Impact of Communication Infrastructure Development on Livestock Density and Forage Use under the Transhumance System in Northern Pakistan

Abstract

Construction of the Karakoram Highway (KKH) connecting Pakistan with China has brought about changes in the economic, social and cultural systems of the Northern Areas of Pakistan. The authors examined the impacts of this development on pasture resource use by comparing a transect of villages connected to the KKH with a transect still relatively remote within the Gilgit–Ghizer region. Patterns of livestock density and forage use were shown to differ between individual villages, but no direct impacts of the KKH communication infrastructure development were found. It is hypothesized that, although regional communication infrastructure changes facilitate many other social changes, their impacts on livestock systems are less direct than is commonly assumed, due to individual differences in rates of social change between villages, leading to a diversity of change within the livestock systems in the region.