Subsidizing land degradation
Sun, 10/09/2011 - 15:45 — De-Registered User
Encouraging land degradation in pastoralist systems
Birgit Müller found that governmental subsidies promote the increase of stocking rate and grazing pressure of natural grassland of the High Plateau of Morocco. This policy creates land degradation and social conflicts. By using a ecological-economic model she assessed an alternative for range management: supplementation should use strategically on periods of scarce forage, but not as a way to increase animal stock. Then, after a year of drought, resting time for the recovering of the grassland should be applied. This strategic use of supplementation could avoid destocking (keep herbs size), and economical constrains for farmers and also keep the productivity and good condition of natural grasslands.
Cropping for caring land and avoiding social conflicts
Another strategy for the Jordan’s arid Badia region was presented by Steven Woods.
In the arid Badia of Jordan livestock is the exclusive income source. However, there is not a clear care for land neither for pastures and clearly vegetation is not enough for feeding the amount of animals. “Barley crops can be use as forage banks, providing residues for grazing (extra income) and increasing the cover in rangelands”. Government has the control of water points, but a lack of intervention for land use policy and technical solution encouragement is needed.
Predicting land changes by modelling Accessibility
Salonen define marginalizing as a lack of access. In the Peruvian Amazonia accessibility is driven the pattern of land use in urban and rural areas. Measuring accessibility not only as Euclidian distance but also as demand of time to get urban centres and product markets, are powerful predictors of land use change in the Amazon lowlands. Salonen et al. (2011) developed a quantitative model for describing spatial variation of accessibility in the north-eastern Peruvian Amazonia and two applied case study where presented in this session. “Human settlements and economics activities are strongly conditioned by seasonal dynamic of water level when the main transportation is by boat”-state Salonen for one example.
Vegetation assessment in Sudan
The assessment of vegetation change in Southern Darfur, Sudan, between 1972 and 2008 was possible combining different satellite imaginaries (Landsat and Aster). In doing so, Masarra Bashir applied the change vector analysis (CVA), a methodology of Kauth-Thomas. Differential response of brightness and greenness for different vegetal cover, as bare soil expansion, reforestation, and deforested areas, allows registering the changes of vegetation along years.
Deforesting through Poverty
The assessment of vegetation change can be important for following socio economic processes. Sunny Reetz found that the improvement of subjective-well being index decreases the deforestation rate in Sulawesi, Indonesia. However, the relationship between initial subjective-well being and deforestation rate is non-linear and become stronger for very poor and rich villages.
Better ecology understanding by Meta-analysis
Aboveground Net Primary Production (ANPP) and Rain Use Efficiency (RUE) are ecological parameters used in many studies around the globe for assessing the impact of domestic livestock on plant production, productivity respectively. However, contradictory results have been reported during the last decades, triggering a big controversy concerning the explanatory power of these parameters and their usability in ecological modeling. Jan Ruppert is conducting a meta-analysis of long-term experiments and monitoring studies concerned with ANPP and RUE. “These parameters show non-linear relationships along precipitation gradients”. Maximum RUE can be found already at 200 mm of annual precipitation and it's magnitude is largely dependent of land use intensity. “Using linear regressions for analyzing these parameter along precipitation gradients - as usually done until now - are an oversimplification of ecological reality”..
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