Click Here For Written Result : Civil Services (Preliminary) Examination, 2024

GS Paper III

News Excerpt:

UN Study finds that half of world’s rangelands are degraded.

More about news: 

About half of the world’s rangelands are degraded and need policy interventions, and communities depending on them need focused support, according to a new report of the United Nations Convention on Combating Desertification (UNCCD).

Key highlights of the report:

• Nearly 50% of the world’s rangelands can be considered “degraded” and are facing a “silent demise”.
• Primary reasons for degradation include climate change, unsustainable land and livestock management practices, biodiversity loss, and the conversion of rangelands to farmlands.
• Uncertainty over land rights among pastoralist communities, who depend on rangelands for their livelihood, also leads to their degradation. This, in turn, severely affects the communities dependent on rangelands as their deterioration impacts soil fertility and biodiversity, leading to a dip in incomes and rise in conflicts with authorities over grazing rights.

ADDITIONAL KEY FIGURES

• 80 million sq. km: Area of the world’s terrestrial surface covered by rangelands (over 54%)
• 9.5 million sq. km: Protected rangelands worldwide (12%)
• 67 million sq. km (45% of Earth’s terrestrial surface): Rangelands’ area devoted to livestock production systems (84% of rangelands), almost half of which are in drylands.  Livestock provide food security and generate income for the majority of the 1.2 billion people in developing countries living under the poverty threshold
• 1 billion: animals across more than 100 countries maintained by pastoralists, supporting 200 million households while providing about 10% of world meat supply, as well as dairy, wool and leather products.
• 33%: global biodiversity hotspots found in rangelands.
• 24%: proportion of world languages found in rangelands.
• 5,000 years ago: When pastoralism first emerged as a land-use system in sub-Saharan Africa.

REGIONAL FACTS & FIGURES

• Over 25% and 10%: Supply of world meat and milk, respectively, provided by Latin America’s cattle industry.
• Over 25%: GDP of Burkina Faso, Mali, Mauritania, Niger and Chad attributed to livestock production.
• Over 50%: Land in the Middle East and North Africa regions deemed degraded (25% of arable land).
• 60%: area of Central Asia and Mongolia used as grazing rangelands, with livestock herding supporting nearly one third of the region’s population.
• 40%: area of China covered by pastoral lands. (Notably, the country’s livestock population tripled between 1980 and 2010 to 441 million livestock units)
• 308 million hectares: area of the contiguous United States covered by rangelands, 31% of the country’s total land area, with ~55% of rangelands privately owned

Advantages of Rangelands:

• They act as carbon sinks (which absorb more carbon from the atmosphere than they release), storehouses of freshwater, and prevent desertification of land. 
• Millions of people worldwide depend on rangelands for food security, and livelihoods.
• According to the UNCCD “rangelands generate 16% of global food production and 70% of feed for domesticated herbivores, most significantly in Africa and South America,” the UNCCD report stated. 
• In India, rangelands occupy about 1.21 million sq km, from the Thar Desert to Himalayan meadows, as per the UNCCD report.

Economic viability of rangelands:

• Rangelands are an important economic engine in many countries and define cultures. 
• It is home to one quarter of the world’s languages, they also host numerous World Heritage Sites and have shaped the value systems, customs and identities of pastoralists for thousands of years. 
• However, its main economic contribution by different countries and regions include the following:
• livestock production accounts for 19% of Ethiopia’s GDP, and 4% of India’s. 
• In Brazil – which produces 16% of the world’s beef – fully one-third of agribusiness GDP is generated by cattle livestock. 
• In Europe, many rangelands have given way to urbanization, afforestation and renewable energy production. 
• In the United States, large tracts of grassland have been converted to crops, while some Canadian grasslands have been made fragile by large-scale mining and infrastructure projects. 

World areas most acutely affected by rangelands degradation, (ranked in descending order): 

• Central Asia, China, Mongolia: The replacement of government management and oversight with privatization and agricultural industrialization left herders abandoned and dependent on insufficient natural resources causing widespread degradation.
  • The gradual restoration of traditional and community-based pastoralism is leading to critical advances in sustainable rangeland management. 

• North Africa and Near East: The impact of climate change in one of the world’s driest regions is pushing pastoralists into poverty and degrading the rangelands on which they rely. Updated traditional institutions, such as Agdals – reservoirs of fodder used to feed animals in periods of critical need and allowing for the regeneration of natural resources – and incipient supportive policies are improving the way rangelands are managed. 

• Sahel and West Africa :Conflict, power balance and border issues have interrupted livestock mobility leading to rangelands degradation.
  • Unified policies, recognition of pastoralists’ rights and cross-border agreements are reestablishing mobility for animal herders, crucial for landscape restoration.

• South America : Climatic change, deforestation linked to industrialized agriculture and extractive activities, and land use conversion are South America’s main drivers of rangeland degradation.
  • Multifunctionality and diversity of pastoralist systems hold the key for restoring some of the most interesting rangelands in the world, including the Pampa, the Cerrado and Caatinga savannahs, and the Puno Andean systems. 

• East Africa : Migration and forced displacement caused by competing uses of land (such as hunting, tourism, etc), are evicting pastoralists from their traditional lands, causing unanticipated degradation consequences.
  • Women-led initiatives and improved land rights are securing pastoralists’ livelihoods, protecting biodiversity, and safeguarding the ecosystem services provided by rangelands. 

• North America: The degradation of ancient grasslands and dry rangelands threatens the biodiversity of iconic North American ecosystems such as the tall-grass prairies or the southern deserts.
  • The incorporation of indigenous people to rangeland governance is a clear step to help recover these historic landscapes. 

• Europe: Policies favoring industrial farming over pastoralism and misguided incentives are causing rangelands and other open ecosystems to be abandoned and degraded.
  • Political and economic support, including legal recognition and differentiation, can turn the tide and help address critical environmental crises such as the rising frequency and intensity of wildfires and climate change. 

• South Africa and Australia: Afforestation, mining, and the conversion of rangelands to other uses are causing the degradation and loss of rangelands.
  • The co-creation of knowledge by producers and researchers, and respect for and use of traditional wisdom held by indigenous communities, open new paths for restoring and protecting rangelands. 

Key recommendations:

• Integrated climate change mitigation and adaptation strategies with sustainable rangeland management plans to increase carbon sequestration and storage while boosting the resilience of pastoralist and rangeland communities. 
• Avoid or reduce rangeland conversion and other land use changes that diminish the diversity and multifunctionality of rangelands, especially on indigenous and communal lands. 
• Design and adopt rangeland conservation measures, within and outside protected areas, that support biodiversity above and below ground while boosting the health, productivity, and resilience of extensive livestock production systems.
• Adopt and support pastoralism-based strategies and practices that help mitigate harms to rangeland health, such as climate change, overgrazing, soil erosion, invasive species, drought, and wildfires.
• Promote supportive policies, full people’s participation and flexible management and governance systems to boost the services that rangelands and pastoralists provide to the whole society.