Below is the Executive Summary from the FAO report entitled Review of evidence on drylands pastoral systems and climate change -Implications and opportunities for mitigation and adaptation. It is an interesting read for grazing livestock producers. The full report can be downloaded at:
ftp://ftp.fao.org/docrep/fao/012/i1135e/i1135e00.pdf.
Climate change and variability are long-term environmental issues and pose serious threats to vulnerable and impoverished people worldwide. In this context, governments, the scientific community, development organizations and the private sector increasingly recognize that drylands, grasslands and rangelands deserve greater attention, not only for their large extent, widespread degradation and limited resilience to drought and desertification, but also for their potential capacity to sequester and store carbon in soils while supporting sustainable pastoral and agropastoral livelihoods for millions of people.and their adaptation capacity. These opportunities can be realized only with targeted capacity building and effective incentives for improved management of these fragile ecosystems, backed up by pro-poor livestock policies, integrated processes that address natural and social dimensions, and funding mechanisms that enable multi-stakeholder engagement.
Soils represent the earth’s largest carbon sink that can be controlled and improved – larger even than forests. In addition, grassland management has been cited as the second most important agricultural technology available for climate change mitigation. This review argues that livestock and pastoral systems have a major role to play in climate change mitigation and, importantly, in supporting adaptation and reducing vulnerability.
Pastoral systems occupy two thirds of global dryland areas, host a large share of the world’s poor and have a higher rate of desertification than other land uses. Livestock production is also a growing sector. It is estimated that 1 billion people depend on livestock, and livestock serves as at least a partial source of income and food security for 70 percent of the world’s 880 million rural poor who live on less than USD 1.00 per day.
Degradation of the land base negatively affects the accumulation of carbon in the soils. Thus, reversing land degradation in extensive dryland areas through improved pasture and rangeland management would contribute to restoring the soil carbon sink while also improving livestock-based livelihoods.
The review also highlights the potential for soil carbon sequestration in dryland grazing areas and the multiple benefits of enhancing ecosystem services and processes for improving livelihoods while contributing to adaptation to climate change impacts. Realizing this potential will require increased awareness and coordinated global efforts. Arrangements to bring about climate change mitigation in drylands that simultaneously contribute to climate change adaptation should be a key area of focus in post-Kyoto mechanisms. Such win-win arrangements that successfully achieve both mitigation and adaptation benefits need to be implemented alongside interventions that address associated socio-political and economic barriers, such as land tenure constraints and inadequate services for, and political marginalization of, pastoral and agropastoral communities.
In conclusion, the review finds that there is significant potential for mitigating climate change through improved management of grazing lands in drylands, and emphasizes the concurrent opportunity to enhance the livelihoods of pastoral and agropastoral peoples.