A case of benign neglect

Sources and sampling of information

The information sources examined for this report include global assessments and databases, academic publications and project information from multilateral organizations. While the identified global assessments were screened in a more thorough way, the other written sources were – when possible – examined by Boolean 5 searches of the keywords related to pastoralists and rangelands. The use of keywords helped to search peer-reviewed literature for topics and subject matters, but did not indicate whether quantitative statistics were present or not. Keywords were also helpful when searching databases and websites for thematic coverage of topics. If a database was found to have relevant information, a search for quantitative data was carried out separately as a second step. In addition to written sources, a survey of pastoralism and rangeland stakeholders informed this report. Through the survey and an assessment of the examined sources, the study team sought to determine the relevance and usefulness of the information available. Global environmental assessment A search was conducted to determine whether there have been any global environmental or integrated assessments published since the year 2000 that are relevant to pastoralism and rangelands. Such assessments were identified in three ways: through a simple Google search using keywords, a search on the FAO and UN Environment websites, and questions targeted to survey respondents, participants of the working meeting, the Advisory Board and the International Support Group for the International Year of Rangelands and Pastoralists (IYRP) 6 – a total of 73 eminent researchers and stakeholders. Furthermore, some assessments were identified through the

database searches. As resources were limited, a sample of 13 global environmental assessments more relevant to pastoralism and rangelands was identified for an in-depth review. 7 This review was carried out by searching through the assessments for the first-tier keywords, followed by a careful reading of sections with hits. After this, all sections with related information (for example, deserts, dryland forests, croplands etc.) were also reviewed. Databases and websites A number of global databases and websites store and maintain statistics and data sets on international, regional and national economic, social or ecological statuses and trends. This study examines the inclusion of information related to pastoralists and rangelands in a set of international and regional online databases accessible to the general public. A list of databases and websites was drawn up using two methods: a Google search using the term database and by consulting certain researchers and stakeholders selected due to their affiliation with the International Rangeland Congress, the Commission on Nomadic Peoples, the World Initiative for Sustainable Pastoralism, the FAO Pastoralist Knowledge Hub and the International Support Group for the IYRP. The researchers and stakeholders – roughly half of which focus on socioeconomic issues and the other half on biophysical issues – were asked to identify international and regional databases they were aware of that may have contained information on pastoralism and rangelands. Through this process, 100 databases and websites were identified, screened and then categorized according to the format of their information. Overall, 81 were categorized as data sets and statistics, 16 as knowledge repositories and 3 as geographic

information system (GIS) portals. Of the 100 databases and websites, only 33 provided hits for keywords related to pastoralism and/or rangelands, which were then assessed further. Eight sources were inaccessible. Academic publications An increasing number of academic papers on pastoralists and rangelands are published online. These were sampled by limiting this study to examine relevant publications available in Scopus, the largest abstract and citation database of peer- reviewed literature. According to the Scopus website, it includes over 71 million records from scientific journals, books and conference proceedings in the fields of life sciences, social sciences, physical sciences and health sciences. The title, abstract and keywords of publications in Scopus were screened for first- and second-tier keywords to identify the degree to which issues related to pastoralists and rangelands were covered in scientific writing. English keywords were used in these searches. This approach excluded publications in other languages, except those that provided 5. Boolean logic (named after mathematician George Boole) is a system of logic designed to yield optimal search results. The Boolean operators, AND, OR and NOT, help form logical searches. For example, a Boolean search for “pastoralism AND rangelands” would limit search results to documents only containing those two keywords (University of Minnesota, available at: https://hsl. lib.umn.edu/biomed/help/boolean-operators) 6. See https://globalrangelands.org/international-year-rangelands- and-pastoralists-initiative 7. However, there are many other global assessments that focus on well-being issues that would be relevant to pastoralism, such as the State of theWorld’s Children reports of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and reports on health matters of the World Health Organization (WHO).

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