Evaluating people-environment trade-offs through low-tech intensification of livestock management in communal grazing systems in South Africa.

在南非，公共牧场（如草地、稀树草原和灌木丛）系统为小农提供了一个重要的生计来源，主要是通过它们支持小规模牲畜生产的能力和通过提供木材、薪材和茅草等自然资源。这些牧场还提供其他重要的生态系统服务，如水和生物多样性栖息地，并通过固碳促进气候适应能力。然而，它们的生产力受到其本身较低的饲料质量和由于不受管制的放牧、外来入侵植物（IAPs）的传播和本土木本植物的入侵而导致的牧场退化的影响。所有这些因素都限制了牲畜的饲料供应，降低了动物的生产和生存。这损害了社区畜牧农民的生计安全，牲畜对他们来说扮演着多种角色，包括提供肉、奶、水和粪便。这些iap还影响着南非各地水库的供水和径流，清除它们已成为南非政府的一项优先政策。该提案建立在东开普省现有研究的基础上，与Matatiele的六个当地社区合作，探索为当地人民带来生计效益并改善生态系统效益的牧场管理替代战略。具体而言，我们将测试集约放牧和圈养社区牲畜的作用，同时取消iap，以增加草地初级产量、土壤碳、肥力和水分有效性，以及提高牲畜生产力。作为这项研究的一部分，我们提出了将去除的iap作为土壤改良剂和牲畜补充饲料的新用途。为了将这些不同的生产结果联系起来，我们将开发一个牲畜和牧场生产的综合模型。我们将利用这个模型的结果，在与当地持份者共同开发的公共牧场使用的明确定义的“情景”背景下，探讨当地人与环境之间、不同持份者群体之间（例如保育人士与当地农民之间、不同持份者群体之间）的潜在权衡。重要的是，这些情景将让当地社区中更边缘化的成员（如妇女）表达自己的意见，她们很多没有牲畜，更依赖于自然资源的收获。权衡结果将与当地利益相关者分享，并用于支持如何最好地利用替代牧场管理技术来实现他们确定的不同土地使用方案的决策。该提案的独特之处在于，它是首次尝试使用动植物生产的综合模型来探索南非公共放牧系统中不同生产方案之间的权衡。如果成功，该方法有可能通过现有的“放牧促进健康”倡议推广到整个东开普省和南非其他公共放牧地区的更多社区，该倡议是该提案的基础。

In South Africa, communal rangelands (e.g. grassland, savanna and shrubland) systems provide a critical source of livelihood for smallholder farmers, primarily through their ability to support smallscale livestock production and through the provision of natural resources such as timber, fuelwood and thatching grass. These rangelands also provide other vital ecosystem services such as water and a habitat for biodiversity and contribute to climate resilience through carbon sequestration. However, their productivity is compromised both by their inherently low forage quality and rangeland degradation due to unregulated grazing, the spread of invasive alien plants (IAPs) and the encroachment of indigenous woody plants. All of these factors limit forage availability for livestock, reducing animal production and survival. This compromises the livelihood security of communal livestock farmers for whom livestock perform multiple roles, including the provision of meat, milk, draught and manure. The IAPs also affect the water supply and run-off to storage reservoirs throughout South Africa and their clearance has become a policy priority for the South African government.This proposal builds on existing research in Eastern Cape Province, working with six local communities in Matatiele to explore alternative rangeland management strategies that yield livelihood benefits for local people as well as improved ecosystem benefits. Specifically, we will test the role of intensive grazing and corralling of community livestock, in conjunction with the removal of IAPs to increase primary production of grassland, soil carbon and fertility and water availability, as well as improve livestock productivity. As part of this we propose the novel use of the removed IAPs as a soil amendment and as a supplemental feed for livestock. In order to link these different production outcomes we will develop an integrated model of livestock and rangeland production. We will use the outcomes of this model to explore the potential trade-offs between local people and their environment and between different groups of stakeholders (e.g. between conservationists and local farmers and between different groups of farmers) in the context of clearly defined 'scenarios' for the use of communal rangelands, which will be co-developed with local stakeholders. Importantly, these scenarios will give voice to the more marginalised members of local communities, such as women, who many not have livestock and have greater dependency on the harvesting of natural resources. The trade-off outcomes will be shared with local stakeholders and used to support decisions about how best to make use of the alternative rangeland management techniques to achieve the different land use scenarios they have identified.The proposal is unique in that it is the first attempt to use an integrated model of animal and plant production to explore trade-offs between different production scenarios in a communal grazing system in South Africa. If successful the approach has potential for extrapolation to many more communities throughout Eastern Cape and other communal grazing areas of South Africa through an existing 'Herding for Health' initiative that the proposal builds on.