Proyecto Aplicación de Instrumentos de Política Económica para la Gestión Ambiental y el Desarrollo Sustentable en Países Seleccionados de América Latina y el Caribe
Proyecto Aplicación de Instrumentos de Política Económica para la Gestión Ambiental y el Desarrollo Sustentable en Países Seleccionados de América Latina y el Caribe
This document focused on the land and environmental degradation and desertification in Africa; issues and options for sustainable economic development with transformation.
Paper explores the relationships between the following concepts under the conditions of Middle Eastern semi-arid ecosystems. Paper states that there are two apparent contradictions in the title of this paper. First, grazing by domestic livestock is often considered to be hostile to nature conservation, especially in semi-arid areas (the ongoing conflict between ranchers and environmentalists in western USA is just one contemporary example of this).
Results from this study show that the over-used but under-researched association between grazing and land degradation in the Kalahari has been oversimplified. In typical Kalahari conditions, the ecological changes that have been brought about by grazing cannot be linked with more fundamental changes in ecosystem function. Basic soil processes appear relatively unaffected by grazing pressure outside the sacrifice zone, and there is no evidence to suggest that the resilience of the system has been affected through soil degradation.
The report focuses on: the statue of land degradation: types of degradation, their nature, severity and extent; the causes and consequences of land degradation; institutions to combat land degradation; proposals for strengthening efforts to combat land degradation. Countries covered are: Afghanistan; Bangladesh; India; Bhutan; Iran; Pakistan; Nepal; Sri Lanka.
Recent arguments have stated that the new livestock development policy will carry a high social cost, that the reality of range degradation in Botswana has been ignored, and that there is no basis for assuming that de-stocking would decrease the productivity of rangeland.
A useful debate is developing over carrying capacity and the degradation of communal rangelands in sub-Saharan Africa. With a few lonely exceptions, scientists and policy-makers have in the past claimed that degradation is universal and livestock productivity lowered because of overstocking on communal range. This position has been mainly dogmatic. More recent research has not supported dogmatists; hence the debate, which impinges on livestock development policy in Botswana.A new livestock development policy is being promoted by the Government of Botswana (Ministry of Agriculture 1991).
Paper attempts to dispel some of the confusion surrounding the application of the range degradation concept in Botswana. It has three objectives. First, to present the current thinking of range ecologists vis-a-vis range degradation. Second, to dismiss recent arguments that range degradation in Botswana is insignificant.
