Sadri, Rajasthan, India, 5-10 January 2024 the first international event of the International Year of Camelids 2024 was an International Workshop on Camelid Pastoralism, held in Sadri, Rajasthan, India, hosted by Lokhit Pashu-Palak Sansthan (LPPS), the League for Pastoral Peoples (LPP) and the Godwar camel pastoralist milk producers. Participants represented Raika camel herders and other camel pastoralists from Rajasthan and Gujarat in India, camel herders from Mongolia and Kenya, and researchers and practitioners from India, Iran, Kenya, UK and Germany. They were joined online by scientists and practitioners from Peru, Pakistan, UAE and USA. The workshop participants saw the International Year of Camelids is an opportunity to understand and value the work and knowledge of camelid-herding communities. These must be at the centre of the activities during the Year. Mobile camelid pastoralists plan to unite their voices globally and to work in alliance to promote and adopt a development model that is good for camelids, people and the planet. Workshop statement Download Also available at https://iyrp.info/international-year-camelids-iyc-2024 Workshop presentations The resilience of camel keepers through improved productivity in Mandera County of northern Kenya Asli Ismail Ali Treasurer, Mandera East Camel Milk Sellers, Kenya Current conditions of camel herders in Mongolia and their adaptation to the climate change Khand Byambaa Camel herder, Mongolia Camel culture and Rohi pastoralism in Pakistan Muhammad Younas, Umer Saeed, Moosa Butt and Ali Raza Abbasi Institute of Animal and Dairy Sciences, Faculty of Animal Husbandry, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, Pakistan Raising camels in North America: The struggles, the needs and the plan for the future Valeri Crenshaw Secretary General, North American Camel Ranch Owners Association

The League for Pastoral Peoples' World map of camelids is an interactive map with information on over 220 groups that keep camelids worldwide. The vast majority of these are pastoralists who keep dromedaries, Bactrian camels, alpacas and llamas in extensive grazing systems. The map also shows groups that keep camelids in other management systems and organizations that are concerned with camelids. It also includes the main ranges (areas of distribution) of domesticated, wild and feral populations of camelids (including wild Bactrians, feral dromedaries, guanacos and vicuñas). Click here for the map. We have also published a poster based on the map, showing the ranges of these camelid species and highlighting some of the major management systems worldwide. Click here for the poster.

The official opening ceremony of the International Year of Camelids (IYC) has been scheduled for the 4th December at FAO headquarters in Rome. It will happen in the form of a 90 minute side-event during the FAO Council. While Civil Society and pastoralists/small producers have each been allotted five minute slots in the draft programme of the event, their physical presence is very much in doubt, due to lack of resources for their travel as well as the difficulty of obtaining a Schengen visa at such short notice. At the informal IYC support group, we are hoping that it will be possible for them to be present and represented at least virtually. Because their visibility is crucial, these two constituencies should not leave the field to wealthier stakeholders who can afford their participation. Raika herder Bura Ram in Rajasthan (India). The Raika believe they were made by God Shiva to take care of camels and, despite very adverse conditions, heroes like Buraram continue in this hereditary occupation, producing completely natural food in a cruelty-free way and without fossil fuels, thereby providing an examplary model of sustainable livestock keeping. The official slogan for the IYC is Heroes of Deserts and Highlands: Nourishing People and Culture. This has a nice ring, but the 'traditional' communities and indigenous peoples who in turn are nourishing camelids - whether it is alpacas and llamas in the Andes of South America, dromedaries in the arid zones of Africa, the Middle East and South Asia, or Bactrians in the steppes of Mongolia and China - are also true heroes. If we, as humanity as a whole, want to benefit from the special adaptations and potential of camelids in generating food in extremely marginal areas, then industrial scale stall-feeding systems as they have cropped up in oil rich countries are not the answer. These may look shiny and scientific and progressive compared with the mobile husbandry systems in which camelids have been raised until now, but they are basically unsustainable, depending on imported feed and fossil fuels, apart from not providing an environment in which camels thrive and are happy. Like people, camels love to wander around and browse ('shop') on different types of plants, composing menus according to their own individual tastes. As one of the members of our network, camelologist Dr. Raziq Kakar, puts it 'camels are like South Asians - they need spicy food and not a bland institutional diet'. 'The life of a livestock herder defies the challenges brought by Mongolia's climate - summers are very hot and dry and winters bitterly cold.' (Source FAO) In short, putting camelids into stall-feeding systems with standard diets of alfalfa hay and grain defeats their ecological purpose. They are biologically designed to be kept in nomadic systems, and to do so requires the knowledge and dedication of traditional or modern pastoralists who are willing to undertake the hardship of managing and careing for camelids in marginal areas with harsh climates. And that is a challenge ever fewer…