Rangeland Management and Livestock Ecology

Rangelands — grasslands, shrublands, and savannas that support grazing livestock — cover roughly half the Earth's land surface and sustain the livelihoods of hundreds of millions of pastoralists worldwide, yet decades of overuse, drought, and shifting land tenure have left large portions of them degraded and less productive. Researchers working at the intersection of ecology, policy, and human geography try to understand how vegetation loss, soil erosion, and climate variability combine to undermine both ecosystem function and the communities that depend on it, while documenting the sophisticated land-use knowledge that pastoral peoples have developed over generations. A central challenge is translating that local ecological knowledge into governance frameworks and monitoring systems that can actually slow or reverse degradation at scale. Open questions remain around how pastoral systems can adapt to accelerating climate change without sacrificing the flexibility — seasonal movement, communal tenure, herd diversification — that has historically made them resilient.

Works

96,437

Total citations

729,227

Keywords

Rangeland DegradationPastoralistsLivelihoodsEcological KnowledgeClimate ChangeSustainability