TGI proposes a CSO-led multi-stakeholder Mountain Alliance for Pastoralists and Minority People (MAP)
Mountain pastures, covering over 25% of the Earth’s terrestrial area, are vital for both biodiversity and the livelihoods of millions of people. Pastoralists and minority communities often face a multitude of challenges that exacerbate their vulnerability, including land alienation, climate change, and socio-political marginalization. As agricultural expansion and urban development threaten their traditional grazing lands, these groups struggle to maintain their livelihoods, lifestyles and cultural practices. Additionally, they often encounter systemic discrimination, exclusion, conflicts with co-existing communities, and lack of access to essential services such as education and healthcare, which further perpetuates cycles of poverty. Conflicts over resources, compounded by weak legal protections, corruption, institutional fragmentation, and illegitimate land grabs leave them in precarious situations, undermining their democratic rights and pushing them further into the margins of society.
To solve stated problems, an action through Multi-Stakeholder Partnership (MSP) is essential. Rationale behind the MSP is that only comprehensive and broad cross-sectoral cooperation can ensure that sustainable and regenerative development initiatives are imaginative, coherent and integrated desirably to address the most intractable problems. Single-sector approaches have already been tried and have proved disappointing. Working separately, different sectors have developed activities in isolation – sometimes competing with each other and/or duplicating and wasting valuable resources. Too often, working in isolation has led to a ‘blame culture’, where chaos or neglect is always seen as someone else’s fault. Thus, civil society organizations (CSOs) alone are no longer a sufficient mobilising force, and they need capable NGOs and other stakeholders. The Grassroots Institute (TGI) intends, therefore, to identify, organize, educate and support MSPs (small NGOs, shepherd groups, local governance bodies, local business groups, relevant government bodies, and academia) for their enhanced capacity/engagement to address the stated problems in the long-term.
Building upon the Multi-Stakeholder Partnership (MSP), a Mountain Alliance for Pastoralists and Minority People (MAP) is proposed. The MAP is a membership platform representing primary stakeholders (the shepherds and livestock keepers/breeders), and supporting CSOs, trade/business groups, local self-governance bodies, government organizations, academic institutions, policy groups, and international organizations. The leadership has to be with the shepherds and CSOs. TGI is committed to catalyse and facilitate the institutionalization and leadership process underlying the MAP platform In addition, large project and small projects, subsequently in the long-term, will enhance and build capacities of the Civil Society Groups, academia and other stakeholders to implement their individual and collective Action Plans. Thus, a broader MSP has to be built over next 3-5 years to address the issues surrounding social disintegration, climate challenges, lack of resilience, pastures, pasturelands, shepherds, cultural heritage, economic and ecological vulnerabilities in the region, and the resource conservation.
Contact: contact@tgi-wb.eu
