The overarching question of this project is:
In what ways have Fındıklı and Naryn transhumance systems adapted to climate change challenges over the past decades (1980-)?

This question is broken down into three sub-questions:

1.  What characterizes transhumance systems in terms of living, heritage, mobility, governance, and biodiversity?
2. How have climate change and other challenges affected the transhumance systems?  
3. When compared, which adaptive strategies of transhumance systems, e.g., rotational grazing, shifting migration timing, and altering herd composition, are most effective in enhancing system resilience?

Community participation is central to the project. The on-site workshop “Participatory Mapping of Mountainous Landscapes” and online workshop “Testing the Co-created Atlas of Transhumance Heritage” actively involve local communities in co-design and validation. These activities strengthen community agency, support intergenerational knowledge transfer, and increase visibility of pastoral concerns in regional policy discussions.

The comparative results encourage dialogue between Türkiye and Kyrgyzstan on shared challenges, including land degradation, pasture conflicts, and cultural heritage protection.

I plan to convene a multidisciplinary workshop, hosted by Turkic institutions in Türkiye, bringing together pastoralists, herders, and other stakeholders to discuss comparative findings.

• The Digital Atlas and related materials will be designed to be user-friendly for public understanding of highland cultures, pastoral landscapes, and climate adaptation strategies.
• A policy brief will be prepared for the United Nations University Institute for the Advanced Study of Sustainability, offering actionable guidance for governments, municipalities, protected-area managers, and NGOs.
• A blog post for the introduction of the project in Leiden University Archaeology Newsletter.
• Another blog post, “Living Landscapes: Transhumance and Land Regeneration,” is planned for submission to the Rural Water Supply Network blog, analysing how transhumance maintains vegetation, biodiversity, and soil health.
• A public lecture titled “Transhumance Heritage Preservationvia Community Mapping” will be given at the University of Central Asia to disseminate the research results.

First, the project generates the first comparative, cross-regional analysis of transhumance systems across the Turkic highlands. It introduces a new interdisciplinary framework that conceptualizes pastoralism as a nature–culture adaptive system by integrating tangible landscape features (pastures, routes, settlements, and biodiversity) with living heritage (ecological knowledge, weather forecasting, and mobility traditions).  

Second, the project develops an innovative mixed-methods approach that combines GIS-based spatial analysis from environmental sciences with ethnographic and participatory documentation from anthropological and heritage fields. The resulting open-access, interactive Digital Atlas bridges large scale spatial data with community-generated knowledge from place-based examples. This methodological integration provides a transferable model for studying transhumance and other mobile heritage systems globally.

Third, the project strengthens empirical documentation of transhumance systems in Central Asia and Türkiye, which remain underrepresented in global pastoralism and heritage research. By systematically generating spatial, ethnographic, and participatory data from areas with limited or fragmented institutional records, the project strengthens the scientific foundation for heritage management and climate adaptation research in post-Soviet and Turkic contexts.

Scientific outputs include three peer-reviewed journal articles, a cross-regional resilience typology, and two conference presentations.

The Department of Archaeological Heritage & Society within the Faculty of Archaeology at Leiden University offers an excellent opportunity to work on this project, given its strong focus on participatory heritage governance and landscape-based approaches. Of the Department’s three research lines, the project fits most directly with Landscape, Heritage, and Governance, which examines past land use, landscape mapping, and environmental conditions as shaping factors.

Heritage and Rights of Indigenous People addresses ‘living heritage,’ a component of the project. The Department also offers digital heritage tools and methods, along with staff expertise, to support the project’s phases.  

This project employs a mixed-methods approach combining GIS-based spatial analysis with ethnographic and participatory methods, organized into three phases. Due to dispersed settlements and long travel times, in-depth ethnographic research focuses on 10 representative transhumance systems across both cases, while all other pastures will be mapped spatially only. Four pastures, two per village, in Fındıklı in Turkiye are selected as a sample, along with other features of transhumance systems. Six pastures, three per village in Naryn in Krygyzstan, are selected to represent the seasonal variation of the transhumance systems.  

Phase 1

Phase 1 begins with a systematic literature review of the impacts of climate change on transhumance systems across Turkic regions, focusing on mobility, biodiversity, and cultural heritage. These insights will be integrated with satellite datasets to generate baseline GIS layers (land-use changes, biodiversity, and climate data) for both cases.

Phase 2

Phase 2 involves approximately 10 weeks of ethnographic fieldwork across the cases of Fındıklı and Naryn to capture the full seasonal cycle of transhumance systems. A total of 90 semi-structured interviews will be conducted in total (45 per region) or until saturation is reached with diverse stakeholders, including pastoral communities, herders, farmers, elders, women, municipality staff, and NGOs. GPS data on pastures will be collected where available from municipal sources. The multimedia sources (interviews, photographs, workshops) will support spatial documentation and identify site-specific challenges, vulnerabilities, and resilient features. All qualitative data will be transcribed, translated, coded, and thematically analyzed.

Phase 3

Phase 3 synthesizes all project data into a multilingual, publicly accessible Digital Interactive Atlas, integrating GIS layers of transhumance systems (routes, pastures, biodiversity, vernacular settlements, shelters, rest stops, and intangible living heritage (festivals, traditions, local knowledge, and nomadic life), land use changes (1980s–present), multimedia sources, and climate risk and resilience indicators. Iterative testing will be conducted through an online workshop, “Testing the Co-Created Atlas of Transhumance Heritage,” with community representatives, local authorities, and a local translator.

Deliverables of the first phase include a systematic literature review, preliminary GIS datasets, a
conceptual framework, and an introductory blog post on Leiden University's website.

Deliverables of the second phase include georeferenced overlays of historical and contemporary maps, the integration of ethnographic and climatic data into spatial datasets, and the drafting of articles.

Deliverables of the third phase include the Digital Interactive Atlas, three peer-reviewed journal articles, including a cross-regional resilience typology, two conference presentations, a policy brief, and a lecture at the University of Central Asia.

There will be an application for funds to support the sustainability of the digital atlas.