1. Livestock is the fastest growing agricultural sector, and in some countries accounts for 80% of GDP.[1]
2. Grasslands – the basis for livestock production – cover ~70% of the global agricultural area.[2]
3. More of the land surface of the earth is used for grazing than for any other purposes.[3]
4. Pastoralism produces 10% of the world’s meat, and supports some 200 million pastoral households who raise nearly 1 billion head of camel, cattle and smaller livestock.[4]
5. >1 billion people depend on livestock, and 70% of the 880 million rural poor living on less than USD 1 per day are at least partially dependent on livestock.[5]

The land where most herding peoples and livestock make a living are characterized as open grazing lands, including savannahs; grassland; prairies; steppe and shrub lands[6].

Extensive pastoral production occurs in 25% of the global land area from the dry lands of Africa and the Arabian Peninsula, to the highlands of Asia and Latin America and the Arctic parts of Fennoscandia and Russia[7].

Specifically, grazing land covers 77% of Australia, 61% of Africa, 49% of Asia and 18% of Europe[8].

“These grazing lands cover 61.2 million km² or 45% of the earth’s surface (excluding Antarctica), 1.5 times more of the globe than forests, 2.8 times more than cropland and 17 times more than urban settlement” [9]

Pastoralists are estimated to produce 10% of the world’s meat, supporting some 200 million pastoral households who raise nearly 1 billion head of camel, cattle and smaller livestock[10].

The main livestock species kept by pastoralists are cattle, donkeys, goats and sheep, although they also keep, e.g., alpaca and llamas in the Andes, camels and horses in east-central Asia, the dromedary in Africa and West Asia, reindeer in northern Eurasia, and yak on the Tibetan Plateau[11].

Pastoral people are ethnically diverse, for example in eastern Africa alone more than 70 different linguistic/cultural groups have been observed. [12]

“Even though extensive grazing lands [<20 people/km²] support only 3% of the world’s people, they keep 35% of the world’s sheep, 23% of the goats, and 16% of the cattle and water buffalo” [13]

Compared to settled farmers in Africa, pastoralists produce 50-70% of all the milk, beef and mutton produced on the continent[14]. In addition, in Iran, while comprising only 1.5% of the total population, pastoralists keep 25% of the national herd[15].

Notes