A participatory sustainable rangeland management toolkit with a holistic and multidisciplinary approach

Panorama solutions on Sustainable Rangeland Management (SRM) toolkit which is tested in North Africa and West Asia (NAWA region), with a specific focus on Tunisia, Jordan and Uzbekistan, and offers a package of holistic and multi-disciplinary tools for addressing the root cause of rangeland degradation. The toolkit will help communities, policy and development actors use key sustainable rangeland management practices at local scale or in context-specific environments expecting to ensure that ecosystem services are used sustainably and reach a level of land degradation neutrality, increase livestock feed (forage) production, enhance ecosystem services

Rangeland Biodiversity and Climate Variability

Rangeland biodiversity related closely with climate variability. Rainfall plays an important role in arid rangeland restoration. Under favorable conditions, one-year grazing exclusion considerably enhanced species richness and evenness diversity compared to longer resting durations under dry to average rainfall conditions. The decision to how long livestock grazing exclusion would last should not be decided upfront as it depends on the climatic and the site-specific conditions

Challenges of the 21st Century: Implications for Sustainable Rangeland Restoration in the Dry Areas

Presentation on the implications of the challenges faced in the 21st century for sustainable rangeland restoration in dry areas. In addition to the limiting and successful factors that affected large-scale rehabilitation efforts. The presentation was performed by Mounir Louhaichi as a guest lecture on Exploring World Agriculture to students at the College of Agricultural Sciences at Oregon State University

How can extensive grazing be beneficial for the restoration of dryland ecosystems?

Presentation on knowledge on the beneficial role of extensive grazing for the restoration of dryland ecosystems. The presentation was performed by Dr. Mounir Louhaich during the FAO-GLF Digital Forum. The digital forum is hosted jointly by the Global Landscapes Forum and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)

Methods to assess factors that influence grass seed yield

A greater than 10-fold increase in Canada goose (Branta canadensis) populations over the past several years has resulted in concerns over grazing impacts on grass seed production in the mid-Willamette Valley, Oregon. This study was designed to develop methods to quantify and statistically analyze goose-grazing impacts on seed yields of tall fescue (Festuca arundinacea Schreb.) and perennial ryegrass (Lolium perenne L.). Yield-mapping-system equipped combines, incorporating global positioning system (GPS) technology, were used to measure and map yields. Image processing of ground-level photography to estimate crop cover and other relevant observations were spatially located via GPS to establish spatial-temporal goose grazing patterns. We sampled each field semi-monthly from mid-winter through spring. Spatially located yield data, soils information, exclosure locations, and grazing patterns were integrated via geographical information system (GIS) technology. To avoid concerns about autocorrelation, a bootstrapping procedure for subsampling spatially contiguous seed yield data was used to organize the data for appropriate use of analysis of variance. The procedure was used to evaluate grazing impacts on seed yield for areas of fields with different soils and with differential timing and intensity of goose grazing activity. We also used a standard paired-plot procedure, involving exclosures and associated plots available for grazing. The combination of spatially explicit photography and yield mapping, integrated with GIS, proved effective in establishing cause-and-effect relationships between goose grazing and seed yield differences. Exclosures were essential for providing nongrazed controls. Both statistical approaches were effective in documenting goose-grazing impacts. Paired-plots were restricted by small size and few numbers and did not capture grazing impacts as effectively as comparison of larger areas to exclosures. Bootstrapping to subsample larger areas of yield for comparison was an effective method of avoiding autocorrelation of data while better representing impacts within a field. Occasional yield increases, ranging from 1 to 5 percent, were recorded following goose grazing. Goose grazing generally resulted in seed yield reductions, ranging up to 20 percent. Later and more intensive grazing tended to increase yield reductions. Newly seeded tall fescue tended to be the most sensitive to grazing. Established perennial ryegrass tended to be more resilient

Cactus ecosystem goods and services

The Cactaceae family includes about 1 600 species native to America but disseminated worldwide. Opuntia is the most widely known genus in this family and O. ficus-indica (L.) Mill. is cultivated in more than 20 countries (Nefzaoui et al., 2014). Cacti are cultivated on 2.6 million ha across the world, and mostly used for forage or fodder: in Tunisia (600 000 ha), Mexico (230 000 ha) and Algeria (150 000 ha) (Nefzaoui and Ben Salem, 2006); in South Africa (525 000 ha) and Ethiopia (355 000 ha) (Reveles Hernández et al., 2010); in Brazil (> 600 000 ha) (Torres Sales, 2010); and in southern Morocco (90 000 ha) (Anegay and Boutoba, 2010). In Argentina, the cultivated area of cactus is estimated at 10 000 ha for forage and fruit production, with syrup as a secondary product (Dubeux et al., 2013); the area cultivated with Opuntia solely for fruit production was 2 000 ha in 2003 (Ochoa, 2006).Fil: Louhaichi, Mounir. International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas; JordaniaFil: Nefzaoui, Ali. International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas; TúnezFil: Guevara, Juan Carlos. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Mendoza. Instituto Argentino de Investigaciones de las Zonas Áridas. Provincia de Mendoza. Instituto Argentino de Investigaciones de las Zonas Áridas. Universidad Nacional de Cuyo. Instituto Argentino de Investigaciones de las Zonas Áridas; Argentin

A Scalable and Participatory Sustainable Rangeland Management Toolkit with a Holistic and Multidisciplinary Approach to Rehabilitate Degraded Rangelands

Rangelands contribute significantly toward improving livelihoods, offering food security, trade and tourism for pastoral communities. Numerous challenges include poor government policies, loss of indigenous knowledge and top-down approaches toward sustainable rangeland rehabilitation that often fail to consider local development adoption and sustainability. In such situations, effective management is needed for sustainable rangeland ecosystem goods and services in a context characterized by rainfall unreliability, poor soil nutrient status and high uncontrolled grazing. This paper presents a new comprehensive toolkit for identifying and combining suitable and site-specific interventions aimed at reversing the trend of degraded arid rangelands. This toolbox is founded on science-based evidence and experienced practitioners. For severely degraded arid rangelands, the preference of applying an isolated technology may be insufficient to halt degradation. Through targeting a landscape scale that uses an integrated and multidisciplinary approach, this promising tool/approach aims to address the biophysical and socioeconomic linkages and trade-offs existing between the different land uses. The approach highlights the important role of rangeland governance. It also underscores the need to base decision-making on both indigenous knowledge and modern science, in order to empower communities to make good choices based on the best information available