[Iyrp-gcg] IYRP in the most important museums of the world

[Ann Waters-Bayer]

Dear Francesca,

For some reason unknown to me, I received neither your mail of 5 January nor Barry’s reply of 7 January, which appear to have been sent to the mailing list of the IYRP Global Coordination Group. I just checked, and I am still in that mailing list.

The idea of getting museums to make exhibitions on mobile pastoralism is something that Barbara and I investigated in Berlin and I investigated (together with a professor for tropical animal husbandry) here in Göttingen. In both cases, it was not possible - in the first case, because the museum was not interested and in the second case because the museum expected us to pay anywhere from 70,000 to 300,000 Euro, depending on the size of the exhibition area.

I fear it will not be so easy to convince museums to make exhibitions on mobile pastoralism unless we know someone in the museum or its advisory board who is particularly passionate about the topic and can convince the museum hierarchy that it is worthwhile investing its resources in such an exhibition. But, where we do have these connections, we could try.

And I think that all forms of pastoralism, according to the definition in our glossary (https://www.iyrp.info/sites/default/files/2025-01/Glossary_pastoralism-rangelands_people-institutions-2024.pdf <https://www.iyrp.info/sites/default/files/2025-01/Glossary_pastoralism-rangelands_people-institutions-2024.pdf>), should be included:

A land-use and livestock-production system in which the animals are grazed and watered using primarily natural resources. The people practising pastoralism depend primarily on these animals for their livelihood; they organise their socioeconomic activities to make productive and sustainable use of highly variable and dispersed resources (pasture, water, natural minerals) over a wide area of land by moving their animals. Pastoralism tends to avoid the use of external inputs, e.g. fossil fuels, synthetic chemicals (IPES-Food 2016).

Cheers,
Ann

PS Barry: I hope that Canadian ranchers recognise themselves in the above definition, even though fossil fuels are surely used for transport by pastoralists in Canada - as by pastoralists in many other parts of the world.

 
> On 18 Jan 2025, at 11:06 AM, Francesca Pasetti <fpasettib at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> Dear Barry,
> 
> I thank you a lot for your long and detailed answer.
> 
> I see from your message, that I must have expressed myself not in the best way
> 
> My proposal is not to speak "badly" on any livestock keeping form, but to realise an exposition, to be shown in all countries, in English and local language on:
> 
> -what is pastoralism
> 
> -importance of rangelands and their recuperation or preservation
>  
> - importance of mobile pastoralism in many parts of the world, for biodiversity preservation 
> 
> - different kinds of pastoralism in the whole world
> 
> - high value of pastoralists products (omega 3,....etc) to  help pastoralists to continue having the income they need to continue existing
> 
> -.....etc all required to achieve all IYRP goal
> 
> Kindly
> 
> 
> El mar, 7 ene 2025, 18:31, Barry Irving <birving at ualberta.ca <mailto:birving at ualberta.ca>> escribió:
> Francesca;
> 
> I think there is some cause for caution here.  I am not in on a promotion that separates things into us and them.  Mostly because I believe in the axiom "I have seen the enemy and they are me".  There is so much grey around what a negative land use is and where that line can be drawn that maybe we should not be drawing it at all.  Canada, and I am reluctant to make this statement, is an industrial agricultural production nation.  Canadian agriculture has a history of finding the economic optimum, with a major focus on the economic.  In a recent evaluation of the sustainability of food and food delivery systems by the Economist magazine (which I think could be viewed as somewhat independent) Canada's system was ranked number 1.  That evaluation included economic and environmental sustainability.  That leads me to believe that industrial is not always bad.  My wife and I have now worked with about 100 large ranches in western Canada on livestock water solutions.  Some are more industrial than others and all are industrial compared to the production systems we have seen on some of our travels.  Does being industrial mean these 100 ranches are not sustainable?  I do not believe that is so.  They have adapted their systems to meet their own situations.  They will need to continually adapt.
> 
> So, when we do promotions, let's consider sticking to the positive side of any land use, and steer clear of the us versus them type of discussion.  Because, maybe when we paint another part of the agricultural production spectrum (and we all sit somewhere on that continuum) as bad (them), we are also painting ourselves into that same picture.
> 
> Barry Irving
> 
> On Sun, Jan 5, 2025 at 9:47 AM Francesca Pasetti <fpasettib at gmail.com <mailto:fpasettib at gmail.com>> wrote:
> Dear IYRP GCG
> First of all I would like to wish you a Happy New Year and hope that you and your loved ones are doing well.
> 
> During my recent Christmas holidays I was in Munich (Germany) with all my children and grandchildren and visited the "Deutsches Museum <https://www.deutsches-museum.de/en/museum/press/press-kit/press-releases/who-we-are>", which as you know is one of the largest and most visited scientific museums in Germany.
> 
> There was a room with scientific recent university research on legumes to replace meat.
> I was very sad to see that the message was against all forms of livestock farming, as there is absolutely no awareness of the difference between industrial and extensive livestock farming.
> 
> My proposal is this:
> 
> As we have in IYRP a very solid scientific group of people, with the support of several UN organisations, we should be able to propose to all the (big) museums of the world, the most visited ones, to realise a temporary exposition from 2025 and throughout the whole year of 2026, on Pastoralism. 
> 
> I think we have already collected enough excellent material (films, pictures and general international information) to realise an excellent exposition to be proposed in all the museums of the world that we can reach and that can host this kind of information.
> In Vienna, I think some of you may have visited the excellent Camels exhibition that the World Museum is hosting throughout 2024.
> 
> We absolutely need to reach with our IYRP message this kind of museums of the most visited cities of the world, if possible at least in almost all countries where pastoralism is still alive and very important to be supported.
> What do you think?
> 
> Kind regards
> Francesca
> 
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Francesca Pasetti Bombardella 
> Co-chair Regional IYRP  <https://iyrp.info/> Support Group Europe    
> Focal Point Spain Nomination Transhumance UNESCO ICH
> International Projects Coordinator Fundación Trashumancia y Naturaleza - Spain
> Coordinator Programma TRE Terre Rurali d'Europa - Spain
> Secretary of the Transhumance and Transition UNESCO Club
> Facilitator of the ERASMUS +   “Eco-TransH” project
> Email: fpasettib at gmail.co <mailto:fpasettib at gmail.com>m
> 
> 
> 
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