Pastoralism is reviewed as a sustainable means of natural resource use and management in dryland areas. Rather than its normal view as the aimless wandering in search of water and pasture, pastoral nomadism is presented in this paper as a complex set of practices and knowledge that has permitted the long-term maintenance of a sophisticated “triangle of sustainability” that includes plants, animals, and people. Pastoralism is presented as the integration of cropping systems, domestic animal management, natural resource conservation, and sociocultural organization. A strong case is made for the importance of such systems in the sustainable management of fragile dry or arid lands. Examples of such systems range from complex crop/animal rotations or interactions, to extensive forage and fodder systems in areas where agriculture without animals would otherwise be extremely difficult. A case is made for placing greater value on such agroecosystems as a viable and practical alternative for sustaining the landscape and the people who occupy it in strongly water-limited parts of the world.

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