Veldt degradation puts global food and ecosystems at risk – The Mail & Guardian

The Namaqua Veldt. Archive photo

When a forest is destroyed, we talk about deforestation and this arouses a lot of emotion. But the destruction of ancient pastures is happening silently, according to Ibrahim Thiaw, executive secretary of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD).

The world’s rangelands, or veldt as it is known in South Africa, are made up of grasslands, savannahs, shrublands, wetlands, tundra and deserts that cover more than half of the earth’s surface and are in a perilous state with up to 50% degraded, a” warned the new UNCCD report.

This degradation, caused by overexploitation, misuse, climate change and biodiversity loss, poses a serious threat to food supplies and therefore to the well-being or survival of billions of people, according to the report.

Pastures, meadows and rangelands are often seen as “land frontiers” that have little value until transformed by human hands, Thiaw writes in the report.

“The term “development” often refers to human action, agricultural development, the destruction of natural habitats, the drying of wetlands or urban development. Rangelands are often referred to as arable land, a sign that planners consider them to be better “developed” once transformed than when left in their natural state.

These vast ecosystems provide biodiversity, support rural livelihoods, account for a sixth of global food production and account for almost a third of the planet’s carbon reservoir.

Two billion people – often poor, small-scale pastoralists, herders and farmers – depend on healthy pastures, and marginalized pastoralists and pastoralists struggle to influence development policies.

They are “voiceless, powerless and generally a minority” in the political and administrative apparatus, notes the report. “Although their number is estimated at half a billion souls, they are sometimes classified as indigenous peoples or as outsiders of society. »

Pasture degradation is largely due to the conversion of pastures to croplands and other land uses due to population growth and urban expansion, rapid increases in demand for food, fiber and fuel, excessive grazing, abandonment and policies that encourage overexploitation.

Ironically, efforts to increase food security and productivity by converting pastures to agricultural crops in predominantly arid regions have resulted in land degradation and lower agricultural yields, the report notes.

The pathways are also often poorly understood and the lack of reliable data compromises the sustainable management of their value in terms of food supply and climate regulation.

Additionally, weak and ineffective governance, poorly implemented policies and regulations, and lack of investment in grazing communities and sustainable production models undermine them, the authors said.

One of the main recommendations is to protect pastoralism, a mobile way of life dating back thousands of years. It focuses on the production of domesticated sheep, goats, cattle, horses, camels, yaks, llamas or other herbivores, as well as semi-domesticated species such as bison and reindeer.

Rangelands are an important economic driver in many countries and define cultures, the report says. Home to a quarter of the world’s languages, they are also home to many world heritage sites and “have shaped the value systems, customs and identities of pastoralists for thousands of years.”

In many West African states, livestock production employs 80% of the population. In Central Asia and Mongolia, 60% of the area is used as pasture, with livestock farming supporting almost a third of the region’s population. Livestock production accounts for 19% of Ethiopia’s GDP and 4% of India’s. In Brazil, which produces 16% of the world’s beef, a third of agro-industry GDP is generated by cattle breeding.

In Europe, many pathways have given way to urbanization, afforestation and renewable energy production. In the United States, large areas of prairie have been converted to crops, while some Canadian prairies have been undermined by large-scale mining and infrastructure projects. The report welcomes growing efforts in both countries to reintroduce bison, an animal of cultural significance to indigenous peoples, to promote healthy rangelands and food security.

South Africa is “seriously facing” the degradation of private and communal rangelands, worsened by the effects of climate change, according to the UN report. Afforestation, mining and conversion of rangelands to other uses lead to rangeland degradation and loss.

They cover about 74.8% of the country’s total land area, according to researcher Andiswa Finca and Julius Tjelele, research team leader of the Agricultural Research Council’s Range and Forage Sciences Unit.

Rangeland is defined as land on which native vegetation consists primarily of grasses, forbs, forbs or shrubs, which are used for livestock and wildlife production, the researchers said.

“They serve as essential habitats for diverse flora and fauna and play a crucial role in providing ecosystem services such as water, fuelwood, thatch grass, wild fruits, herbs and medicinal plants, livestock fodder and play a key role in carbon sequestration. among others. »

They said the pastures support the livelihoods of some of the country’s most disadvantaged people, who depend on them for their livelihoods and cultural practices, particularly livestock grazing.

The country’s rangelands are particularly vulnerable to the effects of climate change, Finca and Tjelele agree.

“Prolonged droughts, increased temperatures, rainfall variability and extreme weather events like flooding affect rangeland productivity, leading to degradation characterized by increased soil erosion, scrub encroachment and exotic plant invasion as well as a change in species composition. This in turn affects grazing capacity.

Historically, South African land policies have neglected local knowledge, hindering effective management of communal pastures, they said.

“Application of effective management strategies is crucial for both rangeland sustainability and livestock health. However, currently pastures are extensive and when the dry season arrives, there is not enough pasture left to allow animals to get through the dry, dry seasons.

This occurs on private land and communal rangelands, but is more pronounced in communal areas where access and use of rangelands is on a collective basis. “In most of these areas, unregulated continuous grazing, where animals are driven to the communal pasture in the morning and collected in the evening, is widespread,” Finca and Tjelele said.

This often leads to the overexploitation of some grass species and the underutilization of others, and both cases provide an opportunity for invaders, leading to the dominance of less desirable grasses.

The proliferation of woody plants in rangelands is often attributed to high livestock populations, climate change and fire suppression, which decrease grass cover, they explained. Bush encroachment has led to the transformation of pastures from grasslands and savannahs to forests with little or no fodder for livestock.

Finca and Tjelele said the scale of encroachment on the bush is alarming. Their unit has conducted extensive research into the underlying factors causing this phenomenon and developed various interventions.

They added that rangelands “are also repositories of indigenous knowledge systems related to their use and management as well as the use of the ecosystem services they provide.”