Agricultural intensification is a major cause of biodiversity loss. Biodiversity conservation and restoration generally involve human intervention. In comparison, rewilding, radically different approach to address the erosion biodiversity, aims increase ability ecological processes act with little or no intervention, thus enhance supply ecosystem services. Rewilding, including that agricultural...

Livestock production is a key income source in eastern Africa, and 80% of 22 the total agricultural land is used for livestock herding. Hence, ecological and 23 socio-economically sustainable rangeland management is crucial. Our study aimed at 24 selecting operational economic, environmental and social sustainability indicators for three 25 main pastoral (P), agro-pastoral (AP), and landless in...

Small ruminants are important assets in several regions of the world. They account for more than half of the domesticated ruminants. Despite the growth in goat production in the world (more than 2% per ye.ar), research related to goat production is less than desired. One underused but potentially valuable approach for research on small ruminants is sim­ ulation modelling. Models of the componen...

Arid and semi-arid lands constitute a large proportion of available agricultural and rangeland in the world. These lands are characterised by low and unreliable rainfall, low land productivity, and low socioeconomic status of the inhabitants. Livestock plays a very significant role in their economies. Leguminous trees and shrubs, which dominate the natural rangelands, are often higher in crude ...

This paper reviews the predictions and management implications of two current paradigms in the ecology and management of arid and semi-arid rangelands. The equilibrium model stresses the importance of biotic feedbacks such as density-dependent regulation of livestock populations and the feedback of livestock density on vegetation composition, cover and productivity. Range management under this ...

Ongoing intensification and specialisation of livestock production lead to increasing volumes of manure to be managed, which are a source of the greenhouse gases (GHGs) methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O). Net emissions of CH4 and N2O result from a multitude of microbial activities in the manure environment. Their relative importance depends not only on manure composition and local management...

We estimate the potential reductions in methane and carbon dioxide emissions from several livestock and pasture management options in the mixed and rangeland-based production systems in the tropics. The impacts of adoption of improved pastures, intensifying ruminant diets, changes in land-use practices, and changing breeds of large ruminants on the production of methane and carbon dioxide are c...