On arid rangelands used by pastoralists, NRM is important to environmental and social sustainability, especially in Africa and the Middle East. Poverty is often acute in these areas, where population pressure can lead to overgrazing and conflicts over land use, further accentuating problems of natural resource degradation and economic vulnerability. Early donor support for range livestock development failed because it did not take into account local social, economic, and environmental conditions. More recent interventions have taken more of an NRM approach, working with herder organizations and using participatory approaches. Public investment is essential to improve public services and policy frameworks, strengthen local institutions, and improve management of rangeland resources. Sustainable use of rangeland resources remains a key issue in many developing countries. At least 10 million square kilometers of the earth's land surface is categorized as arid or semiarid rangeland. These areas directly support about 180 million people living in close association with about 960 million ruminant livestock. Social deprivation is acute in these areas, which are among the most degraded in the world. Sustainable Pastoralism Pastoral systems use free-ranging or grass-fed animals as the principal means of utilizing natural range and grasslands. Grasses and woody plants (browse) provide feed for animals, but overgrazing reduces productivity and can make land susceptible to erosion or weed infestation. Incomes from pastoral activity also decline. The sustainability of pastoral systems is also threatened when rangeland is converted to cropland, because much rangeland is marginal land, susceptible to accelerated resource degradation. Improving the sustainability of pastoral livelihoods depends on ensuring access to the land suited to pastoral systems and requires that pastoralists have the knowledge and resources to manage land sustainably. Pastoral systems differ in certain key features: Mobility is a common feature, though it varies in range, seasonality, and links between movements of people and livestock. Nomads, for example, move as whole families with their livestock; transhumance pastoralists move livestock according to set seasonal and geographic routes; and other pastoralists are sedentary or semisedentary.
Livestock species associated with pastoral systems are determined by the environment, local culture and traditions, and required functions (meat, milk, transport).
Economic orientation of land use for subsistence or market activity will significantly influences management practices.
Social-territorial organization describes pastoralists’ relations with markets, settled agriculture, and nonpastoral communities, all of which are shaped by customary ethics, environmental factors, and accumulated management experience.
  
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