The conservation of grasslands and rangeland by pastoralists: challenges and opportunities

摘要

Pastoralists worldwide keep more than two dozen uniquely adapted livestock species on some 30.0 million km2 of the world land area ( Steinfeld et al., 1997 ).The grasslands / rangelands are the base for sustainable livestock production systems and livelihoods of pastoralists ( FAO, 2007a ; FAO, 2007b).Most of them conserve their rangelands / grasslands through mobility, selective grazing, mixed herds, protection, nutrients recycling ( Delgado et al., 1999 ) and maintenance (FAO, 2007a), continual selection and culling of livestock ; and harvesting various rangeland resources in a sustainable socio‐ economic‐cum‐ecological approach.