A case of benign neglect

Keywords

In order to identify relevant publications and records in the databases, websites and project portfolios, keywords were used to search the information sources. The keywords were chosen as synonyms and metonyms related to rangelands, pastoralism and the key concepts within the study’s system boundary (see Figure 3). A synonym is a word that has the same or nearly the same meaning as another word and a metonym is a word or expression used as a substitute for something else with which it is closely associated. Keywords related to pastoralists and rangelands (and their metonyms) were categorized as ‘first-tier’. Keywords that reflected the conceptual framework were categorized as ‘second-tier’ and ‘third-tier’, with second-tierrelatingtomoregeneralterms(forexample, health) and third-tier more specific terms (for example, nutrition). If a first-tier keyword was identified within a source, then the search was conducted for second-tier keywords and then for third-tier keywords. If a source did not have any first-tier keywords or their metonyms, then the search through that source stopped. The choice of keywords and their metonyms is of particular importance in this study, due to the immense variation in definitions and usages across regions of the world and languages. A total of 48 different synonyms and metonyms for pastoralists and rangelands (first- tier) were used in this study. In addition, 38 second-tier keywords and 462 third-tier keywords were identified. The keywords and their metonyms were verified through the Arendal working meeting, the Advisory Committee of the study and the peer review. While the study team recognizes that another set of keywords

may have given a different result, the decision was made to use the same keywords throughout so that generalizations can be made on the findings of the information source searches. 4 Due to the general disaggregation of information on pastoralists and rangelands in the sources reviewed for this study, the third-tier keywords were of limited use. A word cloud analysis of the first-tier keywords and their metonyms, as available in Google, is provided in Figure 4. Google is one of many online search engines, all of which provided similar results. Research for this study showed that there is significantly more coverage of woodlands than rangelands. As terms, ‘rangelands’, and to a greater extent, ‘pastoralist’, are used far less in academic work than their metonyms (for example,

desert/meadow and livestock/grazing respectively). Any future global assessment will need to be very mindful of the language and definitional challenges. Using Google Trends shows that there are variations in how metonyms are perceived and used in different regions. For example, over the last five years, the term ‘herders’ was searched for on Google 46 times per day onaverage, while‘pastoralists’was searched for 18 times per day. Through Google Trends, it was also possible to identify the top 30 or so countries that searched for these terms (see Figure 5). The term ‘pastoralists’ was most often used in Google searches by people in

4. An overview of the first-, second-, and third-tier keywords is presented in a separate Methodology Report .

grazing woodlands shrublands drylands agropastoralism

livestock savannas herding shepherding deserts grazier

steppes

nomadism cerrado rangelands

pasturelands

grasslands

agropastoralists prairie

tundra

veld

transhumant forests

meadows

pastoralism

pampa

farmers

crops

pastoralists

bedouin llanos

taiga

farmlands

transhumance

ranching

Figure 3: The thematic scope of the analysis of the knowledge gaps in sustainability of pastoralism and rangelands

Figure 4: Word cloud of metonyms for pastoralist/pastoralism and rangelands Note: This word cloud presents the relational difference between the metonyms according to how often they appear in Google. The more often the words appear, the bigger they appear in the word cloud.

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