Yak Herding in Gatlang, Nepal: The Shift From Traditional to Market-Driven Practices

This article explores shifting yak herding practices in Gatlang, a Tamang village in Rasuwa district, Nepal. It argues that the customary, community-based agropastoral system, known as the Choko system of the Tamangs, is shifting from community-regulated toward market-driven practices, resulting in negative socioecological consequences. The analysis is based on ethnographic data collected in 2023, which incorporates observations, open interviews, and focus group discussions with herders, traders, and community leaders. It examines yak herding as a long-standing agropastoral practice of the Tamang community, which traditionally involved sustainable rotational grazing and equitable access to pasturelands among herders. However, sociopolitical shifts, climate change, and market pressures have significantly altered yak herding practices and their socioecological impacts. The analysis shows that yak herding has become increasingly commercialized. Driven by the expansion of cheese production, this development forces traditional grazing systems to transition to sedentary and market-oriented approaches. Although marketization has boosted the local incomes of some families, it has also led to overgrazing, pasture degradation, and declining youth engagement. The combined effects of increased herd sizes, fuelwood-driven deforestation, invasive species, and restrictive forest policies raise serious concerns about customary regulation, the long-term sustainability of yak herding, and the fragile alpine ecosystems on which it depends. Addressing these challenges at the study site requires a reformulation of state and local government policies to enable economic innovation while addressing sustainable traditional agropastoral practices.