Evaluation and Mapping of Tropical African Rangelands

Evaluation and Mapping of Tropical African Rangelands PDF Author:
Publisher: ILRI (aka ILCA and ILRAD)
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 418

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Evaluation and Mapping of Tropical African Rangelands

Evaluation and Mapping of Tropical African Rangelands PDF Author:
Publisher: ILRI (aka ILCA and ILRAD)
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 418

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Book Description


Guidelines

Guidelines PDF Author: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Soil Resources, Management, and Conservation Service
Publisher: Food & Agriculture Org.
ISBN: 9789251030288
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 176

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Managing Mobility in African Rangelands

Managing Mobility in African Rangelands PDF Author: Maryam Niamir-Fuller
Publisher: Food & Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO)
ISBN:
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 332

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Book Description
This book shows how land tenure laws, decentralization policies, institutional capactiy building, common property management, conflict resolution and participatory development can be made more responsive to the needs of pastoralists and those practising transhumance today in order to achieve ecologically and economically sustainable development in arid Africa. The scope of this book is holistic: social, economic, political and environmental issues are discussed in each contribution. The case studies focus on four key constraints to managed mobility: appropriate legislation; and conflict resolution. The case studies are from Africa, but the issues and conclusions are just as relevant to pastoralism and common property management in other continents. Scientists, students, development experts, government officials and bilateral and multi-lateral development organizations will find new research presented in this book that is highly relevant to their work.

Grasslands of the World

Grasslands of the World PDF Author: Victor R. Squires
Publisher: CRC Press
ISBN: 1351652206
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 430

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Book Description
This book begins with a brief account of the extraordinary sequence of events that led to emergence of grasslands as major vegetation formations that now occupy some of the driest and hottest and the highest and coldest on earth as well as vast steppes and prairies in more temperate climes. It is the story of grasses successfully competing with forests and woodlands, aided and abetted by grazing herbivores and by humans and their use of fire as a tool. It is a story of adaptation to changing climates and the changing biophysical environments. A major focus of the book is the Palaearctic biogeographic realm that extends over some 45 million km2 and thus more than 1/3 of the terrestrial ice-free surface on Earth. It comprises extensive grasslands of different types and origin, which can be subdivided into (1) natural grasslands with (1a) steppes (climatogenic in dry climates), (1b) arctic-alpine grasslands (climatogenic in cold climates) and (1c) azonal and extrazonal grasslands (pedogenic and topogenic) as well as (2) secondary grasslands created and sustained by human activities, such as livestock grazing, mowing or burning. Grasslands of the Palaearctic do not only form a major basis for the agriculture of the region and thus its food supply, but are also crucial for other ecosystem services and host a supra proportional part of the realm’s plant and animal diversity. To reflect that suitability of grasslands for biodiversity strongly depends on their state, we apply the term High Nature Value grassland to those natural grasslands that are not degraded (in good state) and those secondary grasslands that are not intensified (semi-natural). The situation in a variety of countries where grasslands are evolving under the influence of global climate change is also considered. Case studies are presented on Southern Africa, Eastern Africa, India, China, South America, North America and Australia. The concluding chapter examines a set of themes arising from the chapters that make up the bulk of this book. The following provide a focus: recent history of grassland biomes – brief recap of current thinking and recent trends with special reference to dry grasslands in the Palearctic regions; the current status of grasslands and germplasm resources (biodiversity) – an overview; management systems that ensure sustainability; how to recover degraded grasslands; socio-economic issues and considerations in grassland management; the impacts of environmental problems in grasslands such as future climate change and intensification and the problems/prospects facing pastoralists and other grassland-based livestock producers.

Nuclear Techniques in Improving Pasture Management

Nuclear Techniques in Improving Pasture Management PDF Author: Joint FAO/IAEA Division of Isotope and Radiation Applications of Atomic Energy for Food and Agricultural Development
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 208

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Tropical Grasslands

Tropical Grasslands PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Forage plants
Languages : en
Pages : 752

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Rangeland Health

Rangeland Health PDF Author: National Research Council
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309048796
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 201

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Book Description
Rangelands comprise between 40 and 50 percent of all U.S. land and serve the nation both as productive areas for wildlife, recreational use, and livestock grazing and as watersheds. The health and management of rangelands have been matters for scientific inquiry and public debate since the 1880s, when reports of widespread range degradation and livestock losses led to the first attempts to inventory and classify rangelands. Scientists are now questioning the utility of current methods of rangeland classification and inventory, as well as the data available to determine whether rangelands are being degraded. These experts, who are using the same methods and data, have come to different conclusions. This book examines the scientific basis of methods used by federal agencies to inventory, classify, and monitor rangelands; it assesses the success of these methods; and it recommends improvements. The book's findings and recommendations are of interest to the public; scientists; ranchers; and local, state, and federal policymakers.

New Perspectives on Nitrogen Cycling in the Temperate and Tropical Americas

New Perspectives on Nitrogen Cycling in the Temperate and Tropical Americas PDF Author: Alan R. Townsend
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 9401146454
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 295

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Book Description
Inputs of nitrogen to terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems have increased several-fold over the last one hundred and fifty years, with the steepest increases during the last four decades. The expansion of fertilizer manu facture and use, the increase in fossil fuel combustion, the intensification of animal husbandry, and widespread cultivation of N2 fixing crops have all contributed to the dramatic increase in N inputs. The increase has been most rapid in Northern Hemisphere (NH) temperate ecosystems, but presently subtropical and tropical regions of Asia are also experiencing an explosive increase in N inputs to terrestrial ecosystems (W. Chameides, pers. comm. ; Galloway et al. 1996). Projected increases in N deposition for these trop ical and subtropical regions, with a high natural background of N inputs, exceed increases projected for temperate and arctic regions (Cleveland et al. submitted; Galloway et al. 1994; Holland & Lamarque 1997a). Compared to biological N fixation, N deposition is becoming a proportionately greater source of N to terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems worldwide (Vitousek et al. 1997). 6 The nitrogen contained in the atmosphere as N , 3. 9 * 10 Tg (Tg = 2 12 10 g), is the largest reservoir of N in the Earth system (Warneck 1988). However, this paper focuses on the nitrogen emissions and deposition that have been transformed from N2 into reactive forms that are biologically avail able (e. g. Vitousek et al. 1997).

The End of Desertification?

The End of Desertification? PDF Author: Roy H. Behnke
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 364216014X
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 556

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Book Description
The question in the title of this book draws attention to the shortcomings of a concept that has become a political tool of global importance even as the scientific basis for its use grows weaker. The concept of desertification, it can be argued, has ceased to be analytically useful and distorts our understanding of social-environmental systems and their resiliency, particularly in poor countries with variable rainfall and persistent poverty. For better policy and governance, we need to reconsider the scientific justification for international attempts to combat desertification. Our exploration of these issues begins in the Sahel of West Africa, where a series of severe droughts at the end of the 20th century led to the global institutionalization of the idea of desertification. It now seems incontrovertible that these droughts were not caused primarily by local land use mismanagement, effectively terminating a long-standing policy and scientific debate. There is now an opportunity to treat this episode as an object lesson in the relationship between science, the formation of public opinion and international policy-making. Looking beyond the Sahel, the chapters in this book provide case studies from around the world that examine the use and relevance of the desertification concept. Despite an increasingly sophisticated understanding of dryland environments and societies, the uses now being made of the desertification concept in parts of Asia exhibit many of the shortcomings of earlier work done in Africa. It took scientists more than three decades to transform a perceived desertification crisis in the Sahel into a non-event. This book is an effort to critically examine that experience and accelerate the learning process in other parts of the world.

Proceedings

Proceedings PDF Author: Grassland Society of Southern Africa
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Grasses
Languages : en
Pages : 134

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Book Description