ecosystem services to and from north american arid ... - Conabio

More documents

Recommendations

Info

IV SIMPOSIO INTERNACIONAL DE PASTIZALES San Luis Potosí, S.L.P. México; 22 al 24 de agosto de 2007 Artículos in extenso Área temática: Transferencia de Tecnología grassland’s forage production due to the variable harvesting tools availability (cattle). Within the ejido land, cattle owners (not necessarily ejido members -avecindados) will be the only ones to take advantage of the grassland’s primary productivity. Common land property has been considered a huge inhibitor of ecologic conservation in Mexico (Haenn, 2006). Opening new cropping areas to produce rain-fed highly variable amounts of corn or beans, as product for the peasants, represents for them an exclusive product, opposite to other rangeland products. For such reason, this process will continue to occur although the ecological cost is not visualized or estimated neither by the peasants (Scherr, 2000), nor by rural intellectuals or society in general. Successful grazing societies are regulated by both tribal traditions (Duany, 1999; Ruttan and Mulder, 1999), and natural resources preservation interest, and production has been sustained for generations (McCabe, 1990; Erdenebaatar, 2003) as the basis for its persistence. Within Ejido land, grassland products or services harvesting, must be expedite, under prevalent conditions, due to the fact that other member may utilize the product, in fact, rangeland resources are appropriated by the first Ejidatario with resources to use it. Hence it is important, for taking advantage from grassland’s products to be ready to detect and use them. Supporting Ejido programs, hire and pay the Ejidatarios to work on improvements or infrastructure assembling on their own land, contradictory for any economically viable enterprise, in this arrangement the contracted area may be protected from common grazing during the program duration, but it will be utilized as common resource on the first opportunity. Supporting programs have been abundant in the past in Mexico and they persist today (DOF, 2003). The benefits to the grassland condition from such programs will keep failing as long as there is not a settlement and respect of rules for grassland utilization (Lynam, 2005). Nowadays, forage perennial species are considered as an important crop and can be submitted to the official Program for Production Support (PROCAMPO) and they are viable to receive financial support for its establishment. This opportunity to support the rangeland has had a low impact, due to the lack of technology to establish and manage rain-fed prairies in arid environments in Mexico, furthermore, grass species seed cost and availability are other limiting factors. However, PROCAMPO inclusion is an important step to both reduce land tillage on a yearly basis and to recognize land cropping as an important opportunity for the production of an exclusive product for peasants. Technical developments to ensure rain-fed prairies (particular product for the common farmer), establishment represents an important gap to be solved. Private landlords neighboring common grasslands, have a variable relation with Ejido cattlemen, due to the fact that cattle will naturally attempt to reach good pastures and water facilities, disregarding artificial land limits. Under such conditions even if the private land producer is interested in improving its rangeland, it becomes difficult to promote and attain its best condition. Differences among degrees of rangeland use between neighbors with paddocks with different management get standardized. As a result, private owners are discouraged to improve their rangeland condition, due to the fact that they will be sustaining someone else’s cattle; let alone the problematic to maintain its own cattle within their property. Rangeland Management Culture Grazing domestic animals modifies rangeland according to their number and these changes are related to the grassland’s forage potential production: direct effect on the soil structure by trampling, soil organic matter content (due to continuous resources harvesting), and the modification on plant composition, among other important aspects. The maintenance of these three components under an “educated” utilization will be reflected on long term survival for grazing production schemes and quality life for the rangeland’s inhabitants (Thurow, 1991). 214
IV SIMPOSIO INTERNACIONAL DE PASTIZALES San Luis Potosí, S.L.P. México; 22 al 24 de agosto de 2007 Artículos in extenso Área temática: Transferencia de Tecnología Balancing these three aspects are the basic activities for farmers willing to preserve rangeland resources and those three aspects are independent from financial support. Continuous lacking of a benefit relation among most of the Ejido shareholders toward rangeland resources has affected the development of a culture to support the grassland. Some of the basic activities we do not observe among Ejidatarios include: a. Vegetative material collection, splicing and planting as activities to reinforce rangeland condition. Roadsides micro-basins as well as isolated areas lacking water availability for animal consumption, result naturally excluded from high grazing pressures, conforming areas containing good vigorous native or introduced plant species, mainly grasses for transplanting during the well established rainy season in areas of low plant density. b. Valuable species plant production from seed. Plant establishment from seed, especially perennial grasses, is difficult to achieve due to both drought intensity and duration, even within the rainy season, also for the low biological activity within cropping areas. Establishment through seed requires traditional agronomic tillage and does not reduce the risk of failure due to the drought, even with good germination levels. Within an overgrazed rangeland, perennial grasses are difficult to recover, even excluding grazing; it may take more than 20 years to recover adequate density of perennial grasses (Rietkirk et al., 1997; Valone and Sauter, 2005); hence, it is very important to support rangeland recovering promoting active solutions. c. Establishment of strategies and agreements for rangeland relief from grazing animal pressure. This must be done when the drought is detected by satellite information combined with computer algorithms (Watts et al., 2000) for weather prediction, as occurs within developed economies (Ruso, 2004), rangeland management under transition schemes (Bestelmeyer et al., 2004), as well as the evaluation of the weather and its effect on grazing systems (Evans and Geerken, 2004). d. Valuable plant species maintenance under excellent vigor. Plant physiology importance is not well understood by the Ejidatarios as well as its benefits. For them, forage utilization overcomes plant survival importance. A vigorous plant responds to good environmental conditions: water availability, soil nutrients availability, and good temperatures, and this response is based on good root carbohydrates accumulation to face hard environmental conditions: drought, winter and domestic animal grazing as a man integrated new challenge for plants. Basic principles must be integrated to the Ejidatarios’ experience on rangeland management: 1) Drought is a constant phenomenon on the arid ecosystems where they are immersed. 2) It is necessary to allow key valuable species of forage to accumulate good root nutritive reserves; it has to be done before the arrival of limiting winter temperatures. Grazing must be stopped at least four weeks before frost conditions begin. Root reserves, as well as remaining stubble, for plant growth areas protection against frozen temperatures, are important aspects to promote the survival of the most utilized forages by cattle (key species) during drought or winter. Once extreme low temperatures season has finished, cattle may consume the stubble without posing a big risk for the plants; other basic activities include: grazing exclusions for rangeland condition dynamics evaluation, seed and plant production areas, rain water harvesting infrastructure (there are for every budget), etc. We do not know the kind of cultural practices that would be observed as a result of a combination of factors as: individual tenacity combined with knowledge and promotion of plant species physiology, daily work, oral tradition, etc. We will never find if there is not an integration of the Ejidatarios toward rangeland dynamics. Education and policies toward the rangeland changes are basic requirements for grassland biodiversity conservation together with an efficient 215
Page 1 and 2:
IV SIMPOSIO INTERNACIONAL DE PASTIZ
Page 3 and 4:
Page 5 and 6:
Page 7 and 8:
Page 9 and 10:
Page 11 and 12:
Page 13 and 14:
Page 15 and 16:
Page 17 and 18:
Page 19 and 20:
Page 21 and 22:
Page 23 and 24:
Page 25 and 26:
Page 27 and 28:
Page 29 and 30:
Page 31 and 32:
Page 33 and 34:
Page 35 and 36:
Page 37 and 38:
Page 39 and 40:
Page 41 and 42:
Page 43 and 44:
Page 45 and 46:
Page 47 and 48:
Page 49 and 50:
Page 51 and 52:
Page 53 and 54:
Page 55 and 56:
Page 57 and 58:
Page 59 and 60:
Page 61 and 62:
Page 63 and 64:
Figura 1. Porcentajes de germinaci
Page 65 and 66:
Page 67 and 68:
Page 69 and 70:
160 140 120 100 80 60 40 20 0 ENE I
Page 71 and 72:
Page 73 and 74:
Page 75 and 76:
Page 77 and 78:
Page 79 and 80:
Page 81 and 82:
Page 83 and 84:
Page 85 and 86:
Page 87 and 88:
Page 89 and 90:
Page 91 and 92:
Page 93 and 94:
Page 95 and 96:
Page 97 and 98:
Page 99 and 100:
Page 101 and 102:
Page 103 and 104:
Page 105 and 106:
Page 107 and 108:
Page 109 and 110:
Page 111 and 112:
Page 113 and 114:
Page 115 and 116:
Page 117 and 118:
Page 119 and 120:
Page 121 and 122:
Page 123 and 124:
Page 125 and 126:
Page 127 and 128:
Page 129 and 130:
Page 131 and 132:
Page 133 and 134:
Page 135 and 136:
Page 137 and 138:
Page 139 and 140:
50 cm 30 cm IV SIMPOSIO INTERNACION
Page 141 and 142:
Page 143 and 144:
Page 145 and 146:
Page 147 and 148:
Page 149 and 150:
Page 151 and 152:
Page 153 and 154:
Page 155 and 156:
Page 157 and 158:
N IV SIMPOSIO INTERNACIONAL DE PAST
Page 159 and 160:
Page 161 and 162: IV SIMPOSIO INTERNACIONAL DE PASTIZ
Page 165 and 166: MS (kg/ha) 3500 3000 2500 2000 1500
Page 211: IV SIMPOSIO INTERNACIONAL DE PASTIZ
Page 263 and 264:
Page 265 and 266:
Page 267 and 268:
show all

ecosystem services to and from north american arid ... - Conabio

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?