Intensive land exploitation, urbanisation and extreme weather events are putting at risk pastures that make up one sixth of global food supply and a tool for tackling the climate crisis.
50 per cent of the world's pastures are degraded, and this poses a threat to humanity's food supply, to the survival and wellbeing of two billion people, and to the climate: so states the thematic report Global Land Outlook on pastures and pastoralists, launched in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, by the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (Unccd).
Pastures encompass natural grasslands, but also savannahs, shrublands, wetlands, tundra and deserts used by livestock and wild animals for grazing and foraging: these lands make up 54 per cent of the entire land surface, represent one sixth of global food production and almost one third of the planet's carbon dioxide store. In many West African states, for example, livestock production employs 80 per cent of the population, while in Central Asia 60 per cent of the land surface is used as pasture, and livestock farming supports almost one third of the population.
Pastures are threatened by their conversion into arable land, by urbanisation, overexploitation, climate change, conflict, and the abandonment by pastoralists who find themselves without incentives or support. The degradation of pastures leads to declining soil fertility and nutrient loss, erosion, salinisation, alkalinisation and soil compaction, which inhibit plant growth, contributing to drought, rainfall fluctuations and the loss of biodiversity both above and below ground.
Among the most severely affected areas of the world are Central Asia, China, Mongolia, North Africa and the Near East, the Sahel and West Africa, and South America, but the problem also affects North America, Europe, South Africa and Australia. The paradox, as the report highlights, is that efforts aimed at increasing food security and productivity by converting pastures to agricultural production in predominantly arid regions have led to land degradation and lower agricultural yields.
"The conversion of ancient pastures happens silently and generates little public reaction," said Unccd Executive Secretary Ibrahim Thiaw. "Despite numbering around half a billion individuals worldwide, pastoral communities are often overlooked, have no say in the policy-making processes that directly affect their livelihoods, are marginalised and, frequently, considered outsiders in their own lands."
The report denounces weak and ineffective governance and a lack of investment in pastures which, combined with poor knowledge and a lack of data on these realities, undermines the sustainable management of their immense value in food supply and climate regulation.
From the tropics to the Arctic, the report underlines the need to protect pastoralism, an ancient nomadic way of life based on herding sheep, goats, cattle, horses, camels, yaks and llamas, as well as bison and reindeer. To achieve this, it proposes a range of strategies, from integrating climate change mitigation and adaptation practices with sustainable pasture management plans to increase CO2 sequestration and storage while simultaneously building the resilience of pastoral and pasture communities, to promoting supportive policies and management systems to enhance the services that pastures and pastoralists provide to society as a whole.