Promoting conservation orientated grazing regimes

The necessity to control livestock grazing and reduce it to optimal levels through implementation of a conservation oriented grazing regime.

Pastoral communities living on or adjacent to conservation areas pose particular problems to wildlife and biodiversity conservation projects. Ecological studies have demonstrated that excessive grazing of large numbers of livestock is a problem common to many nature reserves.

The Dana Nature Reserve in Jordan was the subject of a Management Plan (1996) developed by the Royal Society for the Conservation of Nature (RSCN), UNDP/GEF, and representatives of the local communities living on or adjacent to the reserve. Part of the Management Plan was focused upon the pastoral users of several areas of the reserve; a system of grazing permits was introduced in conjunction with the establishment of a socio-economic project in Dana village.

Environmentalists are now coming to recognise the links between wildlife and farming systems, and to see that many valued habitats can only be maintained by grazing livestock. Some entire farming systems, such as the Spanish Dehesa and Portuguese Montado, have now been listed as biotopes under Annex 1 of the EC Habitats and Species Directive.