New regional network aims to protect traditional livelihoods as shrinking grazing lands, declining yak populations and youth migration threaten mountain communities.
Yak herders from Bhutan India and Nepal are joining forces to protect their traditional livelihoods and address mounting environmental and economic challenges facing Himalayan highland communities.
The first Himalayan Yak Herders’ Network is set to launch on October 23, 2026, at Bhutan’s ninth Royal Highland Festival. The initiative aims to strengthen cross-border cooperation, share traditional knowledge and promote collective action to safeguard yak herding across the region.
According to the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), the network will support collective advocacy, knowledge exchange, capacity building and collaboration among herders. It will bring together three national organisations: the Yak Federation of India, the Bhutan Yak Federation and the Yak and Chauri Farmers Federation Nepal. Bhutan will host the network’s secretariat.
The initiative follows nearly a decade of collaboration among herders researchers, governments and development partners. The idea first emerged in 2016 through ICIMOD’s Kangchenjunga Landscape Conservation and Development Initiative, which brought together representatives from the three countries.
Himalayan yak herding communities are facing increasing pressure from shrinking pastures, rangeland degradation, declining yak populations and the loss of genetic diversity. Livestock attacks by wild animals, limited market access and inadequate essential services are adding to their difficulties.
Climate change is intensifying these challenges while the migration of younger generations away from highland areas raises concerns about the continuity of traditional pastoral practices.
ICIMOD reports that yak populations in Bhutan, India and Nepal have declined significantly in recent decades partly because of changing land use patterns and deteriorating rangelands.
The new network is expected to give herders a stronger collective voice in discussions about policies and development programmes affecting their livelihoods.
Rangelands support millions across the Hindu Kush Himalaya
The importance of the initiative extends beyond yak herding. According to the network’s organisers, rangelands cover more than 60 per cent of the Hindu Kush Himalaya and provide livelihoods and subsistence resources for an estimated 25–30 million Indigenous and culturally diverse people.
Protecting these landscapes is therefore closely linked to sustaining mountain economies, traditional knowledge and the communities that depend on high-altitude ecosystems.
India’s yak population remains a concern
India’s 20th Livestock Census, published in 2019, recorded approximately 58,000 yaks nationwide.
In 2026, the Yak Federation of India reported that 526 household members associated with the federation collectively reared approximately 32,000 yaks.
These figures highlight the importance of supporting yak rearing communities and maintaining the traditional systems that sustain them.
By bringing herders from Bhutan, India and Nepal together under a common platform, the Himalayan Yak Herders’ Network seeks to encourage coordinated responses to shared challenges and strengthen the future of yak herding across the Himalayan region.