Over the last 10 years, the number of camels in Asia has fallen by one-fifth – mainly because their traditional pasturelands have been lost.

Camels are vital for the livelihoods of millions of people who live in and on the margins of the world’s deserts.

17 June 2005 – the United Nations’ World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought – is an opportunity to focus on the role of camels in using arid lands sensibly and sustainably.

Click here for more information.

Audio file by WRENMedia about the crisis in camel-keeping in India. Includes interviews by BBC/WRENMedia reporter Susie Emmett with camel herders in Rajasthan, and with LPP’s Ilse Köhler-Rollefson.

Download audio file (Mpeg)

This article describes a month-long journey through Rajasthan’s Thar Desert to document the drastic decline in camel numbers there. By Ilse Köhler-Rollefson of the League for Pastoral Peoples and Hanwant Singh Rathore of Lokhit Pashu-Palak Sansthan.

Down To Earth, 31 May 2005

Download 668 kb, 5 pages