Land degradation in the Fitzroy Valley of Western Australia

The report reassesses the condition of formerly valuable grazing lands of the Fitzroy River valley frontage lands. It is hoped that the submission will promote discussion on the problems of degenerated pastoral land and increase the resolve of all concerned to take the necessary action for their restoration. The frontage lands flank the major rivers of the area, the Fitzroy, the Margaret and the Meda and their tributaries. The frontage is capable of supporting the best pastures in the Kimberley, but unwise and uncontrolled stocking has profoundly degraded and eroded the most productive parts. There are about 5,800 square kilometres of frontage country in the West Kimberley. Studies by CSIRO and by Western Australian government departments have shown that about 1,300 square kilometres of the frontage are in bad range condition with moderate or severe erosion. Although the degradation has been known to exist for many years, there have been no sustained attempts to overcome it or to restore the land to its former productive status. A collection of twenty-two plates in this report shows that the country has not improved over the past eight years and has deteriorated even further in some places. It is suggested that frontage country can be rehabilitated if the proper measures are taken. If action is not taken the situation can only worsen. The frontage country has the potential to support about 60,000 cattle units, but today it is estimated that 26,000 only can be carried. This represents a loss in turn-off of about 6,000 cattle a year worth well over one million dollars annually. The work of rehabilitation will involve fencing and stock control and the ploughing and reseeding of the degraded country

Rainfall or Price Variability: What Determines Rangeland Management Decisions? A Simulation-Optimization Approach to South African Savannas

Savannas cover the greater part of Africa and Australia and almost half of South America and contribute to the livelihoods of more than 350 million people. With the intensification of land use during the second half of the 20th century, savannas have become increasingly degraded through bush encroachment as a consequence of increased grazing pressure. Research on rangeland dynamics, however, provides contradicting answers with regard to the causes and possible remedies of bush encroachment. In this paper we present results from an application of a simulation-optimization model to the case of extensive rangeland management in South Africa. Our model differs from previous approaches in that it explicitly accounts for the influence of stochastic prices and rainfall on economically optimal management decisions. By showing the implications of neglecting price variation and stochasticity in rangeland models we provide new insights with regard to the determinants of bush encroachment and rangeland managers' economic utility. We demonstrate that, in the case of South Africa, optimal rangeland management is likely to lead to bush encroachment that eventually makes livestock holding unprofitable. Yet, we identify the costs of fire management to be a limiting factor for managers to counteract bush encroachment and explore the impact of policy measures to reduce fire control costs on the ecological and economic sustainability of livestock holding.Equilibrium, bio-economic modeling, grassland management, sustainable strategies, stochastic conditions, Livestock Production/Industries, Q57,

International conference on policy and institutional options for the management of rangelands in dry areas: workshop summary paper

"The System-wide Program for Collective Action and Property Rights (CAPRi) sponsored an International Conference on Policy and Institutional Options for the Management of Rangelands in Dry Areas, May 7-11, 2001 in Hammamet, Tunisia. The conference focused on institutional aspects of rangeland management and brought together policy makers and researchers from North Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa and West Asia to discuss sustainable rangeland production strategies and livelihood of pastoral communities in dry areas. This conference summary paper contains summaries of the CAPRi sponsored research findings on institutional options for rangeland, policy makers' interventions and reactions as well as the synthesis of discussion groups. These working groups evaluated outcomes of policies and institutions guiding rangeland management in terms of their impact on livelihoods and environmental sustainability, and explored alternative policies and institutional strategies in light of their capacity to reduce poverty and enhance food security. " Author's AbstractDry areas, Rangelands, Pastoralism, Livelihoods, Environmental sustainability, Poverty reduction, food security, natural resources management, Collective action, case studies, Institutions, Property rights, Capacity,

Invasive Weeds, Wildfire, and Rancher Decision Making in the Great Basin

A numerical dynamic model is developed to characterize the decision problem of a rancher operating on rangelands in northern Nevada that are affected by invasive annual grasses and wildfire. The model incorporates decisions about herd size management of a cow-calf operation and fuels treatment to reduce the size of rangeland wildfires. Currently, high transactions costs to obtain permits to implement land treatments on federally-owned rangeland appear to limit rancher involvement. The results of the model suggest that, even if the transactions are removed, ranch income motives alone are likely insufficient for private ranchers to adopt preventative land treatments. The current treatment cost ($20 per acre at the minimum) appears to be prohibitively expensive relative to the benefits derived from the treatments under the low-productivity, semi-arid rangeland conditions.Rangeland management; Stochastic dynamic programming; Ranching; Wildfire; Invasive grasses; Rangeland ecosystem benefits; Cow-calf operation

Building Sustainable Rangeland Management Systems through a One System Innovative Approach

Working through a collaborative working partnership between the USAID Feed the Future Resilience in Pastoralist Areas (RiPA)1 program and Land Governance Activity (LGA)2 and selected technical partners, these new rangeland programs aim to build on significant breakthrough successes in rangeland management from their previous lowland programs3. These new lowlands pastoralist development programs have been purposely positioned by USAID to coordinate, collaborate and combine working activities focused on the continued improvement and strengthening of rangeland management systems in the lowlands of Ethiopia. In light of this positioning, it is proposed that the programs work together to build a comprehensive sustainable rangeland management system. This can be achieved by adopting a One System innovative approach, through the combining of existing institutional knowledge, skills, tools and approaches, to create a hybrid Sustainable Rangeland Management system. This will be done by the programs combining and merging the different rangeland management tools and approaches that have been developing to date. It is also recommended that the work draws on other rangeland management approaches that will compliment, further strengthen and make complete, a comprehensive sustainable rangeland management system

A DYNAMIC AND STOCHASTIC PERSPECTIVE ON THE ROLE OF TIME IN RANGE MANAGEMENT

This chapter uses a new ecological-economic approach to analyze the role of time in range management in a dynamic and stochastic setting. We first construct a theoretical model of a parcel of rangeland in which time restrictions are used to manage the land. We then show how the dynamic and the stochastic properties of this rangeland can be used to construct two managerial objectives that are ecologically and economically meaningful. Finally, using these two objectives, we discuss an approach to range management in which the manager has two interrelated goals. This manager maximizes the profits from range operations and (s)he also takes steps to move the rangeland away from the least desirable state of existence.Land Economics/Use, Research Methods/ Statistical Methods,

Rangeland Degradation in Mongolia – Using State and Transition Models to Help Understand Rangeland Dynamics

Rangeland degradation and soil erosion pose constant challenges to the management of natural resources in Mongolia. Large increases in livestock numbers since the early 1990s, together with increasing temperatures and higher frequency of extreme weather events have led to widespread degradation of rangeland resources, to the extent that today, nearly 57% of rangelands in Mongolia are considered degraded to some degree. New ways of understanding the dynamics of rangeland ecosystems and guidelines to conserve healthy and productive rangelands are urgently needed. The application of State and Transition Models (STMs) in ecosystem management has shown promise to understand the mechanistic processes behind rangeland degradation and to suggest appropriate interventions for maintaining the health or restoring degraded rangelands. The Green Gold-Animal Health project funded by the Swiss Development Agency in Mongolia was the first initiative aimed at developing and applying STMs to Mongolian rangeland management. Here we describe the development of STMs for the most common rangeland types in Mongolia, including the definition of reference and alternative rangeland states and “recovery classes”, based on the timelines and management actions needed to recover a reference state. Our results show that STMs are effective tools for analysing and interpreting rangeland health monitoring data and provide a scientific basis for planning and implementing resilience-based rangeland management. Furthermore, STMs facilitate synthesis of available knowledge and help identify areas where more information is needed. In summary, STMs have the potential to serve as a valuable tool for better communication of rangeland health assessments and decision making to facilitate appropriate management

Pitfalls and potential of institutional change: Rain-index insurance and the sustainability of rangeland management

Rain-index insurance is strongly advocated in many parts of the developing world to help farmers to cope with climatic risk that prevail in (semi-)arid rangelands due to low and highly uncertain rainfall. We present a modeling analysis of how the availability of rain-index insurance affects the sustainability of rangeland management. We show that a rain-index insurance with frequent payos, i.e. a high strike level, leads to the choice of less sustainable grazing management than without insurance available. However, a rain-index insurance with a low to medium strike level enhances the farmer's well-being while not impairing the sustainability of rangeland management.ecological-economic modeling, weather-index insurance, Namibia, grazing management, risk, sustainability, weather-based derivatives

Participatory rangeland management planning and its implementation in Ethiopia

The pastoral and agro-pastoral areas of Ethiopia cover around 65% of the country’s surface area. Rangeland resources are managed under collective common property arrangements, which are increasingly coming under pressure from both internal and external forces of change including alternative, but not necessarily ‘appropriate’, land uses. Thus it has become imperative to more formally recognise and protect customary rangeland management institutions and arrangements, bearing in mind that there may be a need for some adaptation to current and future socio-economic, environmental and political contexts. In response, a process of participatory rangeland management (PRM) has been developed, both to improve the management of rangeland resources and their security of access for local rangeland users. The USAID-funded PRIME project has played a key role in this development, up-scaling the approach across pastoral areas in Oromia, Afar and Somali regional states. This paper describes the experience of PRIME with PRM, the challenges faced and opportunities arising. It concludes by discussing the relevance of PRM as an approach for improving the management of and security of access to rangeland resources in Ethiopia, and beyond