These guidelines have been prepared to help decision makers, who may not work routinely on pastoralist issues, to make better decisions over policies and investments that impact on pastoralists and their environments. They are somewhat technical by design, but are intended to simplify complex or disputed issues into more operational basics. The guidelines have been designed to help development and conservation experts familiarise themselves with the principles underlying pastoralism as well as some of the opportunities and constraints to sustainable development
The guidelines are designed to breakdown the challenges around pastoral development into component parts and to provide illustrations of how these components can be addressed. Examples are provided throughout the text, with links to web resources that provide much more comprehensive information. The examples are provided to inspire the reader to look for solutions but are not intended as prescriptions in themselves. The appropriate solutions may differ according to each context. What the examples should do is make the reader realise that, whatever the challenge, a solution can be found that does not compromise the basic logic of pastoralist resource management.
The Guidelines are also under development with a view to being institutionalised: within International Development Partners; within Nongovernmental Organisations; and eventually within National Governments. This process of institutionalisation will require a long process of thorough review and agreement as well as the cultivation of partnerships with agencies that are interested in improving their own performance.
Many of the examples used in this report have been gathered through the work of the World Initiative for Sustainable Pastoralism. This network of experts has contributed many case studies to a number of global Good Practice reviews, through which the principles underpinning good practice have been analysed. Links to these reviews are found throughout the text. This document will be developed further over the coming years. The First Edition has been published to stimulate debate and will form the basis of a number of Learning Forums around the world between 2011 and 2013. The document will be revised according to the input from these forums, giving it greater global reach as well as greater endorsement from a wide array of different experts. It is envisaged that this will become a living document that will be periodically updated through both the process of consultation and through the process of ongoing learning as pastoralist development advances around the world. Future editions will include lessons that have not yet been learned. It is hoped that the guidelines will also contribute to a growth in effective pastoralist development and a burgeoning of such examples.
