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This report provides a record of the Global Pastoralist Gathering, an event which brought together more than 200 pastoralists and their supporters from 23 countries to raise the profile and voice of pastoralists in governance and policy processes around the world. In a series of short articles, the report sets out the perspectives of pastoralist leaders from countries in Africa, Asia, Europe and the Americas.There area number of key issues that were identified during the gathering which concern pastoralists around the world. These issues include:while many pastoralists are suffering decline of their way of life through lack of representation and loss of resources, others have found ways of organising to lobby and co-operate with governments; creating laws, policies and services that promote pastoralist livelihoods without change, by 2015 access to education, health, clean water, economic progress and legal protection will have declined in pastoralist areaswithout change not only pastoralist people and their animals will suffer, but also the fragile environments in which they live will have degraded and the markets which they serve will declinethe decline of pastoralists’ conditions will affect national economies and societies in their entirety, increasing gaps between poor pastoralists and rich others, increasing frustration at erosion of rights and loss of land and increasing destitution will lead to conflict and migration countries with pastoralist populations will not be able to claim achievement of the Millennium Development Goals unless a new emphasis is placed on providing the services, markets, mobility and representation that the people need.Pastoralists at the Global Gathering called for further opportunities for pastoralists to meet one another at global and regional levels; and pastoralist leaders wish to continue sharing knowledge and developing collaboration among themselves and with governments and international agencies. [adapted from author]
