The way to the pastures: how to reconcile community-based pasture management with mobility in agro-pastoral systems in the Naryn province of Kyrgyzstan

Abstract

The new community-based pasture management introduced in Kyrgyzstan at the municipality level in 2009 intended to renew long distance transhumance, which had been significantly reduced after the end of the Soviet Union. Kyrgyzstan is characterized by a mountainous geography and a long history of agro-pastoralism. In this paper we explore how the new formal management model influences the mobility of herds and households at the local level. The conceptual framework used for the analysis is based on the principles for the management of common-pool resources designed by Ostrom and reviewed by Cox. Because municipalities are not homogenous, different groups of stakeholders have different interests in mobility and different access to decision-making in the newly created community-based institution. The main result of this research is that, although the formal institution responsible for pasture management does not focus on participation and representation, informal pasture management groups develop their own mechanism to lobby their interests. Mobility meets the needs of the different groups, or at least actions to prompt mobility are not conducted at the expense of any group.