The India China Institute is excited to announce a new book from Professor Dong Shikui, a former India China Fellow from 2010-2013 who was part of a group of scholars focused on the theme of Social Innovation for Sustainable Environments, titled Building Resilience of Human-Natural Systems of Pastoralism in the Developing World. The book was published by Springer in 2016.
About the book
This new edited volume summarizes information about the context, threats, problems, challenges and solutions for sustainable pastoralism at a global scale. The book discusses the history, distribution and patterns of pastoralism and to identifies the importance of pastoralism from social, economic and environmental perspectives. The results of an empirical investigation of the environmental and socio-economic implications of pastoralism in representative pastoral regions in the world are also incorporated.
Furthermore, Professor Dong and co-authors argue that breaking coupled human-natural systems of pastoralism leads to degradation of pastoral ecosystems and offers a framework to assess the vulnerability of worldwide pastoralism. The analysis framework provides approaches to help comprehensively understand the transitions and the impacts of human-natural systems in the pastoral regions in the world. Building on this work, the book identifies successful models in promoting coupled human-natural systems of pastoralism, and offers some lessons from breaking coupled human-cultural pastoralism systems through an examination of cases in Central Asia, Southern and Eastern Asia, Northern and Eastern Africa, the European Alps and South America.
Finally, the book identifies strategies to build resilience in coupled human-natural pastoral systems worldwide. The authors aim to facilitate the further examination of sustainable development of coupled human-natural systems in pastoralism by providing a summary of existing data and information related to pastoralism development, and to offer a framework for better understanding and analyzing their social, economic and environmental implications.
To learn more about this book, or to purchase a copy, visit the Springer website here.
Author’s Bio:
Dr. Dong Shikui is currently a Professor at the School of Environment, Beijing Normal University and an Adjunct Professor at Natural Resource Department of Cornell University, as well as a fellow of India China Institute and New School, New York. He completed his undergraduate and graduate studies in Grassland Science from Gansu Agricultural University in 1995 and 1998, respectively; he received his PhD in Grassland Ecology from Gansu Agricultural University in 2001; and he completed his post-doc program in Natural Sciences at Beijing Normal University in 2003.