Arya News - The network will serve collective advocacy, knowledge exchange, and capacity building, with Bhutan hosting its secretariat.
THIMPHU – Bhutan, India and Nepal will launch the Himalayan Yak Herders’ Network at the 9th Royal Highland Festival in Laya, Gasa, with Bhutan hosting its secretariat.
It is the first regional platform dedicated to yak herding communities in the Himalayas. Bhutan’s national yak population declined by about 28 percent between 2020 and 2024.
Tashi Dorji, Senior Livestock and Rangeland Specialist at the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), said the biggest challenge facing yak herding is the declining interest of younger generations in the livelihood.
“The difficulty lies in sustaining herding as an attractive and viable way of life,” he said. “It is not simply a matter of choice, it reflects changing aspirations, limited economic opportunities, and policy and institutional challenges.”
Climate change, pasture degradation, and economic pressure worsen these issues.
Tashi Dorji said cordyceps collection, driven by attractive prices, has also shifted interest away from herding over the past decade or so.
“While cordyceps currently offers an attractive source of income, its long-term reliability as a livelihood remains uncertain,” he said.
How the network will work
The network will serve collective advocacy, knowledge exchange, capacity building and cooperation. It draws inspiration from the herder-owned World Reindeer Herders Association in the Arctic.
The Bhutan Yak Federation, the Yak and Chauri Farmers Federation Nepal and the Yak Federation of India will take part.
Tashi Dorji described it as the only pan-continental centre linking 11 yak herding nations. He said it will see over 50 new highland enterprises incubated and over 500 green jobs created, targeted at youth.
“It also establishes a perpetual institution that complements Gelephu, cementing Bhutan as a nature-based destination,” he said. “The Andes have the alpaca and llama, the Sahara has the camel and the Eurasian Arctic has the reindeer. Asia has none.” He said the yak can be a better option for Asia.
The idea emerged in 2016, when herders, researchers and officials met through ICIMOD’s Kangchenjunga Landscape Conservation and Development Initiative. In 2018, representatives attended the Arctic Frontiers conference in Norway and engaged with the Association of World Reindeer Herders.
The countries agreed to build strong national federations first. These were formalised in Bhutan in 2022, Nepal in 2023 and India in 2025. In 2025, federation leaders and government representatives committed to the network at the 10th Sustainable Animal Agriculture for Developing Countries (SAADC) conference in Vietnam.
“In Bhutan, the support from ICIMOD has focused on generating evidence, strengthening technical capacity and empowering herder institutions,” Tashi Dorji said. The Bhutan Yak Federation, he added, gives herders a collective voice, and Bhutan’s role as Secretariat host creates opportunities for regional cooperation.
“The priority now is to ensure these efforts translate into tangible, lasting benefits for herders and future generations,” Tashi Dorji said.
Herds shrinking across the region
Yak populations in all three countries have fallen significantly in recent decades because of changing land use, rangeland degradation, climate pressures and socioeconomic change.
Bhutan has 746 households rearing 29,432 yaks, according to the National Statistics Bureau (2024), or about 39 animals per household. Yak herding contributes four percent of the country’s livestock products.
Across Asia, the yak supports more than 31 ethnic groups in over 10 countries and contributes 50 percent of pastoral income. Rangelands occupy over 60 percent of the Hindu Kush Himalaya and are the main resource for 25 to 30 million people.
Tashi Dorji said herders also face shrinking and degraded rangelands, loss of yak genetic diversity, wildlife depredation, limited access to markets and services, and youth migration.
Pasture policy
Tashi Dorji said conservation policies directly influence how herders manage grazing areas.
In Bhutan, rangelands, or tsamdro, are largely open spaces within forest ecosystems, except for some summer pastures above 4,000 metres. Herders traditionally used controlled burning to keep shrubs like Rhododendron lepidotum, Berberis and Rosa species, and weeds such as Rumex and Potentilla in check and promote grass growth.
Burning has been restricted for three to four decades. In some areas, shrub and weed encroachment has reduced grass growth and grazing quality, affecting yaks and wild herbivores such as blue sheep and deer.He said conservation and livelihoods need not be competing objectives.
He said Bhutan’s Forest and Nature Conservation Policy 2023 recognises the role of fire in forest management. With ICIMOD’s support, prescribed burning has been tested, standard operating procedures developed, and the practice incorporated into forest management systems.
“This is a positive step, with lessons for other Himalayan countries,” he said. The challenge, however, is for policies to recognise the ecological importance of open grasslands alongside forest protection, while supporting pastoral livelihoods.
He cautioned that uncontrolled fire is risky and that burning must follow procedures, with supervision and monitoring.
Dagala project
On October 19, the Thimphu Dzongkhag Administration launched a project to improve yak dairy processing and value addition in Dagala. It also inaugurated the Dagala Craft Innovation and Development Centre in Dagala Gewog.
The initiatives coincide with the International Year of Rangelands and Pastoralists 2026.
The dairy project, titled “Empowering Dagala Pastoralists through Improved Yak Dairy Processing and Value Addition,” aims to improve the economic viability of yak pastoralism through better infrastructure, product diversification and value addition, while promoting sustainable management of alpine rangelands.