Yak grazing in the Shimshal Valley, Pakistan: An Interview with farmer/herdsman Laili Shah, conducted for the Panos Oral Testimony Programme

Shimshal is a farming and herding community of some 1400 inhabitants in northern Pakistan, close to the Chinese border where the Pamir and Karakorum Mountains meet. The community is sole steward of vast areas of high-altitude pasture and depends greatly on transhumant livestock herding and agriculture. Shimshal pastures are scattered across 2700 km2 of the central Karakoram. Since 1974, there have been plans to include most of these pastures in the Khunjerab National Park, yet Shimshalis themselves were never adequately consulted. The Shimshal Nature Trust (SNT), a community-based organisation, has responded by developing their own management plan, which formalises the knowledge, beliefs and practices that the community use to manage their environment sustainability without intervention of the National Park.