Films

The story of Hajekber Serikbol, leader of a pastoralist community in the western foothills of Mongolia, which calls itself the “friendship community”, this film shows these mobile herders’ respect for the environment, living with nature and facing climate-related hazards. Communal management of pasture and water resources is portrayed as key to the sustainability of their pastoral system.

László Sáfián – born into a Hungarian family that has been herding for generations – explains how he, with his dog, manages close-herded grazing on a patchy semi-natural pasture. He speaks about the relationship between pasture and livestock, how he portions the pasture, and how he learnt and transmits this knowledge. This “slow film” documents traditional ecological knowledge of herders in their setting and at their pace, using herder–scientist dialogue about the fine-tuned decisions the herder made on this afternoon.

This film follows the Paradas, a charismatic family of Argentinian gauchos who take their goats on transhumance between the lowlands and highlands, on their arduous journey through the High Andes. It captures their reflections on the threat that “progress” poses to their livelihood, on the parents’ uncertainty whether their children will keep up the generations-old family tradition, and on the beauty of their landscape. In both spoken word and song, different family members express their feeling about their pastoral life.

From inside his yurt in northern Mongolia, the reindeer herder Bayandalai ‒ an elder of the Dukhas tribe ‒ muses about the significance of life and death in the largest forest on Earth, the Taiga. Through his connection with the reindeer and with the Taiga, Bayandalai has access to spiritual truths and higher consciousness that he may not be able to pass on to his family members before the lures of city life — jobs, money, houses, things — entice them away.

This documentary is composed of beautiful and informative photos with commentary on a disappearing aspect of camelid culture: the caravans in the Andes that used to connect people from the highlands and lowlands, transporting llama fleece from Bolivia to Argentina to trade for food, medicines and other purchased products. It shows a several-day trip to Santa Catalina in Jujay, with stops for water from rivers or ponds and grazing.

This video is part of the course material for ‘Pastoralism in Development’, a MOOC from IIED/MISEREOR and Saverio Krätli.

Find out more at:
iied.org/mooc-pastoralism-development-online-learning-journey

After several years of negotiations with the South African National Parks Board, the local Nama people were allowed to remain living and grazing their livestock in a designated nature conservation area – the Richtersveld World Heritage Site in Northern Cape Province bordering Namibia. The film documents how agreement for a community conservancy was reached and how renegotiations are being considered in view of recent changes in climate and population, including Nama not involved in the original negotiations. Researchers made this film as a way to feed back their findings to the local people.

The Karamojong are herdsmen in the North-East of Uganda and guardians of their landscape. This film illustrates how the Karamojong herdsmen make productive use of the highly variable landscape, turning even the driest plant fibers into meat and milk, whilst simultaneously dealing with frequent animal disease outbreaks and intertribal conflicts in the region.

This film was produced in collaboration with a CELEP partner, DADO (Dodoth Agro-pastoral Development Organization). It is part of a documentary series ‘Herders – Guardians of the Earth’.

In Italy’s Apennine Mountains, large carnivores are creating problems for herders. The population of wolves and wolf-dog hybrids is growing, and attacks on livestock are increasing. This has devastating economic impact on the herders, who must now confine formerly free-ranging livestock in stables and behind fences. It weakens the management of grazing land and local livestock breeds, leading to loss in biocultural diversity. The herders demand that national and regional governments in Italy take action to address these issues.

By showing how different voices coexist, intermingle, clash and overlap, this sound collage aims to make the realities and situation of pastoralists facing land-use conflict in Ethiopia more tangible.

This film tells the story of two girls in Afar, northeast Ethiopia, and how they face challenges in their young lives: Fatuma seeking to avoid the traditional arranged marriage and Asya trying to deal with livestock theft and conflict with the Somali Issa. Fatuma and Asya grow up in two different Afar nomad communities. The film depicts the reality of these adolescents, who explain their daily lives from their own perspective.

The area near Tanzania’s Mount Meru is increasingly affected by drought. The Maasai herder, Paulo, must find creative ways to feed his family. In the morning, he seeks breakfast for his goats, so that they can produce milk for their own kids – and for Paulo’s young son.

Canada’s native grasslands are disappearing at an alarming rate; they are one of the most endangered ecosystems in the world. This film – the result of collaboration between conservationists and local pastoralists (ranchers) – shows how cattle grazing still creates hope on what is left of these iconic landscapes for the plant and animal species that call them home.

Urmat and Aigul are traditional pastoralists in Kyrgyzstan. Their life depends on the health of their pasturelands and livestock, but they now have to deal with climate change. This is the story of how Urmat, Aigul and their community have been fighting against the clock to restore pastureland and counteract degradation in the face of extreme climate events.

This very short introductory film for the International Year of Camelids (IYC) shows different types of
camelids kept in various environments and cultures. It explains how camelids contribute to food security,
nutrition, local livelihoods and the wider economy while having a strong cultural and social significance for
communities in the Andean highlands and in the drylands of Africa and Asia. The IYC seeks to raise
awareness of the role of camelids in building resilience to climate change.

This brief animation shows how milk exports from Europe are inhibiting development of markets for milk from pastoral and other herds in West Africa. The Milk Campaign organised by SOS Faim, Oxfam, Vétérinaires Sans Frontières, European Milk Board and Mon Lait est Local shows the serious consequences of the European milk crisis for dairy producers in South and North.

Alpaca-keepers make efficient use of marginal lands in high-altitude areas (5000 masl) in the Andes. Depicted largely from the herders’ perspective, this documentary highlights the advantages of keeping alpacas over hoofed livestock like sheep and cattle in this region. It shows the roles and functions of alpacas for the local community, the close bonds between the people and their animals, and how the communities have further developed their livestock-keeping system in response to climate change.

This advocacy film by the Oakland Institute (USA) reveals the situation of agropastoralists in the Lower Omo Valley in Southern Ethiopia, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It is home to about 200,000 people from several ethnic groups, e.g. Bode, Dassenach, Hamer, Karo, Kwegu, Mursi, Nyangatom and Suri. Most of them raise livestock where the Omo River’s annual flooding replenishes grazing areas and practise flood-retreat cropping on the floodplains. Their cattle are a source of food, wealth and pride, and are intimately tied to their cultural identity. Their lives and culture are threatened by the construction of the Gibe III Dam.

This documentary focuses on how pastoralists thrive despite climate change. As the environment becomes more unpredictable all over the world, people face higher costs in an effort to sustain the usual strategies to control it. The WoDaabe pastoralists in Niger show that there is another way.

This very focused film – much of it in slow motion – with detailed description of making a camel saddle and packing a camel, is narrated by the elderly saddle-maker himself. It shows the skills of the saddle-maker and his pride in the beauty of the saddle and the camel. The film reveals that these handicraft skills still
exist today – among older people.

This video on their struggles for land rights was made by six community members from five Maasai clans in northern Tanzania during a training by InsightShare in participatory video (PV). In 1992, a hunting company from the United Arab Emirates occupied 1500 sq. km of village land in Loliondo to set up a private game reserve beside the Serengeti National Park. Since then, Maasai have been denied access to vital pasture and waterpoints for their herds. The people suffered mass eviction from their villages within the disputed land. The PV training strengthened the Maasai’s own advocacy to resist landgrabbing by foreign investors.

Man-made climate change is creating conditions on our planet that are increasingly characterised by variability and unpredictability. Pastoralists use variability to their advantage. Their production systems guide us to a sustainable future. This video was created in support of the International Year of Rangelands & Pastoralists (IYRP) 2026.

Subtitles in Arabic, Catalan, Chinese, German, Hindi, Italian, Spanish and Mongolian).

Also available in French, Fulfulde, Swahili and Amharic

Scenario by Saverio Krätli, Vétérinaires Sans Frontières Belgium, Agrecol and Misereor; funded by Misereor and the Belgian Government; produced by Cartoonbase Belgium.

The Maasai herder, Lenina, represents the plight of an entire pastoralist community in northern Tanzania. The film depicts how Mkungunero Game Reserve has been encroaching on the pastoralists’ grazing areas and how this affects their lives.

The Raika people in India have been herding camels in Rajasthan for centuries. But their traditional way of life is now under threat. A German NGO, the League for Pastoral Peoples, is trying to create a perspective for the camel herders through the sale of camel milk and other products, in order to help the Raika sustain their livelihood.

This video is part of the course material for ‘Pastoralism in Development’, a MOOC from IIED/MISEREOR and Saverio Krätli.

Find out more at:
iied.org/mooc-pastoralism-development-online-learning-journey

This documentary brings the testimonies of three herders – Fernando, Juan and Sofía – who have learnt to live close to wolves. Like many other farmers and herders in Europe, they have found ways to protect their livestock. They explain how they deal with the challenges and opportunities that come with the presence of large carnivores and how they have learnt to accept or even to appreciate them. They show that coexistence is possible, if those living close to large carnivores receive sufficient support and tools to reduce conflict.

Tsering is a shepherdess who lives with her flock in the heights of the Gya-Miru valley in Ladakh. At the age of 50, she is the youngest in her village to drive her 350 goats and sheep in transhumance in this region of the Himalayas, located 4000–6000 metres above sea level. A harsh and precarious life, often solitary, challenged by difficult climatic conditions, does not prevent this small woman from singing, laughing and philosophising.

For hundreds of years, the Dhangar nomads have kept sheep on the Deccan Plateau in Maharashtra State, India. Their biggest problem was wolves, which they also worship, knowing full well that wolves will take a few animals each year, often the weakest. Now they face a new threat: climate change, bringing extreme weather events. The film traces the path of a few migratory families and the loss they felt when several animals died during unprecedented rains. The nomads ask government to take notice of their situation and create policies to protect their sheep and their livelihoods.

This film shows the living cultural heritage of transhumance in Europe: moving livestock to different grazing grounds in a seasonal cycle that goes back as long as people have been farming in the region. In Clare County of Ireland, the filmmaker follows the Burren Beo group through their Winterage Festival celebrating this ancient tradition that allows the region’s unique plant and animal life to flourish. Here, the highlands are grazed in the winter and the lowlands in summer. This is contrasted with the movement of livestock in the north Italian Alps, that are taken to the mountain pastures for the summer.

The Tuareg of Kel Ewey travelled yearly across the Tenere Desert to exchange millet for dates and buy salt in the Bilma oasis; they sold the salt in the south and bought millet. This film follows a camel caravan that walked 600 km to trade in Bilma. A valuable historical document, it shows the endurance needed by people and camels to traverse the desert. With an introductory text but no narrative, this fascinating ethnography shows everyday activities of people and animals  during the long journey.

Accompanying text by filmmaker Sarah Lunaček

For the Tuareg in northern Niger, the salt caravan combines the benefits of the salt trade and the camel’s annual grazing cycle. After wet-season grazing, the camels walk to the oases of Fachi and Bilma, 600 km to the east. They carry hay for their feed; the leather bags supporting the load contain millet. Some bags contain camel dung to use as fuel for cooking, together with wood collected on the way. In the oases, the Tuareg trade the millet for dates with local Kanuri people and buy salt from them. The Tuareg return to their home camps in Aïr, where the women keep the female camels and goats, and then take all the camels to better grazing – including crop residue – in the more humid south. The dung fertilises the millet fields of Hausa farmers for the next growing season. Selling salt and dates enables the Tuareg to buy millet for trade and to feed their families.

Camels drink before departure and after 15 days upon arrival in Bilma. At night, they eat the hay they are carrying; they are muzzled to prevent them from eating it during the day. Young camels are taken along to learn how to walk in single file, initially with no load, over long distances. The work during the caravan is hard for both people and animals. The loads of hay and especially salt are heavy. Loading must be done quickly because camels feel more comfortable when they walk, but complain when being loaded. We also see a traditional practice using hot ash to heal a camel’s bruise. In Bilma, the camels can rest while the people are trading and packing salt.

The trade was already becoming less profitable two decades ago, when this film was made, because trucks operated by Arab traders can transport salt faster and in larger quantities, lowering the price. With growing human population, cropping is spreading north into the pastures. Now, farmers rarely leave crop residue in the fields; they sell it or feed it to their own animals. The presence of terrorist groups also makes movement to the south very difficult. Only a few people continue the salt caravan.

In 2000, I was one of three Europeans who walked to Bilma together with 13 caravaners and 176 camels led by Madugu (leader) Mohamed Ally. We joined the herd of Al Hadji Alghabid, led by his son Ahmadan. Former caravaner Alhassane Haidara knew this family, made the contact and joined the caravan to help us.

I filmed in an ethnographic observational style: simply following what is happening, with no interference in action. No explanations are given in a voice-over; basic explanations are in the introductory text. This approach allows viewers to better immerse themselves in the film. I used a Digital 8 camera and edited the film to 4 hours in 2003. In 2024, for the International Year of Camelids, I shortened it to this 33-minute version focussed on the interactions between people and camels.

The Tes River flows from the Bulnai Mountains through three Mongolian provinces – Khuvsgul, Zavkhan and Uvs – feeds into Lake Uvs, registered by UNESCO in 2013 as a Natural World Heritage site. On the banks of the river live mobile herder families who believe the river is God’s blessing for them, being the source of their livelihood and of water for humans and animals. The full-length film (56 min, of which this is an excerpt) shows the lifestyle of Mongolian herders, rotational grazing of rangelands and people’s attitudes to and respect for their natural environment, by depicting the lives of three families living near the top, middle and end of the Tes River Valley.

The full-film with English subtitles can be found here. The 8-min excerpt made for the IYRP 2026 can be viewed here.

This documentary shows the operation at Buckleboo Station on Eyre Peninsula, South Australia. The family keeps about 4000 Dorper sheep. Together with an ecologist, it developed a business plan and hired a water-diviner to help find water. It invested in new pipelines, telemetry systems for monitoring, and Dorper-proof fencing for rotational grazing. A perspective on pastoralism Down Under.

Raika pastoralists have been herding camels in Rajasthan for centuries, but their traditional way of life is now under threat. A German-led non-governmental organisation that was set up to advocate for the Raika’s rights collaborated with them in starting a commercial dairy for camel milk to help the Raika sustain
their livelihood.

Transhumant nomads in Turkey spend winter on the Mediterranean coastal plains and, in spring, move with their goats into the Taurus Mountains. However, the government, the military and landowners are constantly placing new obstacles in their path. The 63-year-old woman Pervin Savran leads the nomads’ fight for their rights to continue their traditional herding system and lifestyle.

In Gujarat, the filmmaker observes the daily life of Rabari pastoralists living in the desert of western India. Spending time with three families, she is fascinated by how they are connected to their land and animals. While seeing how the Rabari women move their households, families and camels from one site to the next,
she questions what home means to her while moving around the world. As narrator, the filmmaker is concerned with her own search for home – a personal and poetic reflection on mobility.

Dialogue between ecological scientist and three herders, who explain their sources of knowledge, their pasture management, the links between traditional livestock breeds and nature conservation, their interactions with conservationists, the effect of economic change on their livelihoods, future perspectives, how herders’ lives could be improved, and cooperation between herders and scientists.

Flocks are moved along the traditional livestock routes in Jaén Province, one of the last places in Spain where transhumance is still practised. The video shows the tremendous environmental, social, cultural and economic achievements of these mobile shepherds.

It is 20 years since the start of industrial mining in Karamoja. This film explores reasons why the industry is far from contributing to socioeconomic gains in this largely pastoral region, and worse, how it is shaping up massive land grabs that are undermining the livelihoods of pastoralists and other inhabitants of the area.

This video is part of the course material for ‘Pastoralism in Development’, a MOOC from IIED/MISEREOR and Saverio Krätli.

Find out more at:
iied.org/mooc-pastoralism-development-online-learning-journey

“Waynaabe” shows the life of nomadic Wodaabe livestock keepers through the eyes of the young mother Mooro. Her unmarried niece Mariama explains the worso, a ceremonial gathering of their clan in Akadaney. The film highlights how the Wodaabe value their cattle and deal with the challenges of gaining a livelihood in the drylands of Niger. It was commissioned by Vétérinaires Sans Frontières (VSF) Belgium to show the setting of their work on animal health.