Geographical Research

Nomad’s livelihood is based on continuous migration between summer and winter pastures to obtain forage for their animals and access to contented weather. This living way has long history in Iran which formed in accord with climate. In recent century، modernization has been caused many changes in traditional living way of nomads. Therefore، nomads have no more their role and function as in the past. One of changes in nomads’ living way is about migration time which usually leads to early entering in rangelands. This has deteriorative effect on rangelands. Present article delivers results of a survey research on factors affecting early migration of nomads and early entering of their animals in summer pastures of Fars province. Findings indicated that early entering in summer pastures are a common phenomenon among nomads. The mean of days which nomads enter early in summer pasture is 13 days. This mean are 17.5، 2.1 and 41.4 days for nomads of Qhashqay clan، Khamseh clan and Mamasani clan respectively. Most nomads have migrated their animals from winter pasture to summer pastures by walk. This way of migration، in comparison to migration by machine، has resulted in decreasing the days which nomads enter early in summer pasture. The results also indicated that nomads have low sense of security in migration time. From point of their view، the Stipa capensis plant and drought could increase the days of entering early in summer pasture for 18 and 26 days respectively. Nomads also believed that fresh water and animal forage deficiencies are important determinant factors in early migration of nomads.