Important Livelihood Strategy Research Articles

The ontology, measurement, and features of temporary internal migration in selected countries of Asia

ABSTRACT Temporary internal migration is an important livelihood strategy but there have been inconsistencies in its conceptualisation and measurement which limit understanding of the phenomenon across diverse geographical contexts. This paper explores the ontological category of temporary internal migration and how it is defined and measured in eight Asian countries. We identify three broad approaches to measurement: Place of enumeration; Multilocality and Administrative measures. Using these data, we undertake comparisons of migration intensity, age profiles, and rural- to-urban flows across countries in our sample. Our findings indicate that temporary migration ranges between 0.3 to 2.9 per cent of the population—likely an underestimate of internal temporary mobility. Applying an average intensity of 1.5 per cent to all Asian countries yields an estimate of 71 million temporary internal migrants in any given year. Analysis of age profiles reveals that temporary internal migration peaks not only at young adult ages, but also at older ages in selected countries, pointing to the importance of consumption-related movements in some settings. The geographical patterns are also diverse with rural-to-urban flows matched by significant rural-to-rural and urban-to-rural flows. The paper concludes with recommendations for advancing both the conceptualisation and measurement of temporary internal migration.

The Effect of Food and Financial Remittances on Household Food Security in Northern Nigeria

Remittances from migrants are an important livelihood strategy to mitigate the impact of adverse economic conditions, particularly in developing countries and rural areas. This study examines how migration and remittances affect household food security by analyzing data collected from 180 farmers in northern Nigeria in 2018. The descriptive results show that households use remittances mainly for health care and education. Remittances are most commonly provided in the form of finances and food. Binary logit regression results show that food remittances have a significant positive impact on food security status. Financial remittances did not have a statistically significant impact on food security. As the number of migrants in a household increases, the probability that the household is food secure decreases. The propensity scores matching result also showed that migrant households receiving food remittances were more food secure. In light of these findings, we emphasized the need to include both financial and food remittances in studies to understand the effect on food security.

Determinants of Internal Migration in Nepal

Migration has become an important livelihood strategy for many poor people. This paper aims to examine the determinants of migration in context of Nepal; using secondary Nepal labour force survey (2017/18) survey data, by employing both descriptive and analytical tools on it. The theoretical background of this paper is pull-push theory of migration. This paper uses logistic regression model, misspecification test, multicollinearity test, heteroskedasticity test and marginal effect for empirical data analysis. Migration decisions are significantly affected by marital status, educational level, gender, household size and new-urban but insignificantly affected by unemployment. The finding results show that marital status, sex, unemployment, educational level, new urban and household size are the reasons behind the migration decisions. Based on findings, this paper recommends that the government should provide skilled oriented qualitative education and equal employment opportunities in rural areas. The quantative education enhances the volume of migration. Similarly, the govt. should also reduce regional disparities between urban and rural areas.

Research on the air pollution reduction effect of winter clean heating policy

The international community is confronted with an urgent need to resolve the global climate crisis, which has emerged as a critical issue. China, in its capacity as a responsible major country, has proposed the “3060” goal and actively advocated for air pollution control. In northern China, a substantial quantity of coal is burned for heating in winter, leading to frequent air pollution, and seriously affecting people's health and quality of life. Clean heating is an important national livelihood strategy related to residents' heating and an essential manifestation of advancing ecological civilization construction. Based on panel data from 126 heating cities in the northern region from 2013 to 2020, this paper adopts the Difference-In-Difference (DID) model to investigate the effect and mechanism of the Winter Clean Heating Plan for Northern China on air pollution reduction. According to the research results, the policy has an abatement effect on northern region's air pollution emissions. The amount of air pollutant emissions has decreased by 17.3% since the policy's implementation. This policy has long-term effectiveness, which can become an effective measure for promoting air pollution reduction in the northern region. Secondly, economic factors, such as fiscal expenditure, and urban development factors, such as car ownership will have a driving effect on reducing air pollution, indicating that air pollution control is a systematic project that requires coordinated measures from all aspects. Thirdly, heterogeneity analysis indicates that the policy exerts a more substantial positive influence on air pollution control in Northwest China's cities and non-provincial capital cities. This indicates that cities should focus on implementing precise heating policies and not be “one size fits”. Finally, based on the theory of whole-process governance, this paper explores the indirect influence mechanism of the impact of the policy on air pollution reduction. By promoting energy structure transformation and promoting technological innovation, policy can indirectly improve the effectiveness of air pollution reduction. As an effective environmental regulation method, the policy can significantly reduce air pollution emissions in northern China, which is of great significance for the Chinese-style green modernization construction in this region.

Endogenous irrigation in arid Zimbabwe: farmer perceptions of livelihood benefits and barriers to scaling

In Zimbabwe, farmer-led irrigation is far more widespread than planners and policy makers realise. Along the Shashani sand river, in the arid to semi-arid lands of south-western Zimbabwe, diverse farmer-initiated irrigation ventures exist. This qualitative case study focuses on bucket irrigation, in which very small vegetable fields of up to 450 m2 are fenced by tree branches, and irrigated with water from scoop holes in sandy river beds. Farmers initiate and operate their fields with no external assistance. This study presents the benefits of bucket irrigation as an often-overlooked form of farmer-led irrigation development. Through this qualitative and strongly observational study, 26 bucket irrigation farmers and 4 non-irrigators were interviewed using semi-structured interviews where farmers’ perceptions and experiences were captured. We investigate what drives and sustains bucket irrigation, its significance to rural livelihoods under harsh economic and climatic conditions, and the barriers towards scaling this type of farmer-led irrigation development. The results show that drivers for bucket irrigation stem from economic hardship and are gendered. Women are motivated to irrigate mainly by the need to produce vegetables for household consumption, whereas men pursue irrigation due to a lack of employment. Bucket irrigators experience enhanced food security, and have more secure income, contributing to improved wellbeing. Furthermore, despite the desire to scale, the farm size is mainly constrained by fencing and energy for transporting water, which is a result of a persistent lack of financial capital to invest in irrigation technologies. We conclude that bucket irrigation acts as an important livelihood strategy, and that it significantly enhances farmers’ resilience to economic and climatic shocks. Bucket irrigation should not be overlooked in policies that advocate scaling of irrigation. Bucket irrigators have the potential to expand and benefit significantly if supported with innovative financial mechanisms that enable investments in the required technology and knowledge.

Blending neglected and underutilised wild yam tubers from forest to functional food

The exploitation of neglected and underutilised wild yam species is an important livelihood strategy for tribal community along with providing food and nutritional security. In order to integrate them into developmental interventions, a region-specific assessment of their consumption, traditional processing, and optimal use by tribal groups is necessary. This study analysed the traditional use, consumption pattern and preferences of different wild yam species by tribal communities from 45 villages of Koraput (part of Eastern ghats of India). There are eight wild Dioscorea species have been used as food and medicine by the tribal people of this region. Among the wild species, D. pubera was the most preferred species with highest use vale (UV) of 1.76 followed by D. pentaphylla by the tribal communities. Further these two wild tubers were selected for making value-added products such as cookies and namkeen. From sensory evaluation, D. pubera cookies and namkeen showed better taste, crispiness, smell, colour and over all acceptability of a good score. In addition, these value-added products recorded higher protein, fiber, energy, antioxidants and nutritionally superior than conventional products. These functional foods from wild yam will helpful for mass consumption and will encourage the start-ups for enhancing economic growth of tribal people of the locality.

Natural resource extraction and ethnic inequality in Dak Lak, Vietnam

AbstractNatural resource extraction is an important livelihood strategy for poor rural households in developing and emerging countries. Despite the sharp decline in poverty in Vietnam, inequality still exists between the ethnic majority and minority. This paper aims to analyze the impact of natural resource extraction on ethnic inequality. We use panel data from Dak Lak in the Central Highlands of Vietnam. The Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition shows that ethnic differences in extraction are due to different group characteristics and different returns to these characteristics. Endogenous switching regressions find that extraction has heterogeneous effects on consumption across extracting and non-extracting households, and between majority and minority households. Treatment effects suggest that extraction sustains the consumption of extracting minority households because their consumption would decline if they stopped extracting. Our results indicate that it is important to improve the natural resource base and the ability of minorities to cope with shocks.

Contribution to the Study of Water Pollution in the Nunez River estuary, (Republic of Guinea)

Bauxite mining offers an important livelihood strategy, a source of economic and social development relevant to countries with this natural wealth. It emerges, from the observations and extensive bibliographical reviews, that this exploitation has direct impacts on estuarine ecosystems through the establishment of ports and mining industries, hence our research theme "Contribution to the study of the impacts of industrial activities on the estuarine ecosystem of the Nunez River" In addition, the observation on the ground tells us that despite the efforts made by the authorities through the competent institutions and the investors, reducing the environmental impacts generated by this mining operation often has problems and insufficient capacity to deal with them, as revealed by our study conducted on the Nunez estuary. The hypothesis of this theme can be summarized as follows: The negative effects of the major pollutants of the Nunez River estuary due to the installation of industrial units, associated with the impacts related to climate change in the locality contribute to the dysfunction of the estuary, in turn to the reduction of opportunities and ecosystem services offered by the Nunez River. Nevertheless, given the high variability of the recorded values of the physicochemical parameters of the estuarine waters (temperature, pH, electrical conductivity, turbidity, salinity, dissolved oxygen, nitrate, nitrite, dissolved solids, suspended solids and phosphate) it seemed necessary to study them. Eleven sampling sites served as a study framework, the CERE/UGANC laboratory, as an analytical framework. Keywords: Industrial activities, estuarine ecosystems, environmental impacts, pollution.

Personal Well-Being of Dairy Buffalo Entrepreneurs in Nueva Ecija, Philippines

Dairy buffalo entrepreneurship is an important livelihood strategy with great potential of providing sustainable livelihood to people particularly family entrepreneurs. Nueva Ecija, being the main area of intervention of the Philippine Carabao Center, has been well-supported for its buffalo-based dairy enterprises. Empirical studies assessing the well-being of families engaged in dairying in the province, however, were not much explored; hence this study.Data were gathered through face-to-face interview with 170 dairy buffalo entrepreneurs using a survey questionnaire. Personal well-being index (PWI) was measured in terms of the core set of items forming the PWI comprising seven questions on satisfaction with specific life domains. The satisfaction scores from all domains are simply summed up to produce a mean satisfaction value, known as the PWI score, to represent subjective well-being (SWB). The following guidelines for the interpretation of the PWI scores were used: 70+ points = ‘Normal’: A person is likely to be experiencing a normal level of well-being. 51-69 points = ‘Challenged’: Personal well- being is likely to be challenged/compromised. The PWI of the dairy buffalo entrepreneurs was found to be within the normative range of population, which means that they are generally experiencing a normal level of well-being. Findings further showed that while the entrepreneurs were simultaneously engaged in dairying and other sources of household income, such as non-dairy farm, off-farm and non-farm, they are satisfied with farm work and even managed to enjoy various leisure activities.

Assessing swidden land use in Myanmar by decision tree-based detection method using landsat imagery

Swidden agriculture is a common land use found in the mountainous regions, especially in Southeast Asia. In Myanmar, the swidden agriculture has been practicing as an important livelihood strategy of millions of people, mainly by the ethnic groups. However, the extent of swidden agriculture in Myanmar is still in question. Therefore, we attempted to detect swidden patches and estimate the swidden extent in Myanmar using free available Landsat images on Google Earth Engine in combination with a decision tree-based plot detection method. We applied the commonly used indices such as dNBR, RdNBR, and dNDVI, statistically tested their threshold values to select the most appropriate combination of the indices and thresholds for the detection of swidden, and assessed the accuracy of each set of index and thresholds using ground truth data and visual interpretation of sample points outside the test site. The results showed that dNBR together with RdNBR, slope and elevation demonstrated higher accuracy (84.25%) compared to an all-index combination (dNBR, RdNBR, dNDVI, slope, and elevation). Using the best-fit pair, we estimated the extent of swidden at national level. The resulting map showed that the total extent of swidden in Myanmar was about 0.1 million ha in 2016, which is much smaller than other previously reported figures. Also, swidden patches were mostly observed in Shan State, followed by Chin State. In this way, this study primarily estimated the total extent of swidden area in Myanmar at national level and proved that the use of a decision tree-based detection method with appropriate vegetation indices and thresholds is highly applicable to the estimation of swidden extent on a regional basis. Also, as Myanmar is the largest country in mainland Southeast Asia in area with a great majority of the population living in rural areas, and many in the mountains, its land resources are of great relevance to the people’s livelihoods and thereby the nation’s progress. Therefore, this study will contribute to sustainable land management planning on both regional and national scale.

“Les femmes n'ont pas le droit!”: Social and legal exclusions of female artisanal coltan miners in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo

Despite active involvement in artisanal coltan mining in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), women face specific gendered exclusions from mine work based on social and legal parameters. Based on three months of ethnographic fieldwork in multiple artisanal coltan mine sites in Masisi Territory in the province of North Kivu, this study employs ethnographic observations, focus group and formal and informal interview methodologies. In the highly independent and fluctuating environment of artisanal mining, women frequently work in buying, washing, refining and reselling small quantities of coltan, providing meager profits but important livelihood strategies. However, localized social norms surrounding notions of femininity and masculinity concentrate women's work in more precarious positions, even when profits are similar to men. Women working in this context are also often caught ‘in between’ legal binaries in the state mine permit system, invisibalizing women's work and pushing women's labor contributions to the periphery. In addition, mine site authorities’ misinterpretation of the law that seeks to protect children from working in the mines, negatively impacts breastfeeding mothers who subsequently are chased out of the mines and loose valuable time on-the-job. Lastly, pregnant women also face gendered vulnerabilities, frequently targeted and coerced based on motherhood. This article seeks to describe and analyze these gendered exclusions and intersections with women's gendered vulnerabilities which all hinder economic prosperity.

The Way toward Sustainability: Policy Attention Evolution of Chinese Local Governments to Promote Entrepreneurship of Returnees Based on Grounded Theory and Social Network Analysis

As an important livelihood strategy choice to promote the sustainable development of themselves and regions, returnees’ entrepreneurship has played a vital role in the governance of all-level Chinese local governments since the 21st century. The policy attention reflects the importance that the local governments attach to this issue, and the evolution process also reflects relevant policies’ internal rules and characteristics. Based on this, this paper, taking 242 policy texts related to returnees’ entrepreneurship issued by local governments from 2000 to 2021 as the research objects, uses grounded theory and social network analysis in order to explore the policy attention evolution from the aspects of time, space, specific policy domains and cooperative relationship among policy subjects. Finally, this research finds the main conclusions as follows: (1) The policy attention evolution on time dimension has the characteristic of synchronism, different levels and “reciprocal U”. (2) The policy attention evolution on space dimension is closely linked to “pull” and “push” forces of local population flow and has neighborhood effects. (3) The policy attention evolution on specific policy areas will gradually spread and diversify with the change in local governance environment and stage goals. (4) The evolution trend of collaborative social network among policy objects has the characteristic of “loose-central-loose”.

Can Clean Heating in Winter in Northern China Reduce Air Pollution?—Empirical Analysis Based on the PSM-DID Method

In northern China, a large volume of coal is consumed for heating in winter, resulting in frequent smog and air pollution, which has a serious effect on people’s health and quality of life. Clean heating is a national important livelihood strategy related to residents’ warmth. Whether haze weather can be effectively reduced and whether the heating energy structure can really be improved needs to be verified. This study takes 115 heating cities in the northern area as the research objects, takes 12 pilot cities implementing clean heating policy as the treatment group, employs the Propensity Score Matching method to match the non-pilot cities to get the reasonable control group city, uses the double-difference method to carry out the quantitative test on the implementation effect of the clean heating policy. The results show that clean heating in northern China reduces the air pollution in winter, and the air pollution level in winter decreases 46.6% after the implementation of the policy. Clean heating is an effective environmental regulation method that can control the level of winter air pollution from the source.

Impact of water hyacinth on rural livelihoods: the case of Lake Tana, Amhara region, Ethiopia

Water hyacinth covers a significant portion of Lake Tana affecting the livelihoods of thousands of rural households. The general objective of the study was to assess the impact of water hyacinth on the livelihoods of rural households living around Lake Tana. Quasi-experimental research design was applied to achieve the specified objectives of the study. Data was collected from 413 survey households, thirteen key informants, six focus group discussions and field observation. Descriptive statistics and propensity score matching (PSM) using STATA 15.0 were used for data analysis. Results of the study revealed that crop, livestock, and fishery production are the most important livelihood strategies of the study area accounting for 99.3, 95.2 and 9% of the sample households, respectively. The average annual crop production of the households was 2629.1 kg of rice equivalent. However, the weed affected the crop production of 34.1% of the sample households through covering the agricultural land and making the land preparation difficult. In addition, the weed affected 36.6% of the households’ livestock production. The impact was revealed in covering the grazing land, causing disease and/or death of the livestock and elevating the livestock production cost. Furthermore, water hyacinth was found as a reason for the reduction of fish population, blockage of fishing entry sites and disruption of the transport system. A statistically significant reduction of fish production, 45.7% in wet season and 49.9% in dry season, was generated because of water hyacinth. The PSM result showed that the water hyacinth significantly decreased the crop production (278.7–475.4kg of rice equivalent) and livestock production (0.083–0.114 TLU) of the affected households. The study recommended management of water hyacinth to control the impacts on rural livelihoods and further studies towards medication of water hyacinth cased livestock diseases and the possible ways of the weeds consumption as a feed.

The implications of remittances for agricultural land use and fuelwood collection: evidence from the remaining forested landscapes in the Philippines

Despite the projected sharpest decline in remittances in history due to the global economic crisis induced by the COVID-19 pandemic, remittances are expected to remain an important source of external financing for many developing countries. The Philippines is among the top five recipients of remittances worldwide, while outmigration is an important livelihood strategy for rural communities in the country due to rapid population growth, poor employment opportunities, and scarce agricultural land. Migration and remittances can influence smallholder land use with potential implications for forest resource use through an impact on household income and household decisions on local activities. However, little attention has been paid in previous research to how remittances relate to changes in rural households’ land use and their implications for forests. The goal of this study is to investigate the links between the inflow of both international and internal remittances and rural households’ land use in forested landscapes in the Philippines. In order to do that, we use the data from 1024 household surveys and an instrumental variable approach to investigate the impact of remittances on fuelwood use and on the area cultivated by perennials and cereals. The findings of this study show that remittances positively influence the size of land planted by perennials and reduce households’ reliance on fuelwood use. Our findings provide an improved understanding of the links between migration—remittances—natural resource management, which will become especially relevant as countries struggle to deal with the economic fallout associated with COVID-19. We argue that demographic policy measures should play a bigger role in land use, land use change, and forestry negotiations than before. Moreover, global sustainability agendas such as the sustainable development goals should recognize the impacts of migration on natural resources to help bridge the gap between developmental and environmental goals.

The knotty politics of ginseng conservation and management in Appalachia

American ginseng (Panax quinquefolius) is a long-lived understory species in Appalachian forests and the most valuable medicinal plant in North America. Indeed, "digging" for ginseng roots is an important livelihood strategy throughout Appalachia. Increasingly, however, concern for ginseng populations is escalating, and state and federal policies have introduced new harvesting restrictions, as well as new law enforcement efforts that target ginseng diggers. Here I am interested in troubling the high-profile narrative that ginseng populations are crashing due to the unscrupulous practices of Appalachian diggers. I draw on ecological research, historical documents, and my own ethnographic fieldwork to argue that we need a fuller understanding of both ginseng population demographics and the potential causes for ginseng decline before we embrace a narrative that disenfranchises those who depend on and, in many cases, have helped steward this enigmatic plant. This research speaks to growing tensions between rural livelihoods and conservation efforts worldwide.

Against the Tide: The Future of Transhumant Herders in the Kailash Sacred Landscape of Nepal

Transhumant pastoralism, with its cultural, ecological, and socioeconomic significance, is an important livelihood strategy for mountain communities. Despite its importance, transhumant pastoralism is declining in the Hindu Kush Himalayan region. This study examines the drivers of change experienced by transhumant herders in Bajhang, western Nepal, in order to understand future implications for transhumant pastoralism in the region. Here, animals are raised to transport goods to remote villages and to earn supplemental income through the sale of milk, meat, and livestock. The study found that herders are experiencing multiple drivers of changes—including socioeconomic, political, institutional, ecological, and climatic—which have both positive and negative implications for their livelihoods. Herders have responded to these changes by altering their transhumance routes and by reducing the variety and numbers of animals raised. The increasing market demand for meat from freely grazed animals and limited road access are current factors contributing to the perpetuation of transhumant herding in Bajhang. Meanwhile, the institutional mechanisms provisioned in the National Rangeland Policy are neither functional in the study area nor able to resolve issues of the herders. The study recommends developing an incentive-based mechanism involving herders and other stakeholders to address the challenges faced by herders.

Non-farm livelihood diversification: Strategies and constraints in selected rural and peri-urban communities, Ghana

Non-farm livelihood diversification is an important livelihood strategy for rural households in Sub-Saharan Africa. However, the available evidence suggests that these strategies have received less attention; therefore, the constraints rural people face in venturing into the non-farm sector also remain unaddressed. In order to understand the livelihood strategies and constraints in the sector, this paper used crosssectional survey data from 251 randomly sampled farmers from the Sunyani West District, Ghana. Focus Group Discussions were also conducted in order to collect qualitative data to support quantitative analysis. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics: frequencies, percentages and cross tabulation. The study found that the non-farm sector was heterogeneous and highly gendered and involved several activities, with trading being the most prominent one. Gender disaggregation of non-farm activities has underlying cultural and social bases resulting in different production roles for males and females. Although farmers are predominantly engaged in farming as their major livelihood strategy, they also pursue non-farm livelihood activities due to push, rather than pull, factors. Inadequate access to credit and limited business opportunities were the major constraints impeding the development of the non-farm sector in the district. In order to propel rural development, policy makers and researchers should give attention to the development of the non-farm sector since it is an important source of income for many people. Apart from that, the study recommends that banking and micro-finance institutions design special credit programmes for rural people

Spatiotemporal determinants of seasonal gleaning

Abstract Many coastal communities depend on ecosystems for goods and services that contribute to human well‐being. As long‐standing interactions between people and nature are modified by global environmental change, dynamic and diversified livelihood strategies that enable seasonal adaptation will be critical for vulnerable coastal communities. However, the success of such strategies depends on a range of poorly understood influences. Gleaning, the hand‐based collection of marine organisms from littoral habitats, provides an interesting case study of dynamic change in social‐ecological interactions. It is an important coastal livelihood strategy, yet seasonal gleaning dynamics have not been empirically explored in contemporary communities. We examined seasonal gleaning in eight coastal communities on Atauro Island, Timor‐Leste, using household surveys and satellite‐derived maps of shallow‐water benthic habitats. Our analysis explored the factors affecting household decisions to glean in each season, the relationship between gleaning and seafood consumption, and seasonal gleaning pressure on near‐shore coastal resources. Dynamic marine harvesting strategies differed among households and gleaning activity was seasonally heterogeneous. Not all gleaning households gleaned during the season characterised by rough sea conditions despite rough season gleaning being associated with greater seafood consumption stability among seasons. Households also gleaned less regularly, and catches were smaller, in the rough season. Differences in seasonal participation in gleaning were explained mostly by type and extent of shallow habitat proximate to a community. In the calm season, household gleaning was positively related to the total area of shallow habitat, and in the rough season the percentage of hard‐bottom shallow habitat was also an important predictor of gleaning activity. Our findings illustrate how changes in the biophysical environment mediate human–nature interactions at fine scales through time and space. Consequently, this research highlights the importance of context‐specific perspectives for understanding drivers and dynamics in fishing pressure on littoral ecosystems, access to ecosystem benefits and limits to adaptation. Factors influencing when livelihood activities are feasible and desirable are important for evaluating the social impacts of climate change, particularly in the context of rural communities in the Global South. A free Plain Language Summary can be found within the Supporting Information of this article.

Managing Rangelands Without Herding? Insights From Africa and Beyond

In many parts of the world, the utilization of rangelands is based on the targeted movement of herds within and across often vast territories. Crucial for the success of these livestock operations are decisions on how to flexibly allocate animals to the existing vegetation, both in terms of numbers and concentrations, and in space and time. Research from large scale ranching in the prairies of the Americas, and nomadic or transhumant livestock systems in Africa, the Middle East, and Central Asia, suggests that the more precisely specific patches of vegetation at a specific development stage can be targeted, the more beneficial will be the outcome in terms of animal nutrition and productivity. This also holds for the provision of environmental services such as aboveground net primary production, biodiversity preservation, and soil fertility. However, herding requires year-round labor investment, and in rural areas where seasonal migration is an important livelihood strategy, herding may suffer from absence of skilled workforce. Additional obstacles are political neglect and land use competition, insecurity, reduced self-ownership rates of herds, partial social isolation of herders, and hardship of the work. These make herding an increasingly unpopular occupation, especially for the young generation, but there are also factors that drive (young) people to take up or continue this profession. Reduced herding efforts, reflected in the reluctance to utilize remote grazing areas, may lead to overstocking of favorable pastures. This increases the risk of pasture degradation, long-term reduced herd productivity, social conflict, and public criticism of pastoralism as an anachronistic lifestyle and detrimental land stewardship, thereby further fueling the erosion of herding. By reviewing studies from Africa, the Middle East, and southern and eastern Asia, and including some insights from Europe and southern America, we discuss the ecosystem services produced by herding and herd mobility, and reflect on the ecological and social consequences of the loss of herding labor. Highlighting aspects that speak for this occupation at the individual level, we conclude by suggesting interventions that may sustain the herding profession, such as facilitation of labor sharing, labor contracts, improved herder security, and societal payments for ecological and cultural services.