflict resolution strategy. The policy had the possibility of ending the conflict and improving Nigeria’s economy. But Nigeria’s failed political economy was the cog in the wheel that made it a development economics mistake.

This paper estimates the impact of grassland transfer on the technical efficiency of livestock production, using the cross-sectional data collected from herders in Northern China. The propensity score matching approach and selectivity-corrected stochastic production frontier model are employed to address the selection bias issues. The empirical results show that, on average, the average technical efficiency score of herders with grassland transfer is significantly higher than that of herders without grassland transfer, which are 0.56 and 0.41, respectively, after addressing both observed and unobserved selection biases. The livestock revenue is positively and significantly affected by forage grass use, machinery use, stocking rate, family and hired labours use, and veterinary investment. Our findings highlight the importance of facilitating grassland transfer to increase livestock production efficiency and boost farm performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Kazakh herders of the Mongolian Altai practice a form of nomadism characterised by high altitudinal amplitude and more frequent movements than in other regions of Mongolia. This paper proposes a local scale study of nomadic practices using an original multidisciplinary methodological approach combining anthropological surveys and several years' GPS data tracking of five herder families' herds. The dialogue between geo-localised and qualitative data over several consecutive years makes it possible to better understand the environmental, economic, social and individual factors that determine nomadic routes and calendars. It also highlights the ways in which herders cope with interannual variations. In particular, this new methodology reveals the importance of temporary herd separations and re-evaluates the frequency of nomadic movements, which might have been underestimated by the classical anthropological approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of the Archaeological Museum in Zagreb / Vjesnik Arheološkog Muzeja u Zagrebu is the property of Archaeological Museum in Zagreb and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Intersecciones en Antropología is the property of Universidad Nacional del Centro de la Provincia de Buenos Aires, Facultad de Ciencias Sociales and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper aimed to provide an Afrocentric spyglass of the broader analysis of Nigeria's continuing ethnic tensions. It is a historical landmark to the broader scholarly discussion and critical overview of the three most important causals of contemporary ethnic tensions in Africa's biggest economy (Nigeria). The limited scholarly literature about how the Nigerian ethnic tensions have evolved because of poor leadership and governance, especially from the Biafra War to now Boko Haram and Fulani Herdsmen heavily informed the undertaking of this research paper. The latter three are important political aspects of the Nigerian federal government and mainstream media attention, giving them heavyweight scholarly attention. This paper argues that ethnic tensions in Nigeria are not new as they come partly out of the Biafra war which marked the continued offensive of ethnic tractions. The latter argument is advanced to deal with the two objectives of the research paper namely (i) Analyse the Biafra War, Fulani Herdsmen and inter-link them with the Boko Haram whilst (ii) highlighting how the ongoing Ethnic tension in Nigeria is because of the poor leadership and governance. This argument is realised by the deployment of document review and thematic content analysis of the prevailing scholarly works. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many studies have emphasized the importance of community-based natural resource management institutions in adapting to climate change and responding to the global shift towards individualized land tenure regimes. However, few have reported on the innovative institutions developed by some rural communities to rebuild community cooperation and rural adaptive capacity. This paper draws on four comparative cases from the Tibetan Plateau to assess how locally developed community cooperative institutions mediate herders' access to markets and resources to foster adaptive capacity and adaptation in response to snow-related catastrophes. Results demonstrate that community cooperative institutions are more effective in improving adaptive capacity than the market-based adaptation strategies that are the predetermined outcome of individualized tenure regimes. When such cooperative institutions exist, community members are able to apply both household and community collective adaptation strategies, resulting in better livelihood outcomes. Community cooperative institutions effectively address individual needs and priorities by clarifying entitlements and market-based networks. They rebuild community collective action and cooperative business entities that improve herders' ability to access resources and markets more equally by distributing benefits to all community members. This study concludes that following the establishment of individualized land tenure regimes, rebuilding community cooperation necessitates hybridization of property rights arrangements, reformed institutions, and social networks operating across levels of governance to facilitate interdependent interactions between collective and individual adaptation strategies. Such community cooperation offers new opportunities for improving adaptive capacity in pastoral regions and elsewhere. Market-based institutions and adaptation strategies are significant components of climate adaptation policies in pastoral and agricultural regions, though they face equity and collective action-building challenges. Adaptative capacity should be understood as a function of cross-level interactions among individuals, community organizations, and external stakeholders. These cases of community cooperative institutions offer new insights into coordinating the interactions between individual-level and community-level adaptation practices. Community-based natural resource management (CBNRM) institutions can restore collective management of natural resources and stimulate formal economic cooperation to build bridging networks with other stakeholders; this generates opportunities for all community members to more broadly access resources and markets to improve adaptive capacity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The increasing use of the payment for ecosystem services (PES) represents a prominent institutional shock triggered by external interventions on livelihoods of natural resource managers. To reconcile the needs for both conservation and development, a deep understanding on the influence mechanisms of PES on farmer livelihood resilience is paramount, particularly in dynamic and uncertain contexts. Taking the Rangeland Ecological Protection Subsidy and Reward scheme that has been implemented in pastoral China since 2011 as a case study, the paper empirically investigates the impacts of PES on livelihood resilience of livestock farmers in Qinghai Province. Based on a comprehensive evaluation of herder livelihood resilience from three dimensions—buffering, self-organizing and learning capacities, multiple linear regression was applied to examine the PES impacts. Resilience enhancement was mainly found in buffering capacity for herders with a medium to large herd size. Results of univariate parallel mediation models further reveal that household income growth and diversification and livestock upsizing were three key intermediary processes that mediated the enhancement and together contributed 28.83% of the total effect. The findings help narrow a knowledge gap in understanding whether, how and for whom PES contributes to improve farmer livelihood resilience. To achieve "win-win" outcomes, we stress that greater attention should be given to tailoring design and implementation of PES programs to align with the specificity of local contexts. • Impacts of one rangeland PES program on herder livelihood resilience are examined. • Ecological compensation has significantly enhanced the livelihood resilience of herders. • Buffering capacity is enhanced more than self-organizing and learning capacity. • Income growth and diversification as well as herd upsizing are three crucial mediators. • Larger-scale herders are improved stronger than smaller-scale ones. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The identification of mobility patterns in prehistoric communities is crucial for the understanding of their social and economic strategies. Though factors such as economics, environment, and cultural choices are strictly related to mobility, it has been demonstrated how anticipated mobility is pivotal in generating different aspects of site structure and spatial organization. Considering the stone structures uncovered at Takarkori rock shelter (southwestern Libya, central Sahara), we performed morphometrical and spatial analysis to provide appropriate indicators of mobility patterns, site structure, and activity areas among hunter-gatherers and pastoral groups that inhabited the shelter during the Early and Middle Holocene. We recognized year-round semisedentary patterns and shorter seasonal occupations, based on the number, size, typology, and topography of stone structures. The paper discusses how, through the analysis of stone structures, it is possible to recognize mobility patterns in the archaeological record. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Young herders of Senegal's Ferlo region are grappling with a quickly changing natural and economic environment, and these conditions affect how they view the future. Research suggests that a decreasing natural-resource base is restricting the number of those who will successfully continue in the pastoral economy. Drawing on opinions gathered from young FulBe herders regarding the future viability of pastoral livestock management as an economically sound vocation, this article argues that improved policy support and material infrastructure are contributing to a greater sense of national belonging among herders, but they need policies that recognize the potential economic importance of mobile livestock production to the national economy and food security. Diversification of economic activities is important: herders' capacity to invest in diverse productive activities, including urban networking, makes a difference. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever virus (CCHFV) is a globally significant tick-borne zoonotic pathogen that causes fatal haemorrhagic disease in humans. Despite constituting an ongoing public health threat, limited research exists on the presence of CCHFV among herdsmen, an occupationally exposed population that has prolonged contact with ruminants and ticks. This cross-sectional study, conducted between October 2018 and February 2020 in Kwara State, Nigeria, was aimed at assessing CCHFV seroprevalence among herdsmen and non-herdsmen febrile patients, and identifying the associated risk factors. Blood samples from herdsmen (n = 91) and febrile patients in hospitals (n = 646) were analyzed for anti-CCHFV IgG antibodies and CCHFV S-segment RNA using ELISA and RT-PCR, respectively. Results revealed a remarkably high CCHFV seroprevalence of 92.3% (84/91) among herdsmen compared to 7.1% (46/646) in febrile patients. Occupational risk factors like animal and tick contact, tick bites, and hand crushing of ticks significantly contributed to higher seroprevalence in the herdsmen (p<0.0001). Herdsmen were 156.5 times more likely (p<0.0001) to be exposed to CCHFV than febrile patients. Notably, the odds of exposure were significantly higher (OR = 191.3; p<0.0001) in herdsmen with a history of tick bites. Although CCHFV genome was not detectable in the tested sera, our findings reveal that the virus is endemic among herdsmen in Kwara State, Nigeria. CCHFV should be considered as a probable cause of febrile illness among humans in the study area. Given the nomadic lifestyle of herdsmen, further investigations into CCHF epidemiology in this neglected population are crucial. This study enhances our understanding of CCHFV dynamics and emphasizes the need for targeted interventions in at-risk communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

No doubt, small and large scale livestock production is a major contributor to the economy of Nigeria, outside it being a rich source of animal protein and leather (made from animal skin). Similarly, crop production has maintained its centrality in the sustenance of human population. The need to get these herds of cattle well fed has propelled pastoralists to seek for arable lands beyond their domains. These arable lands are all-most always owned and used for farming purposes. The encroachments by herders into the property and business premises of farmers, have often thrown opened a major source of resource-based conflict. The disposition, demands and violent activities of the herders have often spelt doom for not just the crops, environment but equally, the lives of farmers, their families and community members alike. These aggressive posture and violent occupation at once reveals the violent crime component of these recurrent conflicts between herders and farmers. Thus, the research aims to interrogate religious peacemaking in the violent conflicts between herders and farmers within the context of security and criminal justice administration. Exploratory research design was used with data drawn principally from secondary sources. Also, the peacemaking criminology framework was adopted. Climate change, migration and destruction of crops, cattle rustling and the availability of small arms and light weapons were the major causes of the conflict. Similarly, income and livelihood, property and human destruction, humanitarian challenges were some major effects of the conflict. While observing the religious dynamics in the identity of the primary conflict parties, this research concludes by recommending from a religion-based peacemaking perspective, sustainable panacea that could curb and restore the relationship between the hostile parties on the basis of their long established, though currently volatile, interaction and commonalities towards national development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Grasshopper disasters threaten grassland animal husbandry, and overgrazing is widely recognized as one of the main causes of locust infestation in grassland regions. However, the impact of overgrazing on grasshopper disasters remains unclear. To address this knowledge gap, this study interviewed 541 households living in locust-prone areas in Inner Mongolia, China. The generalized Poisson model and OLS regression examined the relationship between herders' production behavior and locust disasters. The results showed that 42% of the herders had suffered from locusts more than three times over the past 15 years, with an average of 49 ha of grassland damaged per household. In addition, with the increase in grazing rates, the scale of locust disasters decreased before it increased. The results also showed that operating grassland areas and feeding forage reduced locust disasters significantly, while renting grassland areas and grazing rates worked oppositely. These results suggest that grazing intensity can make a significant difference in the occurrence of locust disasters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chinese herders' most typical goal-oriented pro-environmental behavior is forage-livestock balance (FLB) maintenance behavior. Existing studies seek to explain its low incidence from the perspective of rational choice based on the theory of planned behavior (TPB) but ignore the effects of emotion and desire, which are considered to have an impact on goal-oriented pro-environmental behavior. To analyze herders' FLB maintenance behavior, we constructed an extended TPB (ETPB) framework incorporating desire and emotion regarding achieving FLB. Using data from 820 herders in northern China, a structural equation model was employed to test the framework's applicability. The ETPB framework has better explanatory power than the original TPB framework in herders' FLB maintenance behavior, especially for Mongolian and middle-income herders. Anticipated emotion and desire are antecedent factors of herders' FLB behavioral intentions, and the former can influence behavioral intention through desire. Desire is an antecedent factor of herders' FLB maintenance behavior. The indirect effect of desire on behavior through behavioral intention is greater than the direct effect of desire on behavior. Furthermore, income gaps and cultural differences moderate the effects of desire and emotion. The practical implications of the findings were discussed in terms of promoting herders' FLB maintenance behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Context and Background: In Nigeria, due to the herdsmen-farmers crisis occasioned by climate change and land conflicts, food production has been hampered. The study explores the intricate relationship between climate change, land disputes, and food insecurity in Nigeria, focusing on the escalating crisis between herdsmen and farmers. Against the backdrop of increasing violence and multiplying land conflicts, exacerbated by climate-induced challenges such as floods, droughts, desertification, soil degradation, and water scarcity, this research delves into the profound impact of climate change on the nation's agricultural sector and land use patterns. The study emphasizes the urgent need to address these issues, recognizing climate change as a significant driver of the herdsmen-farmers crisis in Nigeria. Goal and Objectives: The primary goal of the study is to investigate the extent to which climate change contributes to land disputes and food insecurity in Nigeria, using the herdsmenfarmers crisis as a case study. Methodology: The research adopts a comprehensive approach, utilizing data from relevant articles, images, and news stories to analyze the complexities of the herdsmen-farmers crisis in Nigeria. It employs a case study methodology to investigate the impact of climate change on land disputes and food insecurity. Results: The findings underscore the critical role of climate change in exacerbating land conflicts and food insecurity in Nigeria. The study highlights the adverse effects of climate change, such as rising temperatures, changing rainfall patterns, and extreme weather events, on agricultural practices and resource competition. The research proposes workable strategies for resolving land conflicts, emphasizing the enhancement of climate resilience through sustainable land and resource management, inclusive decision-making, and strengthened governance. Furthermore, it suggests the implementation of early warning systems, fostering dialogue, cooperation, and providing alternative livelihood opportunities as crucial steps toward mitigating conflicts and promoting long-term peace and stability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]