Semi-Arid Rangelands and Carbon Offset Markets: A Look at the Economic Prospects

Bush encroachment control and risk management in semi-arid rangelands.

We study the role of bush encroachment control for a farmer's income and income risk in a stochastic ecological-economic model of grazing management in semi-arid rangelands. In particular, we study debushing as an instrument of risk management that complements the choice of an adaptive grazing management strategy for that sake. We show that debushing, while being a good practice for increasing ...

Pathways for positive cattle-wildlife interactions in semi-arid rangelands

Livestockwildlife interactions in rangelands are often viewed in terms of competition, but livestock and native ungulates can also benefit each other through longterm modifications of rangeland habitats. Here we synthesize research on rangelands in central Laikipia focusing on two types of cattlewildlife interactions that have implications for their longterm coexistence. The first interaction o...

Managing Semi-Arid Rangelands for Carbon Storage: Grazing and Woody Encroachment Effects on Soil Carbon and Nitrogen

High grazing intensity and wide-spread woody encroachment may strongly alter soil carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) pools. However, the direction and quantity of these changes have rarely been quantified in East African savanna ecosystem. As shifts in soil C and N pools might further potentially influence climate change mitigation, we quantified and compared soil organic carbon (SOC) and total soil n...

Drought, change and resilience in South Africa’s arid and semi-arid rangelands

Introduction Droughts are a frequent occurrence in South Africa’s arid and semi-arid rangelands and can have severe ecological and economic consequences. While these may be short-term and followed by recovery during subsequent years of higher rainfall, in some cases droughts can trigger substantial and irreversible ecological and socio-economic changes. Desertification, in the form of reduced p...

Rangelands in Arid Ecosystem