Livestock and Biodiversity: taking on crosscutting issues

Montague W. Demment

Global Livestock CRSP

University of California, Davis

Livestock grazing is the number one anthropogenic use of the land. Livestock graze almost all ecosystems but are most prolific in the arid and semiarid regions of the world. Increasing human and livestock populations, coupled with expanding crop agriculture mean that pastoralists and agro-pastoralists are having an greater impact on the natural resource base and intensifying interactions with conservation efforts.

The GL-CRSP has made the interaction between livestock and environment, including biodiversity, a one of 4 major themes of it program. This theme has been supported by a series of projects that have direct impact and indirect impact on biodiversity. In Central Asia we have two projects that address issue indirectly related to biodiversity. The first, now completed, developed a system and capacity for Kazakhstan, in collaboration with USDA/ARS and USGS/ EROS, to measure carbon flux by satellite monitoring. This system formed the basis for a World Bank GEF project that is now on going. Second, in Mongolia we have adapted a Livestock Early Warning System (LEWS) originally developed for East Africa, to conditions in Mongolia to increase herders marketing efficiency and decrease over grazing. In East Africa, the GL-CRSP has supported work with direct focus on biodiversity. A project in the Serengeti and Mara ecosystems studied the interaction between pastoralists and national parks and conservation areas through the development of models that predict animal movement and address policy decisions that affect pastoral peoples as well as the landscape. With Egerton University we have a major effort to build the capacity of the university and the local stakeholders to manage a watershed that is the major water source for Lake Nakuru National Park. The GL-CRSP has also been working to develop a project that links Serengeti and Yellowstone National parks. In Latin America we have supported a project that directly addresses the role of livestock grazing in watersheds that encompass the high altitude forest of very high biodiversity.

While the interaction of agriculture, including livestock grazing, with natural resources, including biodiversity is one of the most important issues of developing countries, our academic and donor institutions have limited capacity to address these crosscutting issues. The team concept that USAID has developed appears to be one that has potential to cut across institutional barriers and make a contribution in this area. The CRSPs are well positioned to have major roles in the USAID team concept that would both assist the Agency and integrated better the CRSP portfolio.