A conversation with Sophie Aylmer (FOUR PAWS) on the role of animal welfare in resilient pastoral systems.
2026 is the International Year of Rangelands and Pastoralists (IYRP). Pastoralists raise livestock on open land, moving their animals with the seasons. The health and welfare of those animals shape both family livelihoods and the health of the land.
The Committee on World Food Security (CFS), the UN forum where governments set priorities for food security, concluded its 54th session on 23 October in Rome. The World Federation for Animals (WFA) was there to advocate for recognition of the essential role of animal health and welfare in the future of global food security and nutrition policies.
WFA co-organised the side event “Rooted and mobile: pastoral systems leading the way to resilience”, together with the IYRP Secretariat, the Civil Society and Indigenous Peoples’ Mechanism (CSIPM), the UN Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights and other partners. The discussion showed that better animal health and welfare support pastoral families and healthy pastoral ecosystems, as well as the need for policies and investments that better support pastoralists and their animals.
We spoke with Sophie Aylmer, Head of Policy at FOUR PAWS, who spoke for our Federation at the event, about how the animal welfare movement can continue building momentum and help protect animals in pastoral systems.
1. Why are animal health and welfare essential for strengthening the resilience of pastoral systems and supporting pastoralists’ livelihoods?
Animal health and welfare are fundamental to pastoralism because animals’ ability to roam, graze, maintain social relationships and cope with challenging environmental conditions is essential to the functioning of pastoral systems.
Healthy, well-adapted animals are better able to move with seasonal changes in pasture and water availability. Conversely, disease, heat stress, poor nutrition, and injury can all restrict mobility and compromise animals’ ability to meet their needs, undermining both their welfare and pastoral households’ resilience.
2. What policies and investments are needed to improve animal health and welfare while supporting sustainable pastoral livelihoods?
Firstly, we need investment in accessible veterinary services, disease prevention and appropriate extension support, as well as protecting communal grazing areas and seasonal migration routes and providing infrastructure that helps animals cope with challenging conditions.
Well-managed pastoral systems can contribute to food security, biodiversity, climate resilience, land restoration and rural livelihoods, alongside the health and welfare of the animals themselves. Yet, these issues are often addressed through separate policy processes. We need policies and financing that work together to recognise these multiple benefits.
I believe the FAO Global Plan of Action for Sustainable Livestock Transformation provides an important opportunity to bring these priorities together, with its focus on food security, livelihoods, animal health and welfare, natural resources, climate and biodiversity. We must ensure that its commitments translate into practical action for pastoral systems.
3. What key message should the animal welfare movement take away from the side event?
My most important message is that breeding choices are an animal welfare issue across all livestock systems, including pastoralism.
Breeding animals primarily for higher yields without sufficient consideration of their health, functional abilities and suitability to local conditions causes significant welfare problems. Animals poorly suited to local climates, available fodder or the environments in which they are expected to live may struggle to thrive and become more dependent on external and costly inputs and interventions.
Locally adapted breeds and pastoralists’ knowledge of their animals are therefore essential to conserve. In Ethiopia, community-based breeding programmes involve livestock keepers in defining breeding objectives and selecting animals suited to their circumstances, with technical support and attention to adaptive capacity.
The wider lesson is that breeding and livestock development should support animal health, resilience and welfare, rather than focusing on productivity alone.
4. Which actors should the animal welfare movement collaborate with, and how can partnerships be developed?
The starting point must be pastoralists themselves. We need to listen to people who depend on pastoral systems, understand their priorities and constraints, and involve them in designing and evaluating interventions, rather than arriving with solutions developed elsewhere. Pastoralists are knowledge holders and should be recognised as partners.
Monicah Yator’s [female pastoralist from Kenya] contribution to the side event highlighted the different roles people play within pastoral households. She spoke about women using agroecological approaches to goat farming close to home to support their incomes. She also highlighted the importance of data, both to help pastoralists manage their own herds and to enable governments to provide appropriate support.
The animal welfare movement should build stronger relationships with pastoralist and women’s organisations, veterinary and extension services, researchers and organisations working on human rights and land rights. These partnerships should be based on sustained dialogue and shared priorities.
5. As the International Year of Rangelands and Pastoralists draws to a close, how can we build on its momentum to ensure lasting progress?
The International Year should be a starting point for lasting policy and financial change, not simply a moment of greater visibility for pastoralists and rangelands and their invaluable contribution to biodiversity, climate resilience, land restoration and sustainable food systems. Animal welfare must be part of this ongoing agenda, too.
Investment in pastoralism should recognise animals as living beings with their own needs, rather than treating them only as productive assets or as means to achieve environmental outcomes.
Ultimately, the legacy of the International Year should be visible in decisions about budgets, subsidies, and services. We need to mobilise more finance for regenerative practices that benefit pastoralists, animals and rangelands together.
6. During the event, Director Tiensin, from the FAO Livestock Department, announced the launch of the Global Knowledge and Innovation Hub for Sustainable Pastoral Systems. Why is this initiative important for animal health and welfare, and how can the animal welfare movement contribute to its work?
The animal welfare movement can, inter alia, contribute scientific evidence, welfare indicators and practical expertise to inform the Hub’s research, knowledge-sharing, policy recommendations and support for implementation. This includes ensuring that animal welfare is reflected in the evidence used to guide decision-making, while recognising and building on pastoralists’ own knowledge and experience.
Mongolia’s Responsible Nomads programme offers an example of how improved animal husbandry, animal welfare and sustainable pasture management can create incentives and market opportunities for pastoralists. Sharing such experiences through the Hub could help other pastoral communities strengthen animal welfare, livelihoods and market access.
Pastoralists’ approaches to animal care, including cow-calf contact, and opportunities for animals to express natural behaviours, can offer valuable lessons for improving welfare more widely. The animal welfare movement also has an important role to play here, bringing scientific evidence and practical expertise to support these practices and promote better welfare across livestock systems.
I hope we can also move beyond treating pastoralism as a separate area of livestock policy and instead recognise the knowledge and practices it can contribute to improving animal welfare across other production systems.
Why CFS54 discussions matter for animals
At the Committee on World Food Security (CFS), governments continued work on the Building Resilient Food Systems (BRFS) process, which will lead to the adoption of policy recommendations at the next session of the Committee in 2027 (CFS55). The World Federation for Animals is advocating to ensure that the key role of animal welfare and health in ensuring and strengthening the resilience of our food systems is adequately integrated and promoted in the outcome policy document.
Other upcoming CFS work priorities that matter to animals include a new policy process on sustainable fisheries and aquaculture, which will lead to a new set of policy recommendations to be adopted in 2028, and planning for the Committee’s work programme for the 2028-2031 period. A scientific report from the High Level Panel of Experts on Food Security and Nutrition (HLPE-FSN) will inform the latter. It highlights concerns about intensive livestock production, antimicrobial resistance (the growing ability of microbes to resist medicines) and the links between agricultural expansion, biodiversity loss and disease emergence. It also identifies One Health as an important framework for addressing the connections between human, animal and environmental health.
CFS discussions influence how food systems are designed for years to come. Intensive farming, disease, and habitat loss all harm animals. When governments recognise animal health and welfare as part of food security, they can improve conditions for animals while tackling wider food systems and sustainability challenges.
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