Agricultural Settlement and Land Use in Mountains - Mountain Geography: Physical and Human Dimensions - page 561

Between these major types is found every transitional form, depending on environ-
mental and cultural factors. As with mountain agriculture, though highland livestock
strategies may appear ancient, they are very susceptible to social change. The internal
and external modernizing influences described earlier affect highland herders in myriad
ways. Various pastoral and cultivation systems often coexist even within a single valley,
since one strategy seldom exploits all habitats. Each approach occupies its own eco-
logical and social niche. In much of Europe and North America, transhumance is cur-
tailed, if not eliminated, as competing uses preempt lowland winter pastures.
Coping with Risk
Pastoralists contend with significant risk and uncertainty. The quest for unexploited
forage demands good geographic information about terrain, soils, vegetation, and sea-
sonal weather. They must also be vigilant against potential competition from other hu-
mans (rival herders, government-sponsored initiatives, expansionist farmers, and im-
migrants). To assess these fundamental constraints, Bollig and Gobel (1997) distinguish
between individualistic and holistic parameters. Individualistic constraints are internal,
involving the economic and social choices made to survive in a landscape fraught with
environmental uncertainty. While these dynamics influence pastoralists everywhere, the
influence is greatest on more remote groups such as the Bakhtiari tribe in Iran's Zagros
Mountains. More commonly, the holistic factors of population growth, market forces,
armed conflict, government modernization programs, and changing social conditions
provoke change. An example is found in Gaddi shepherds, who traditionally extracted a
living from the arid and thus uncertain pastures of the Indian Himalaya by wide-ranging
grazing over time and space (individualistic parameter). This strategy worked until the
government built irrigation canals to expand farming onto the drier interfluves separat-
ing the river canyons (holistic parameter). The farmer-friendly policy reduced the Gaddi
pastureland, disrupted their traditional foraging routes, and created the perception that
Gaddis were “shiftless nomads who deforest and degrade the Himalayan environment”
(Chakravarty-Kaul 1997: 133; Hoon 1996).
Another example of adapting to environmental and social uncertainty occurs in the
High Sierra of the south-central Andes, where drought, declining soil fertility (from
overgrazing and increased tilling), theft, and predation (by condors, pumas, and foxes)
condition the behavior of Peruvian herders (Browman 1997). These pastoralists graze
two distinct ecological zones: the drought-prone lower High Sierra (2,500-3,400 m;
8,200-11,150 feet), where 40 mm (1.5 in.) of seasonal rainfall produces sparse annual
grasses; and the upper High Sierra, where 250 mm (9.8 in.) of seasonal rainfall pro-
duces a Matorral shrub forest and lush perennial pastures, but cold temperatures im-
peril stock during the winter. High mobility and occasional animal slaughter to reduce
the herd size alleviate the climatic uncertainty. Dogs and constant alertness offset the
negative impact of thieves and predators, although the combined losses from these two
can still reach 10-20 percent per year (Kuznar 1991). The Peruvians graze the lower
Sierra during the November to April wet season until the annual grasses are exhausted.
In early spring, they ascend to exploit the perennial grasses of the upper Sierra. The
constant mobility and family focus leave little sense of a larger community. Although