JSPS KAKENHI 23H00031 and JRP-LEAD with UKRI JPJSJRP20211705 GRANTS PROJECT
INTERNATIONAL SEMINAR [Open Hyflex Session]
LOOKING TOWARDS THE UNITED NATIONS INTERNATIONAL YEAR OF RANGELANDS AND PASTORALISTS 2026: WHAT CHALLENGES ARE PASTORALISTS FACING? WHAT HAS BEEN TACKLED SO FAR? WHAT CAN WE DO?
13:30-17:00 11 May 2024 at Room G601, Fujimi Gate Buildings, Hosei University, Tokyo
Aims and Scopes
We the KAKENHI 23H00031 grant project team are pleased to welcome audience concerned with the sustainable development goals (SDGs), rangelands, and pastoralism from around the globe to an international seminar featuring distinguished guests from the Commission of Nomadic Peoples and Oxford University as we look towards the United Nations International Year of Rangeland and Pastoralists (UN IYRP) 2026.
On 15 March 2022, the UN General Assembly in New York unanimously declared 2026 the International Year of Rangelands and Pastoralists, a move the Japanese government supported. The declaration noted that over half of the Earth’s land surface is classified as rangeland, and these areas are suffering considerable desertification including in countries with substantial drylands. It also acknowledged that rangelands and pastoralism are currently facing urgent albeit different challenges globally, and efforts aimed at achieving sustainable rangeland and pastoralism need to be rapidly upscaled to significantly progress towards achieving the SDGs.
Above all, pastoralists worldwide have been left behind. Awareness of UN IYRP 2026 is low in Japan, and the primary role of pastoralists and rangeland for achieving the SDGs is not well understood. The declaration acknowledged pastoralism as a dynamic, transformative livelihood linked to diverse ecosystems, cultures, and identities as well as to traditional knowledge and the historical experience of coexisting with nature. Hence, more related scholarly dialogue is needed.
This seminar features two keynote lectures on IYRP 2016 and associated movements. The keynote lecturers are Drs Ariell Ahearn and Troy Sternberg, who lead relevant academic movements as co-chairs of the Commission of Nomadic Peoples, International Union of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences as well as in their roles as Oxford University geographic researchers focused on Mongolian pastoralists. Their lectures will be followed by a supplemental lecture on the current challenges East African pastoralists who are facing with reference to climate change narratives and sustainable development. The presenter will be Prof Konaka, who recently co-edited a book on pastoralists’ resilience.
We hope that this seminar will provide attendees with an opportunity to consider how various actors in Japan can contribute to IYRP 2026, which plays a vital role in realizing the SDGs by 2030 under the pledge that ‘No one is left behind’.
*A semi-closed international workshop will be held as a side event before and after this international seminar (from 10:00 on 11 and 12 May). For further details, please refer to the information on the website below.
Program *Details are subject to change, so please refer to the website from time to time.
13:30-13:40: Opening Remarks
13:40-14:20: Lecture 1: Dr. Ariell AHEARN, Oxford University ‘Advancing Rights for Mobile Pastoralists and Nomadic Peoples: Opportunities and Limitations of the IYRP.’
14:20-14:40: Q & A Session (with a Discussant, Prof. Masanobu HORIE)
14:20-14:40: Q & A Session (with a Discussant, Prof. Masanobu HORIE)
14:40-14:50: Coffee Break
14:50-15:30: Lecture 2: Dr. Troy STERNBERGS, Oxford University ‘Internationalising pastoralist Interactions in the Year of Rangelands and Pastoralism (IYRP).’
15:30-15:50: Q & A Session (with a Discussant, Prof. Mitsuaki FURUKAWA)
15:50-16:00: Coffee Break
16:00-16:30: Lecture 3: Prof. Shinya KONAKA, University of Shizuoka ‘Situating UN SDGs in the Context of East African Pastoralism/Rangeland: Remarks from a Researcher in the Wake of the International Year of Rangeland Pastoralists 2026.’
16:30-16:50: Q & A Session (with a Discussant, Prof. Yuka TOMOMATSU, Dr. Aharn and Dr. Sternberg)
16:50-17:00: Closing Remarks
How to participate
Face-to-face participation is free of charge and no advance booking is required. Seats are allocated on a first-come, first-served basis. If you wish to attend online, please submit your email address and other details using the web form below by 3 May 2024.
Venue: Hosei University Ichigaya Campus
https://www.hosei.ac.jp/english/about/maps/campus/ichigaya/
https://www.hosei.ac.jp/english/about/maps/access/
Contact: localizationtoafrica@gmail.com
Flyer
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1jZZaGuc3txaD9Vo-TycH8dtV67xS2un8/view?usp=sharing
Abstract
Advancing Rights for Mobile Pastoralists and Nomadic Peoples: Opportunities and Limitations of the IYRP
Ariell Ahearn, Oxford University
Scholarship on mobile pastoralism has steadily explicated the forms of discrimination faced by mobile peoples globally. Representatives of Mobile Indigenous Peoples from around the world outlined ongoing rights violations and challenges they face during the 2022 Dana+20 meeting in Jordan. These include land fragmentation, exclusionary forms of development, forced sedentarization, involuntary resettlement and evictions, and cultural loss. These threats are exacerbated by the ongoing impacts of climate change on mobile livelihoods. The UN Declaration on the rights of Indigenous Peoples represents the minimum standards for states to uphold the rights of Indigenous Peoples. In many regions where there are Mobile Indigenous Peoples, States are failing to implement the Declaration to ensure the physical and cultural survival, dignity and well-being of Mobile Indigenous Peoples. In recent decades, many have been prevented from practicing the forms of mobility upon which their livelihoods and social systems are based. In some cases, Mobile Indigenous Peoples have been criminalized for practicing their traditional mobile ways of life and face discrimination from government institutions and the wider society. The Special Rapporteur on the rights of Indigenous Peoples at the United Nations is now investigating and writing a thematic report on the situation of Mobile Indigenous Peoples to be presented at the General Assembly in October this year. This paper will argue that the success of the IYRP (2026) depends on a commitment to including pastoralists in high-level meetings organised as part of the IYRP, and an endorsing of the principles of UNDRIP as the minimum standards of rights for Mobile Indigenous Peoples, including a right to practice mobile life-ways and support for their cultural, social and political rights.
Internationalising Pastoralist Interactions in the Year of Rangelands and Pastoralism (IYRP)
Troy Sternberg, Oxford University
Global pastoralism is an enduring livelihood strategy in marginal environments across the world’s desert and dryland regions. It’s key features – mobility, extensive livestock raising, rural communities and remoteness – separates herders from development discourses. New digital technologies and social media enable greater herder participation in public discussion and debate: information, engagement and opportunity follow. Though a universal livelihood and whilst the internet has no boundaries, intra-pastoralist interactions are constrained by borders, language, governments and ‘old’ thinking. Embracing innovative tools, enthusiasm and ease of communication can encourage a ‘new’ conception of a global herding community numbering in the tens of millions.
As a significant herding nation Mongolia’s support for 2026’s International Year of Rangeland and Pastoralists (IYRP) was key to its adoption by the United Nations (UN). The programme, coupled with the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, provides a focal point and overdue recognition of the importance of global pastoralism. Though sharing a valued livelihood, global herders are separated by distance, neglect, conflict and scarcity. Challenges are endemic, localised and centred on climate, economics and continued sustainability. Yet the IYRP brings new attention that, with creativity and effort, can progress international pastoralist interaction.
Recent experience showcases pastoralists’ interest and enthusiasm for cooperation across countries and continents. In 2021 an International Virtual Conference of Pastoralists brought herders from Kenya, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia and Tanzania for a 3-hour interactive discussion. In 2022 the ‘Mobilities and Societies in Drylands’ project brought herders and researchers from Asia, Africa, Europe and America together for exchange and discussion. Similar efforts were manifest at the DANA Declaration +20 in Jordan. Today’s challenge is for researchers and countries, such as Japan and the UK, to embrace and maximise the IYRP to increase global understanding and awareness of local lives in the world’s dynamic pastoralist communities.
Situating UN SDGs in the Context of East African Pastoralism/Rangeland: Remarks from a Researcher in the Wake of the International Year of Rangeland Pastoralists 2026
Shinya Konaka, University of Shizuoka
This lecture aims to discuss UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in the context of East African pastoralism/rangeland. It is fortunate that UN SDGs, which emphasize the imminent global climate crisis, have successfully attracted attention from a wide range of groups in Japan. Above all, Sub-Saharan Africa, where the ‘bottom billion’ live, has been the main target of Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and subsequent SDGs. However, not much attention is paid to African pastoralists, who have incurred the most serious damages caused by global climate change. In fact, they have been suffering from environmental deteriorations resulting from the CO2 emission caused by the global north. In these regard, it is critically important that UN International Year of Rangeland and Pastoralist (IYRP) 2026 declare that rangeland and pastoralists are keystones for achieving SDGs.
It should be noted, however, that additional challenges lie ahead for African pastoralists, not in spite of, but because of, sustainable development. This lecture draws on case studies from Samburu County in Kenya related to forest evictions of pastoralists and foragers and displacement resulting from the land subdivision policy implemented in the recent years. Once sustainable development and environment conservation is noted, the human rights of pastoralists and nomadic peoples are easily ignored. Even when the practices of pastoralists and nomadic peoples have benefited the sustainability of their environment, their good practices have been overlooked and even labelled as ‘environmental destroyers’. What has been done and brought by actors external to pastoralist communities for sustainable development and environmental conservation has at times created ‘secondary impacts’ of climate change and exacerbated the situation of pastoralists. It has been driven by what we refer to as ‘climate narratives.’ Therefore, African pastoralists are facing a dual challenge, the direct effect of climate change and the secondary effect of climate narratives.
The outcomes of this study make it clear that the UN SDGs and IYRP 2026 should apply a more holistic approach, prioritizing the human rights and livelihood needs of pastoralists and nomads, who are inseparable from rangelands, rather than enforcing narrow-minded environmental policies that separate pastoralists and nomads from rangeland and ignore their vital role in environmental protection.