Pasture use of mobile pastoralists in Azerbaijan under institutional economic farm economic and ecological aspects Beweidung Betriebsanalyse Institutionenökonomie Degradation Aserbaidschan sozial ökologische Systeme mobile Tierhaltung Allmenderessourcen Fallstudie Social ecological systems mobile pastoralists common pool resources case study Against the background of post socialist transition and nationwide economic growth in Azerbaijan this dissertation analyses the utilisation of rangeland resources by mobile pastoralists in Azerbaijan. The study was motivated by the initially scarce knowledge about pastoralism in Azerbaijan and concerns about declining pasture condition due to growing livestock numbers. The study was guided by three research objectives which were addressed cumulatively in five publications. The first objective aims at analysing the development of pastoralism in the transition period in comparison to developments in the pastoral sectors of other post socialist countries. Secondly the study addresses socio economic causes of inappropriate pasture management by pastoralists. Finally in an application oriented research process recommendations for improving the management of pastoral farms and pasture governance were developed in order to mitigate inappropriate pasture management. For addressing these objectives the study frames the management of rangelands as a complex natural resource management system in which the environment users governance structures and the socio political context are closely linked. Within this framework the study focused especially on pastoral farms using a farm economics approach and on pasture governance with employing institutional economic theories. Regarding the methodology a case study approach in four study regions was chosen in order to deal with the ...