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High-Reliability Pastoralism Versus Risk-Averse Pastoralism

Lynn Huntsinger

Keith Labnow

The literature on pastoralism is sufficiently rich to accommodate two very dif ferent models ofpastoralism. Currently, virtually all attention given to pastor alism focuses on herder risk aversion, ecological adaptation, and the need for herd mobility in the face of an unpredictable environment. In contrast to the model of risk-averse pastoralism, the disequilibrium-based models of ecological dynamics on rangelands, often referred to as the new range ecology, enable us to see pastoralism as a high-reliability institution. From this perspective, high-reliability pastoralism is the search and attainment of reliable peak per formance through the use and management of a highly complex range and live stock technology. The policy implications for pastoral development and range lands are very different if pastoralists are found to be primarily reliability seeking rather than risk averse. Moreover, the implications for our under standing of pastoralism and its future are profound and differ appreciably from current conventional wisdom.

The Journal of Environment & Development, Vol. 7, No. 4, 387-421 (1998)
DOI: 10.1177/107049659800700404


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