Wilder rangelands as a natural climate opportunity: Linking climate action to biodiversity conservation and social transformation

Rangelands face threats from climate and land-use change, including inappropriate climate change mitigation initiatives such as tree planting in grassy ecosystems. The marginalization and impoverishment of rangeland communities and their indigenous knowledge systems, and the loss of biodiversity and ecosystem services, are additional major challenges. To address these issues, we propose the wilder rangelands integrated framework, co-developed by South African and European scientists from diverse disciplines, as an opportunity to address the climate, livelihood, and biodiversity challenges in the world's rangelands. More specifically, we present a Theory of Change to guide the design, monitoring, and evaluation of wilder rangelands. Through this, we aim to promote rangeland restoration, where local communities collaborate with regional and international actors to co-create new rangeland use models that simultaneously mitigate the impacts of climate change, restore biodiversity, and improve both ecosystem functioning and livelihoods.

Evolution of pastoral livestock farming on arid rangelands in the last 15 years

Livestock farming in arid rangelands constitutes a key component in the agricultural sector, particularly in developing countries. Farms have rapidly changed in recent decades, which has resulted in the modification of their structure, management and economic performance. Nowadays, livestock production in arid rangelands is threatened by climate change, coupled with the impact of complex interactions among social, economic and political factors. The present study analyses the main changes that have occurred on farms in the arid rangelands of south Tunisia from 2004 to 2019 and discusses the factors that explain the geographical patterns of such changes. Data were collected through face-to-face questionnaires with 73 farmers in two years (2004 and 2019). Information included farm structure and management, resources use and economic performance. Multivariate statistical methods analysed the differences in farm typologies between dates and the different pathways of change. Results showed that most farms increased herd size and cereal area for feeding the sheep, and reduced the time spent in rangelands. These changes could be partly explained as a response to decreasing gross margins per livestock unit and the deployment of policies fostering the use of agriculture-based feed resources. Despite these general trends, the variability among pathways of change was wide. Few farms kept using rangelands by focusing on sheep or camel production. Small sheep farms intensified the use of off-farm feeds in the north of the study area, where ecological conditions favoured agriculture. Feed supplementation allowed herd size and animal production to increase, with a substantial risk of susceptibility to market fluctuations. The economic results showed that camel farming combined with small ruminant species can lead to a similar profitability to, or even higher than, large farms that focus solely on sheep and rely on feed supplementation. We conclude that the current situation of livestock farming in arid rangelands remains fragile and their long-term viability is uncertain.

Ranchers or pastoralists? Farm size, specialisation and production strategy amongst cattle farmers in south-eastern Kazakhstan

Against the global trend towards sedentary, specialised and feed-intensive cattle farming, we explore current patterns of production in Kazakhstan’s traditionally nomadic livestock sector. Experts see considerable potential for output expansion, and the government hopes to promote the sector as an alternative to revenues from hydrocarbons. Which production systems emerge will determine the use of the country’s vast pastoral resources, patterns of economic contribution from livestock and future greenhouse gas emissions. We focus on the beef sector, using original survey data and interviews from south-eastern Kazakhstan to compare rural households and farms by production strategy, generated using cluster analysis from data on livestock holdings, fodder provision and grazing. We examine in particular the relationships between farm size and the characteristics identified. We find that, rather than being specialised and intensive, larger farms tend to be highly diversified in terms of stock species, are more mobile and provide fewer supplements per head than smaller farms. Winter pastures appear to be a key resource associated with larger operations. Many large farms provide fodder mainly as low-quality roughage, although a subset with better access to cropland provide higher quality rations and fatten cattle before sale. Medium-sized farms lack either winter pasture bases or cropland for growing supplements, but proximity to markets enables some to compensate through fodder purchases. Inability to access government support, available only to large farms, hampers their expansion. Farmers’ professional background, distance from markets and environmental conditions are all associated with the production systems observed. In terms of policy, high transaction costs associated with leaseholds and lack of transferability between farmers impede access to land. Current pasture access mechanisms and institutions almost entirely exclude small farms and households. Changes in these systems, combined with infrastructure development, may bring economic, social and environmental benefits for the livestock sector and rural communities.