Agriculture and handicrafts play an important role in the economy of Kyzyl-Tuu village (Issyk-Kul valley, Kyrgyzstan), but livestock remains central for villagers as a sign of wealth and well-being, an object of exchange, and a crucial resource for satisfying various life needs, including children's education at universities.
However, nowadays the majority of livestock owners no longer roam seasonal pastures, even if they have to periodically graze the joint herd formed with their neighbors in the autumn-winter period. In spring, livestock owners send their livestock to graze with mobile herders on a hire basis.
Mobile herders are natives of the village who have made shepherding their occupation. They usually have territorial, kinship, and sometimes friendship ties with livestock owners who entrust them their flock. Some of them maintain close social relationships through mutual assistance, gift exchanges, and family celebrations and rituals, where livestock is of great importance.
Some herders settle in the summer pasture of Ichke-Tor, located 25-30 kilometers away from the village to graze multispecies flocks. The movements of such herders within the pastures and their skills allow them to make practical proposals to livestock owners on improving the qualitative composition of the herd, notably considering the adaptive potential of animals to the local environmental conditions. The mobility of the herders also creates a unique social dynamic, where relationships are mediated through domestic animals.
However, pastures, as an important renewable natural resource, are experiencing a significant burden due to climate change and overgrazing, and the transition from quantitative goals to qualitative goals is progressing slowly, despite its potential positive impact on sustainable development at the local level.
The composition of the herds, the ecology of the pastures, and the use of livestock and its products for monetization and preservation of people identity will be explored in this paper.
