1.1.3 Rangeland valorisation by grazing livestock: challenges
and difficulties around the pasturelands
The article "The Tragedy of the Commons", written by Garret
Hardin in 1968, provided a theoretical framework in a speech already
experienced by politicians, academics and actors of development. This theory
stresses in a Malthusian manner, economical irrationality of pastoralism. This
is considered as a struggle for resources and environmental pillage. Argument
is that there is no interest for a farmer to limit the growth of its herd on
common pasturelands where other farmers could do in his place. Many countries
have policies of sedentarisation that derive as much from political
considerations as a concern for the welfare of those they wish to settle.
However, national governments are often hostile to pastoralists.
1.1.3.1 Biophysical
threats to pastoral land
Pastoralists recognize the need to balance productivity
increases and station performance with natural resource condition. This
involves knowledge of pasture types, understanding stock distribution and
grazing patterns, managing stocking rates based on land capability and pasture
production, and knowing the stocking thresholds before damage occurs.
Pastoralists work with variable weather on a day-to-day basis. However, climate
change is likely to pose a long-term challenge for the pastoral sector
(Robertson, 2002). Hence, the pastoral resources are heterogeneous and
dispersed in space (fragmented), related to the seasons (temporary), different
now and then (variables) liable to irregular climate (unpredictable). Globally,
net productivity of rangelands is low; populations of animals and plants they
can support are unpredictable. These biophysical factors affect the spatial
heterogeneity and temporal variability of resources. Access to different
«grazable» ecosystems in the same region allows consumption of
resources between complementary ecological habitats and is therefore vital to
ensure continued livestock's productivity (Nori, 2006; Garde, 2007).
1.1.3.2 Stock farming,
biodiversity, product's quality and ecosystem services
Despite the absence of absolute scientific justification, the
biodiversity preservation has become a major concern of society (Bornard
and al., 2004). Management of biodiversity is a major issue for farms.
It is increasingly regarded not only as a result of the plots' management, but
also vis-à-vis of the services it provides to the husbandry activity
(Clergue and al., 2005): quality of products, nutritive value of
fodder, grasslands adaptability utilisation, etc. Its preservation is now
explicitly taken into account in attribution of the new Agro-Environmental
Grazier Subsidy (AEGS 2). In grazier systems, more and more works are examining
the services rendered to the livestock by biodiversity, both at the level of
the plot than that of whole farm (Swift and al., 2004). The grazing
action of herbivorous on the structure and biodiversity of the grassland is
mostly linked to their consumption. By selecting species most palatable,
animals exert different defoliation's pressure on species, which may threaten
the survival of some. However, they also restrict the development of very
competitive species for light and nutrients, allowing the coexistence of a
greater number of species. By their trampling, they also give a structure to
plant communities by creating openings that can be settled by new species.
Finally, they play a role in seed scattering of certain species (Fischer
and al., 1996).
Norwegian lambs are normally slaughtered directly after having
been gathered from unimproved mountain pastures and the meat is therefore
considered almost as an organic product. Many consumers also believe that lambs
from certain areas are superior to other types of lambs' meat. In the mountains
sheep and lambs consume a variety of grasses, herbs, and browse. As snow melts
during summer, fresh, nutritive, and non-contaminated pasture becomes
available. Lambs in the mountains may walk long distances and body conformation
might be different from those of lambs confined to paddocks in the lowlands. It
is not known if the factors mentioned affect meat quality and flavour.
Experiments undertaken in Australia, Iceland, Greece, Italy, New Zealand, and
UK have documented small, but significant effects of pasture type and
supplementation on quality, including flavour of lambs' meat (T. Adnoy and
al., 2005). The nature of fodder could intervene directly on product's
quality through molecules present in aromatic plants (terpenes,
sesquiterpenes), found in cheese (Viallon and al. 1999).
It is important to protect the natural assets in the pastoral
rangelands in order to maintain key ecosystem services, such as soil and
vegetation health, habitat provision, water capture and filtration, carbon
sequestration, landscapes... Inadequate protection of these ecosystem services
will not support productive pastoralism (Robertson, 2002).
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