Pastoralists are mobile and semi-mobile resource stewards who manage livestock across more than half of the Earth’s land surface.
The World Nomads Ethnographic Film Festival presents the culture and experiences of pastoralists from mobile herding and rangeland communities across six continents.
The United Nations General Assembly officially declared 2026 as the International Year for Rangelands and Pastoralists (IYRP 2026), led by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).
Rangelands cover 54% of the Earth’s land surface and sustain over 500 million pastoralists who produce vital food and dairy, conserve biodiversity, and store vast amounts of soil carbon.
IYRP 2026 seeks to raise global awareness, advocate for pastoralists’ land rights and policy inclusion, and celebrate rangelands as resilient, low-carbon ecosystems essential for global sustainable development.
Diverse Herding Traditions
The 23 pastoralist communities featured in this festival steward an incredible array of livestock adapted to extreme landscapes:
- Dromedary and Bactrian camels (Afar, Tuareg, Raika)
- High-altitude yaks and Pashmina goats (Changpa of Ladakh)
- Arctic reindeer (Nenets, Dukha Tsaatan)
- Native Andean camelids (Llama and Vicuña herders)
- Sheep and goats across European alpine transhumance trails (Apennine, Macedonian, Slovenian, Spanish cañadas reales, Hungarian Puszta)
- Cattle across African savannas (Maasai, Karamojong) and North American rangelands (Canadian Prairie and Nevada ranchers).
Land Stewardship & Ecological Knowledge
Mobile pastoralism relies on sophisticated customary governance and traditional ecological knowledge.
Systems such as the Afar mada’a legal codes, Indigenous Andean ayllu collective management, Indian symbiotic agricultural-pastoral exchanges (Dhangar & Kurba), and traditional transhumance corridors enforce equitable resource sharing, prevent overgrazing, and preserve rangeland biodiversity.
Frontlines of Climate Action
Pastoralists face unprecedented contemporary pressures: accelerating climate change, severe droughts, land fragmentation, privatized enclosure of traditional pastures, and socio-economic marginalization.
The films in this festival document how pastoralist youth, women, and elders are actively innovating—combining traditional mobility with modern technology, rain harvesting, and policy advocacy to secure environmental justice and land rights.