Between 7-19 December, delegates from nearly 200 countries will gather in Montreal for Biodiversity COP15, the first UN conference on biodiversity since 2018. Touted as a ‘make or break’ moment following the failure to meet any of the Aichi targets on biodiversity between 2011-2020, participants at the COP15 conference will aim to agree a new global framework on biodiversity.
If adopted, this framework will set out measures to safeguard biodiversity for the next 10 years and pave the way for future multilateral action to stop the accelerating decline of species and ecosystems across the world.
What the decision-makers agree on will have important implications for livestock keepers across the world, particularly for pastoralists who live in close interaction with animals and the environment, often herding animals over large areas of land. A set of briefings from the Pastoralism, Uncertainty, Resilience (PASTRES) research programme, co-hosted at IDS, shows how pastoralists around the world can play a crucial role in improving biodiversity, sequestering carbon and protecting the environment. Including pastoral communities in conservation initiatives can help to address the tensions that emerge around ‘protected areas’, while improving biodiversity.
About the briefings
The six PASTRES briefings argue that more a nuanced narrative around the interaction of livestock and biodiversity must be considered at COP15.
The benefits of pastoralism for biodiversity and the climate
Livestock can be good for the environment. The effect of livestock on the climate and biodiversity depends on which livestock, where. Pastoral systems can show neutral or positive carbon balances, especially for mobile systems that distribute manure/urine and incorporate it, adding to carbon cycling. Low intensity grazing with limited disturbance, as well as distributed high nutrient content patches across grazing lands, can enhance biodiversity. Over the landscape scale, transhumance can assist with seed dispersal and connecting biodiverse areas across regions.
Why tree planting in rangelands can be bad for biodiversity and the climate
Mass tree planting schemes are proposed as a way to combat desertification, improve biodiversity and address climate change through ‘carbon offset’ schemes. Initiatives funded by international donors such as the AFR100 and the ‘Great Green Wall’ are deeply problematic, yet have targeted over one billion hectares of rangelands across the world.
Enhancing biodiversity through livestock keeping
Carefully managed grazing in extensive (especially in mobile) livestock systems is essential for biodiversity conservation in many ecosystems across the world. Mobile pastoral systems can create bio-corridors through transhumance routes, disperse seeds, create fertile hotspots or mitigate against fires.
This briefing offers eight examples of how pastoralism and conservation can work together.
How livestock keeping can reduce wildfire
Regular fires are essential for ecosystem health in rangelands. In rangeland ecologies, fire is important for conservation, but it must be limited and controlled, and this requires grazing. In meeting the challenge of increasing wildfires, supporting pastoral systems is likely to be much more successful than just focusing on fire suppression and more firefighters.
Rewilding and ecosystem restoration: what is ‘natural’?
What is ‘natural’ and what is ‘wild’ is deeply contested. Rangelands are not simply degraded forests, as some assume. Plans for conservation must include pastoralists and other land users who have created valuable landscapes through use by people and their animals over many years.
Pastoralists as conservationists
Pastoralists and other livestock keepers are too often pitted against conservationists. Pastoralism is not compatible with a style of conservation that encloses and excludes, but extensive livestock-keeping can be central to more people-centred conservation approaches.
On the COP15 conference, Ian Scoones, co-director of the PASTRES centre said:
“Pastoralists co-existed with wildlife long before national parks and wildlife conservancies were established. The plans emerging from COP15 must avoid the dangers of exclusionary conservation through protected areas and explore the possibilities of collaborative, inclusive and ‘convivial’ conservation with pastoralists at the centre.”
Through their flexibility, mobility and adaptability, pastoralists can operate successfully as part of nature. Research has shown how pastoralists can manage resources in ways that will benefit biodiversity conservation. It is these lessons that must be central to the discussion at COP15.
Find out more about the PASTRES programme and its work on pastoralism and biodiversity.
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