[CANCUN, MEXICO] Pastoralism—extensive livestock
production in the rangelands—provides enormous benefits to humanity and should
be supported as a key element of the global transition to a green economy,
according to a new report released March 9 by the United Nations Environment
Programme (UNEP) and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
Released at the 3rd Scientific
Conference of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD)
in Cancun, Pastoralism and the Green Economy – a Natural Nexus?, highlights
pastoralism’s role in safeguarding natural capital across a quarter of the
world’s land area.
The report finds that sustainable
pastoralism on rangeland ecosystems—such as desert grasslands, woodlands and
steppes—maintains soil fertility and soil carbon and contributes to water
regulation and biodiversity conservation. It also provides other goods such as
high-value food products.
Pastoralism is practiced by up to
half a billion people across the globe. Despite its clear benefits, decades of
underinvestment have eroded the lifestyle in many developing countries.
Reversing this decline and realizing pastoralism’s full green economy potential
will require leadership and the establishment of a global development framework
for sustainable pastoralism, the report says.
“As our world becomes
increasingly mechanized and industrialized in the pursuit of progress, it is
easy to forget that there is much to be learned from traditional ways of life
such as pastoralism,” said UN Under-Secretary-General and UNEP Executive
Director Achim Steiner. “Yet half a billion pastoralists across the world are
struggling to maintain a way of life that is far more consistent with green
economy goals than many of our modern methods of rearing livestock.”
“As developing economies grow and
middle classes flourish, the demand for animal protein is only set to expand,”
he added. “With smart, targeted policies, a revitalized attention to
pastoralism can play a significant role in fulfilling this demand whilst
protecting rangeland biodiversity and ecosystem services and reducing
greenhouse gases emitted to the atmosphere.”
Carbon sequestration provides
just one example of how pastoralism can support the green economy. Grazing
lands cover five billion hectares worldwide and sequester between 200-500kg of
carbon per hectare per year, playing a leading role in climate change
mitigation. Up to 70 per cent of dryland soil carbon can be lost through conversion
to agricultural use.
There is evidence that effective
animal grazing by pastoralists promotes the biodiversity and biomass production
needed to maintain these carbon stores. Improved grazing management could in
fact sequester 409 million tonnes of CO2, or around 9.8 per cent of
anthropogenic carbon emissions, the report says.
“Biodiversity, including grasses,
herbs and shrubs, is the basic productive resource of pastoralism,” said
Jonathan Davies, Coordinator of IUCN’s Global Drylands Initiative. “When
pastoralism is practiced efficiently, it conserves biodiversity and rangeland
environments, providing a wide range of benefits to humanity.”
Evidence can be found across the
globe. For example, in Spain the seasonal movement of pastoralists and their
herds along traditional migration corridors supports habitat connectivity and
biodiversity through the transport of seeds and insects by sheep.
In Australia, short livestock
grazing by pastoralists on invasive grass species has been found to be of
critical importance to conserving populations of the Bridled Nailtail Wallaby –
a species endemic to Australia, listed as Endangered on the IUCN Red List of
Threatened Species.
“Pastoralism makes intensive use
of available natural, human and social capital to produce an array of economic,
environmental and social goods and services,” said Dr Davies. “Capitalizing on
these benefits requires a change in investment paradigms, moving away from
intensifying the production of individual commodities and towards optimizing
the production of a wide range of goods.”
Policies, public services and
investments have to be tailored to support this shift and ensure that the full
range of benefits offered by pastoralism is secured, the report says.
The report issues a series of
recommendations that would bolster sustainable pastoralism, through actions in
areas such as improved governance, greater engagement of pastoralist
communities and increased access to markets.
Recommendations
- Establish a global development framework for sustainable pastoralism
This framework should reinforce
existing international commitments, address sub-national development
disparities, and respond to the current under-representation of pastoralism in
the global discourse, whilst protecting against harmful investments, such as
land grabbing for biofuel production.
- Connect pastoralists to domestic and international livestock markets
Policies and investments are
needed to connect pastoralists to markets. Greater investment is needed in
local-level processing and value addition, both to improve local revenue
capture and to provide employment opportunities in pastoral areas.
- Capitalize on the environmental benefits of pastoralism and expand green niche markets
Genetically diverse livestock
raised on natural rangelands produce goods that cannot be replicated by
intensive production systems. Growing consumer demand for such goods has
created niche marketing opportunities that can be capitalized upon.
- Strengthen property rights and governance over rangeland resources
Rights and governance over
rangeland resources should be strengthened through capacity building and
awareness-raising for better application of national laws, building
institutions for natural resource management, and empowering pastoralists
through knowledge sharing and respect for Free, Prior and Informed Consent.
- Integrate pastoralists into the development mainstream
Pastoralists should be integrated
into the development mainstream by improving representation in decision making
and promoting innovation in the provision of basic services—including
education, health, communications, safe water, and renewable energy.
