Pastoralism is a livestock-keeping system based on the herding of animals. Migrations often take place over long distances to track variable and unpredictable plant growth that tends to be patchy in space and variable in time . Pastoralism has a considerably lower carbon budget than other livestock-keeping systems. Research on pastoralism in the Sahel concluded that this system may be carbon neutral , despite contributing directly to greenhouse gas emissions via methane enteric emissions and indirectly through faeces-driven CO2, CH4 and N2O emissions during mineralisation . Efforts to sedentarise and settle pastoralists in villages can lead to land degradation and higher overall emissions from the sector.
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