Pastoral practices and domestic animal diversity – PASTODIV

The world hosts a high variety of livestock breeds on which numerous people depend, but these breeds currently face a number of threats, among which diversity erosion. This project aims at addressing this issue by providing a much-needed understanding of the dynamics of domestic animals diversity that result from local pastoralists’ conceptions and practices. It will complement the existing literature through a specific focus at the level of herds. The project builds on separate bodies of literature - on breeding management and on the social organisation of agrobiodiversity - to propose a novel approach to the topic, combining an emic perspective on diversity in domestic animals, conceptual models that integrate social organization in studying domesticated diversity, and a formalized analysis of animal exchanges and circulation through Social network analysis. The project brings together specialists of five iconic pastoral systems across Asia and Africa: the Mongol, the Kyrgyz, the Rabari (India), the Arabs from the Bhata area (Chad) and the WoDaaBe (Chad and Niger). They will build on their preliminary knowledge of these systems to explore the dynamics of diversity around four key dimensions, that will structure the project as tasks: i) emic understandings of domestic animal diversity, ii) roles of domestic animal diversity and selection processes, iii) circulation and distribution of diversity, and iv) scales of diversity. Data collection will be done through fieldwork in each selected area, and will involve qualitative methods (ethnography), ethnosciences and social network analysis. The expected results are i) detailed descriptions and a comprehensive analysis of the factors shaping diversity in domestic animals at different scales (from the single animal to above-herd scale), ii) analyses of the animal exchange networks between pastoralists enabling to identify patterns of exchanges and their potential impacts on diversity, and iii) refined hypotheses about diversity dynamics in pastoral systems that will pave the way for future projects. Progress during the project and results will be discussed with specialists in fields such as zootechnics and animal science, population genetics, and breeding management, to foster exchanges and advance in our analyses. A specific effort will be done to communicate our results to international and national institutions that are involved in breeding management and indigenous breed conservation (FAO, LPP), as well as to local NGOs working with the pastoralists who will be involved in the project. The project will be an opportunity for the young researcher to set a strong collaboration network with fellow researchers working on pastoral systems in France and abroad, and to develop a new line of research within his host laboratory.