Natasha Maru

• PhD candidate
• University of Sussex

Mobility is acknowledged as a key practice through which pastoralists adapt to climatic and socio-economic stressors. Yet, ‘how’ it is enacted and experienced is less understood. By approaching mobility through the lens of pace, this article explores how the Rabari pastoralists of western India plan, organise and embody their movements at the inter...

Resilience is a common concept in pastoralism scholarship and policy-making, especially in dryland environments where livelihoods are considered vulnerable to frequent shocks such as droughts, pests and epidemics, and conflicts. Resilience lends itself to pastoral studies due to its ability to capture uncertainty, complexity and dynamism: key chara...

Insurance is often proposed as a way of offsetting risks and responding to disasters. Index-based livestock insurance (IBLI) has been offered to pastoralists in Borana zone in southern Ethiopia over the past few years. This aims to pay-out before the disaster strikes based on a predictive assessment of the season derived from satellite-based estima...

Today there is a disjuncture between migration flows that are complex, mixed and constantly evolving and the emerging global migration governance paradigm that seeks to impose clarity, certainty, regularity and order. Addressing the gap between policies and realities, this article explores lessons for migration policy and governance from mobile pas...

The Banni grassland, of Gujarat state of western India, has emerged as a site of multipronged contestations over land and livelihoods. Structural transformations seek to refashion Kachchh’s economy, society, and nature along capitalist and neoliberal lines threatening the livelihood of the 25000 mobile pastoralists inhabiting the grassland. Embedde...

Focusing on pastoralism, this article reflects on five diverse cases across Africa, Asia and Europe and asks: how have COVID-19 disease control measures affected mobility and production practices, marketing opportunities, land control, labour relations, local community support and socio-political relations with the state and other settled agrarian...

Pitched against the apparently more civilised and modern ‘settled’ folk, pastoralists have historically been penalised for the seemingly primitive and outdated practice of mobility. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork in western India, this article challenges this reductive dichotomy and unpacks the many (im)mobilities produced, accessed, experienced...

This archive IDS Bulletin reflects on 50 years of research on pastoralism at IDS. Thirteen articles are introduced around six themes that have characterised IDS-linked research over this period. These are: pastoral livelihoods; institutions and common property resource management; climate change and ecological dynamics; food security, early warning...

Fact Sheet describing the context and social organization of the Sindhi Muslim pastoralists of the Banni grassland in western India deriving from fieldwork in 2015.

Comments on Islamic religious reform among the Sindhi Muslim pastoralists of western India deriving from fieldwork in 2015. This paper shows how religious reform is one among many political strategies adopted by the pastoralists to reshape their identity as they come up against a rapidly developing and hostile state and society.

In many countries, pastoralism has historically been practiced in areas that are now partitioned by international boundaries. This is a major barrier to sustainable resource management and to pastoral development. However, there are examples from around the world of efforts to facilitate transboundary movements and transboundary ecosystem managemen...

Pastoralism is practiced in rangelands that often have extreme climatic conditions. However, pastoralists continue to thrive and produce a significant amount of food, particularly animal products. In Africa, pastoralism plays an important role not only as a source of food, but also as a key provider of rural incomes. Despite their crucial role, pas...