Livestock systems in drylands : conditions for sustainability
In many difficult situations in the world (aridity, high altitude, slopes, etc.) and especially in the vast drylands, the most appropriate use of the land seems to be the grazing of natural resources by livestock. This form of extensive livestock farming promotes not only the survival of the pastoral societies concerned but is also a source of protein (milk, meat and blood) with high biological value as food in towns or for export as well as for feeding these pastoralists in a difficult environment. It may also be a source of energy and manure. Livestock survival and the viability of pastoral societies in these environments with severe constraints are often due to the application of ancestral but adaptive pastoral practices based on a number of factors such as: - combining different species of herbivores; - spatial mobility of flocks and herds and sometimes of families of livestock breeders (transhumance, nomadism); - seasonal destocking; - the use of tree and shrub resources and external foodstuffs to complement grazed grassland, etc. Nevertheless, these pastoral zones often suffer from the degradation of land and plant resources due over-exploitation by livestock. Disputes are frequent as a result of increasing human pressure and the sustainability of natural resources involves the renewal of collective management methods through negotiation and new methods of organisation.