Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-wq484 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-27T20:12:52.761Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

15 - Landscape Stewardship for Rangelands

from Part II - Landscape Stewardship on the Ground

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 July 2017

By
Lynn Huntsinger  and
Nathan F. Sayre
Edited by
Claudia Bieling  and
Tobias Plieninger
Claudia Bieling
Affiliation:
Universität Hohenheim, Stuttgart
Tobias Plieninger
Affiliation:
University of Copenhagen
Get access

Summary

Grasslands, steppe, tundra, meadows, shrublands and savannas are all considered rangelands. The extensive, semi-natural character of many rangelands makes them a good buffer between preserves and urban areas. Rangelands are usually low in vegetative productivity, or NPP, and vegetation is low in nutrient density. Landscape planning must include consideration of wildlife and livestock mobility, including the travel corridors needed for animals to move between parcels, to carry out annual migrations, or to migrate in response to weather conditions. On most rangelands, the quantity and quality of vegetation production varies widely over space and time. Especially in arid areas, many factors controlling the quality and productivity of rangeland vegetation are abiotic and out of manager control. Planning must maximize flexibility and adaptive capacity. When used for producing livestock, returns per unit area from rangeland grazing are low compared to uses such as crop production and mining, and generally derive from the low cost of husbandry. Consideration of the value of multiple ecosystem services and products is needed to understand the value of rangeland systems. Landscape conservation must be attentive to multiple scales to avoid contradictory effects and undesirable feedbacks. Meaningful involvement of pastoralists in conservation of grazed rangelands is critical.
Type
Chapter
Information
The Science and Practice of Landscape Stewardship , pp. 284 - 305
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2017

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Allen, M. S. & Palmer, M. W. (2011). Fire history of a prairie/forest boundary: more than 250 years of frequent fire in a North American tallgrass prairie. Journal of Vegetation Science, 22, 436–444.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Anderson, R. C. (1990). The historic role of fire in the North American grassland. In: Fire in North American Tallgrass Prairies, Collins, S. L. and Wallace, L. L. (eds.). Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, pp. 8–18.Google Scholar
Behnke, R. (2008). The drivers of fragmentation in arid and semi-arid landscapes. In Fragmentation in Semi-arid and Arid Landscapes: Consequences for Human and Natural Systems, Galvin, K., Reid, R., Behnke, R. & Hobbs, N. (eds.). Dordrecht: Springer, pp. 305–340.Google Scholar
Behnke, R. H., Scoones, I. & Kerven, C. (eds.) (1993). Range Ecology at Disequilibrium: New Models of Natural Variability and Pastoral Adaptation of African Savannas. London: Overseas Development Institute/International Institute for Environment and Development/Commonwealth Secretariat.Google Scholar
Bennett, J. W. (1968). Reciprocal economic exchanges among North American agricultural operators. Southwestern Journal of Anthropology, 24, 276–309.Google Scholar
Bollig, M. & Schwieger, D. A. M. (2014). Fragmentation, cooperation and power: institutional dynamics in natural resource governance in north-western Namibia. Human Ecology, 42, 167–181.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Booker, K., Huntsinger, L., Bartolome, J. W., Sayre, N. F. & Stewart, W. (2013). What can ecological science tell us about opportunities for carbon sequestration on arid rangelands in the United States? Global Environmental Change – Human and Policy Dimensions, 23, 240–251.Google Scholar
Bunce, R. G. H., Pérez-Soba, M., Jongman, R. H. G., Gómez Sal, A., Herzog, F. & Austad, I. (eds.) (2001). Transhumance and Biodiversity in European Mountains, Report of the EU-FP5 Project Transhumount. Wageningen: ALTERRA, Wageningen University and Research Center.Google Scholar
California Rangeland Conservation Coalition (2016). (http://carangeland.org/).Google Scholar
Campos, P., Huntsinger, L., Oviedo, J. L., Starrs, P. F., Díaz, M., Standiford, R. B. & Montero, G. (eds.). (2013). Mediterranean Oak Woodland Working Landscapes: Dehesas of Spain and Ranchlands of California. Dordrecht: Springer Landscape Series, pp. 353–388.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cao, J., Yeh, E. T., Holden, N. M., Yang, Y. & Du, G. (2013). The effects of enclosures and land-use contracts on rangeland degradation on the Qinghai-Tibetan plateau. Journal of Arid Environments, 97, 3–8.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Caparrós, A., Huntsinger, L., Oviedo, J. L., Plieninger, T. & Campos, P. (2013). Economics of ecosystem services, Chapter 12. In Mediterranean Oak Woodland Working Landscapes: Dehesas of Spain and Ranchlands of California, Campos, P., Huntsinger, L., Oviedo, J. L., Starrs, P. F., Díaz, M., Standiford, R. B. & Montero, G. (eds.). Dordrecht: Springer Landscape Series, pp. 353–388.Google Scholar
Chaplin-Kramer, R., Tuxen-Bettman, K. & Kremen, C. (2011). Value of wildland habitat for supplying pollination services to Californian agriculture. Rangelands, 33, 33–41.Google Scholar
Charnley, S., Sheridan, T. E. & Nabhan, G. P. (eds.) (2014). Stitching the West Back Together: Conservation of Working Landscapes. Chicago, MI: University of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clutton-Brock, J. (1989). The Walking Larder: Patterns of Domestication, Pastoralism, and Predation. London/Boston: Unwin Hyman.Google Scholar
Commerford, J. L., Leys, B., Mueller, J. R. & McLauchlan, K. K. (2016). Great Plains vegetation dynamics in response to fire and climatic fluctuations during the Holocene at Fox Lake, Minnesota (USA). Holocene, 26, 302–313.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cumming, D. H. M., Osofsky, S. A., Atkinson, S. J. & Atkinson, M. W. (2015). Beyond fences: Wildlife, livestock and land use in Southern Africa. In One Health: The Theory and Practice of Integrated Health Approaches, Zinsstag, J, Schelling, E., Waltner-Toews, D., Whittaker, M. & Tanner, M.. Wallingford: CABI, pp. 243–257.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ellickson, R. C. (1986). Of coase and cattle: Dispute resolution among neighbors in Shasta County. Stanford Law Review, 38, 623–687.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fan, M. M., Li, W. J., Zhang, C. C. & Li, L. H. (2014). Impacts of nomad sedentarization on social and ecological systems at multiple scales in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, China. Ambio, 43, 673–686.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Fernandez-Gimenez, M. E. (2002). Spatial and social boundaries and the paradox of pastoral land tenure: Case study from postsocialist Mongolia. Human Ecology, 30, 49–78.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fernandez-Gimenez, M. E. & Le Febre, S. (2006). Mobility in pastoral systems: dynamic flux or downward trend? International Journal of Sustainable Development and World Ecology, 13, 341–362.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Folke, C., Hahn, T., Olsson, P. & Norberg, J. (2005). Adaptive governance of social-ecological systems. Annual Review of Environment and Resources, 30, 441–473.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fortmann, L. (2005). What we need is a community Bambi: The perils and possibilities of powerful symbols. In Communities and Conservation: Histories and Politics of Community-Based Natural Resource Management, Brosius, J. P., Lowehaupt Tsing, A. & Zerner, C. (eds.). Walnut Creek, CA: AltaMira Press, pp. 195–205.Google Scholar
Gongbuzeren, Li, Y. & Li, W. (2015). China's rangeland management policy debates: What have we learned? Rangeland Ecology & Management, 68, 305–314.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gripne, S. L. (2005). Grassbanks: Bartering for conservation. Rangelands, 27, 24–28.2.0.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hardin, G. (1968). The tragedy of the commons. Science, 162, 1243–1248.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Havstad, K. M. & Peters, D. P. C. (1999). People and rangeland biodiversity – North America. Proceedings of the Sixth International Rangeland Congress, 2, 634–638.Google Scholar
Hobbs, N. T., Galvin, K. A., Stokes, C. J., Lackett, J. M., Ash, A. J., Boone, R. B., Reid, R. S. & Thornton, P. K. (2008). Fragmentation of rangelands: Implications for humans, animals, and landscapes. Global Environmental Change – Human and Policy Dimensions, 18, 776–785.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Huntsinger, L. (2009). Into the wild: Vegetation, alien plants, and familiar fire at the exurban frontier. In The Planner's Guide to Natural Resource Conservation, Esparza, A. X. & McPherson, G. (eds.). New York, NY: Springer, pp. 133–156.Google Scholar
Huntsinger, L., Forero, L. & Sulak, A. (2010a). Transhumance and pastoralist resilience in the western United States. Pastoralism: Research, Policy, and Practice, 1, 1–15.Google Scholar
Huntsinger, L., Johnson, M., Stafford, M. & Fried, J. (2010b). Hardwood rangeland landowners in California from 1985 to 2004: Production, ecosystem services, and permanence. Rangeland Ecology and Management, 63, 324–334.Google Scholar
Huntsinger, L. & Oviedo, J. L. (2014). Ecosystem services are social-ecological services in a traditional pastoral system: The case of California's Mediterranean rangelands. Ecology and Society, 19, 8. (http://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol19/iss1/art8/).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Huntsinger, L. & Sayre, N. E. (2007). Introduction: The working landscapes special issue. Rangelands, 23, 9–13.Google Scholar
Huntsinger, L., Sayre, N. E. & Macauley, L. (2014). Ranchers, land tenure, and grass-roots governance: maintaining pastoralist use of rangelands in the U.S. in three different settings. In The Governance of Rangelands: Collective Action for Sustainable Pastoralism, Davies, J. (ed.). New York, NY: Routledge, p. 298.Google Scholar
Huntsinger, L., Sayre, N. F. & Wulfhorst, J. D. (2012). Birds, beasts and bovines: Three cases of U.S. pastoralism and wildlife. Pastoralism: Research, Policy, and Practice, 2, 1–28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Huntsinger, L., & Starrs, P. F. (2006). Grazing in arid North America: A biogeographical approach. Secheresse, 17, 219–233.Google Scholar
Kremen, C. & Miles, A. (2012). Ecosystem services in biologically diversified versus conventional farming systems: Benefits, externalities, and trade-offs. Ecology and Society, 17, 40. (http://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol17/iss4/art40/).Google Scholar
Kremen, C., Iles, A. & Bacon, C. (2012). Diversified farming systems: An agroecological, systems-based alternative to modern industrial agriculture. Ecology and Society, 17, 44. (http://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol17/iss4/art44/).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Li, W. J. & Huntsinger, L. (2011). China's grassland contract policy and its impacts on herder ability to benefit in Inner Mongolia: Tragic feedbacks. Ecology and Society, 16, 1. (http://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol16/iss2/art1/main.html).Google Scholar
Li, W. J. & Li, Y. (2012). Managing rangeland as a complex system: How government interventions decouple social systems from ecological systems. Ecology and Society, 17, 9. (http://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol17/iss1/art9/).Google Scholar
Li, W. J., Ali, S. H. & Zhang, Q. (2007). Property rights and grassland degradation: A study of the Xilingol Pasture, Inner Mongolia, China. Journal of Environmental Management, 85, 461–470.Google Scholar
Li, Y., Fan, M. & Li, W. J. (2015). Application of payment for ecosystem services in China's rangeland conservation initiatives: A social-ecological system perspective. Rangeland Journal, 37, 285–296.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Liffmann, R. H., Huntsinger, L. & Forero, L. C. (2000). To ranch or not to ranch: Home on the urban range? Journal of Range Management, 53, 362–370.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Maestas, J. D., Knight, R. L. & Gilgert, W. C. (2003). Biodiversity across a rural land-use gradient. Conservation Biology, 17, 1425–1434.Google Scholar
Malpai Borderlands Group (2016). (http://www.malpaiborderlandsgroup.org/).Google Scholar
McAllister, R. R. J., Gordon, I. J., Janssen, M. A. & Abel, N. (2006). Pastoralists’ responses to variation of rangeland resources in time and space. Ecological Applications, 16, 572–583.Google Scholar
Naudts, K., Chen, Y., McGrath, M. J., Ryder, J., Valade, A., Otto, J. & Luyssaert, S. (2016). Europe's forest management did not mitigate climate warming. Science, 351, 597–600.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Netting, R. M. (1981). Balancing on an Alp: Ecological Change and Continuity in a Swiss Mountain Community. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Niamir-Fuller, M., Kerven, C., Reid, R. & Milner-Gulland, E. (2012). Co-existence of wildlife and pastoralism on extensive rangelands: Competition or compatibility? Pastoralism: Research, Policy and Practice, 2, 1–14.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Oba, G., Stenseth, N. C. & Lusigi, W. J. (2000). New perspectives on sustainable grazing management in arid zones of sub-Saharan Africa. BioScience, 50, 35–51.Google Scholar
Olsson, P., Folke, C. & Berkes, F. (2004). Adaptive comanagement for building resilience in social-ecological systems. Environmental Management, 34, 75–90.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ostrom, E. (1990). Governing the Commons: The Evolution of Institutions for Collective Action. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Ostrom, E., Janssen, M. A. & Anderies, J. M. (2007). Going beyond panaceas. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 104, 15176–15178.Google Scholar
Oteros-Rozas, E., Martín-López, B., López, C. A., González, J. A., Plieninger, T. & Montes, C. (2014). Socio-cultural valuation of ecosystem services in a transhumance social-ecological network. Regional Environmental Change, 14, 1269–1289.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Oviedo, J. L., Huntsinger, L., Campos, P. & Caparros, A. (2012). Income value of private amenities assessed in California oak woodlands. California Agriculture, 66, 91–96.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Porensky, L. M. & Veblen, K. E. (2015). Generation of ecosystem hotspots using short-term cattle corrals in an African savanna. Rangeland Ecology and Management, 68, 131–141.Google Scholar
Reid, R. S., Fernandez-Gimenez, M. E. & Galvin, K. A. (2014). Dynamics and resilience of rangelands and pastoral peoples around the globe. Annual Review of Environment and Resources, 39, 217–242.Google Scholar
Sayre, N. F. (2005). Working Wilderness: The Malpai Borderlands Group and the Future of the Western Range. Tucson, AZ: Rio Nuevo Publishers.Google Scholar
Sayre, N. F. (2008). The genesis, history, and limits of carrying capacity. Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 98, 120–134.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sayre, N. F., Carlisle, L., Huntsinger, L., Fisher, G. & Shattuck, A. (2012). The role of rangelands in diversified farming systems: Innovations, obstacles, and opportunities in the USA. Ecology and Society, 17, 43. (http://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol17/iss4/art43/).Google Scholar
Sayre, N. F., McAllister, R. R. J., Bestelmeyer, B. T., Moritz, M., & Turner, M. D. (2013). Earth stewardship of rangelands: Coping with ecological, economic, and political marginality. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, 11, 348–354.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Seeger, R. & Vecchi, G. A. (2010). Greenhouse warming and the 21st century hydroclimate of southwestern North America. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 107, 21277–21282.Google Scholar
Shannon, G., Thaker, M., Vanak, A. T., Page, B. R., Grant, R. & Slotow, R. (2011). Relative impacts of elephant and fire on large trees in a savanna ecosystem. Ecosystems, 14, 1372–1381.Google Scholar
Smith, A. H. & Martin, W. E. (1972). Socioeconomic behavior of cattle ranchers, with implications for rural community development in the west. American Journal of Agricultural Economics, 54, 217–225.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Starrs, P. F. (1998). Let the Cowboy Ride: Cattle Ranching in the American West. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.Google Scholar
Stokes, C. J., McAllister, R. R. J. & Ash, A. J. (2006). Fragmentation of Australian rangelands: Processes, benefits and risks of changing patterns of land use. Rangeland Journal, 28, 83–96.Google Scholar
Talbert, C. B., Knight, R. L. & Mitchell, J. E. (2007). Private ranchlands and public land grazing in the southern Rocky Mountains. Rangelands, 29, 5–8.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thompson, C. (2002). When elephants stand for competing philosophies of nature: Amboseli National Park, Kenya. In Complexities: Social Studies of Knowledge Practices, Law, J. & Mol, A. (eds.). Durham, NC: Duke University Press, pp. 166–190.Google Scholar
Utrilla, V., Brizuela, M. & Cibils, A. (2005). Riparian habitats (mallines) of Patagonia – A key grazing resource for sustainable sheep-farming operations. Outlook on Agriculture, 34, 55–59.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Veldman, J. W., Overbeck, G. E., Negreiros, D., Mahy, G., Le Stradic, S., Fernandes, G. W., Durigan, G., Buisson, E., Putz, F. E., & Bond, W. J. (2015). Where tree planting and forest expansion are bad for biodiversity and ecosystem services. BioScience, 65, 1011–1018.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vetter, S. (2005). Rangelands at equilibrium and non-equilibrium: Recent developments in the debate. Journal of Arid Environments, 62, 321–341.Google Scholar
Williams, D. M. (1996). Grassland enclosures: Catalyst of land degradation in Inner Mongolia. Human Organization, 55, 307–313.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×