David R. Kemp

Since 1990, the number of livestock in Mongolia has more than doubled. In large areas of Mongolia, grassland degradation is now a problem of national concern. A survey was done of 10 herders in two Soums (Altanbulag and Khashaat; heavily and moderately degraded, respectively) to measure the animals (sheep, goats, cattle and horse numbers, sex and weights) and grasslands (species and biomass) every 3 months from April 2017 to December 2018. Rainfall is mostly in summer and mean monthly temperatures vary from –20 to 20°C. Throughout the study, the grassland herbage mass in summer was less than 0.5 t dry matter/ha, below that considered sustainable for the steppe. Herders had 200–1000 sheep equivalents (SE, 50 kg base weight), moved camps 2–4 times each year and stocking rates varied from 0.5–1 SE/ha. Female animals reached their mature weights by 4 years of age (sheep 50 kg, goats 40 kg, cattle 350 kg, horses 300 kg). Animals only grew over summer, but a significant part of that was compensatory gain in animals >1 year old. Over winter, sheep and goats lost 21–29% of their liveweight, cattle and horses 15–30%. The weaning rate was 43–48% across species. The male:female ratio (>2 years old) was sheep 63%, goats 72%, cattle 27% and horses 106%. All animals are managed in common mobs with no particular control of breeding. Areas where the efficiency of livestock production and grassland productivity could be improved are discussed.

The 400 m ha of grazing lands in China, mainly across the north and west of the country, have similar problems to those throughout the steppe of Mongolia, Central Asia and neighbouring countries. The grasslands are in drier regions (50–500 mm) across mainly Inner Mongolia, Xinjiang, Tibet, Qinghai, Gansu and Sichuan, often at higher altitudes on the Tibetan, Mongolian and Loess Plateaus, and have for millennia supported the livelihoods of millions of herders. By 2002, surveys were classifying 90% of the grasslands as degraded. Less than 10% were considered desertified to the extent that replanting was the only option to restore some plant cover. The majority of the grasslands were considered capable of being rehabilitated to some degree through changing management practices. In the 1980s the first Grassland Laws were promulgated, initiating a series of programs aimed at rehabilitating the grasslands. These programs included the establishment of individual ‘user rights’ to herders to use a defined area of grassland and the imposition of grazing bans, often for five years, to rehabilitate degraded areas. These were often applied at a regional level. At the same time, herders were encouraged to have more livestock as that was seen as a pathway to lift them from poverty. The sheep equivalent of grazing animals for the whole of China, has increased 4-fold since 1949, often by greater amounts in some regions. But there was very limited work done on how best to manage grazing livestock in ways that could aid grassland rehabilitation. In the early 2000s a collaborative program was started between several Australian and Chinese Institutes, to investigate better ways of rehabilitating the grasslands and to improve herder incomes from livestock. This work involved the development of four models that could use the limited data available, to help guide a series of research programs. These models indicated that halving stocking rates could maintain or increase herder net incomes. Farm demonstrations showed this result applied in practice and grasslands did improve. A series of grazing experiments found that halving the current stocking rates was needed to enable the survival of the better plant species within the grassland. A model that estimated the net value of each animal indicated that often half the animals were generating marginal or negative incomes, and could be culled without affecting the household income, again substantiated in farm demonstrations. In this paper, the causes of degradation, which can be traced back to the progressive changes that have occurred in China since 1949, are discussed together with the practice changes that have come from a large collaborative research program between Australia and China. Efficient markets and land tenure reform are needed to help create the incentives for herders to change in sustainable ways.

Grasslands provide not only a range of food and fibre and other provisioning services but also a range of environmental services. This chapter identifies, and compares and contrasts the relative importance of these services in China and Mongolia. It also discusses the set of these environmental services in both countries and describes the links between the services. The link between grassland degradation and these services is also examined.

Based on the understanding of the grassland ecology and of environmental, livestock production and market systems in Mongolia and China, and on an understanding of herder attitudes, perceptions and behavioural responses, this chapter discusses how incentives can be strengthened to meet the objectives of improved grassland condition and herder livelihoods. The chapter draws on a typology of environmental policies to examine how the incentives can be strengthened and policies improved. For instance, the chapter draws on the empirical analysis in Chapter 7 to discuss the effectiveness of policy instruments such as livestock taxes or ecocompensation payments to reduce stocking rates, on Chapters 2 and 6 to discuss issues related to compliance and enforcement of grassland policies, and on Chapters 2, 3, 4 and 6 to discuss moral suasion efforts and instruments that alter herder property and grassland use rights. The comparative analysis of Inner Mongolia and Mongolia throughout the book is drawn on for additional insights on strengthening the incentives and formulating strategies.

Australia has vast areas of grazing lands covering around two-thirds of a continent larger than the continental United States of America. Since European settlement after 1788 the area of grasslands has increased due to land clearing and management of those grasslands has progressed from an exploitive through reactive periods. The exploitive phase saw the rapid expansion of livestock across the continent, often resulting in overexploitation of natural resources as farmers tried to establish the optimal stocking rate. The reactive phase was first characterized by moving on to new areas as existing grasslands were overused, then, when much of the available land had been cleared, rehabilitation was attempted by sowing introduced species. As the terms of trade for livestock production continued to become less positive, farmers then focused more on trying to make better use of the naturalized mixtures that developed under livestock grazing, and only resorting to pasture re-sowing where economic benefits from so doing were clear. Coming to terms with a unique and drier landscape characterized much of the early period of European settlement. Early grazing research tended to be focused on livestock performance and did not always provide solutions to the longer-term management of grasslands. More recently, research has developed more efficient management practices to rehabilitate or maintain the grassland resource base. Farming practices are changing, as 490better rules have been developed to define when and why animals are moved between paddocks. Examples are discussed of where the subtle use of strategic rest and graze periods can rehabilitate grasslands and enhance production. The future management of Australia's grasslands will, however, require a more proactive approach based upon the application of a broad definition of sustainable systems and a more rational consensus as to how producers need to manage grazing ecosystems over the longer term. Increasing social pressures require a more environmentally friendly approach rather than an exploitive, degradation pathway. To achieve such a preferred future will require considerable research into sustainable grazing systems and extension programmes that deliver the necessary tools to farmers. It is argued that solutions are possible that would improve the productivity of grasslands while satisfying the needs for more sustainable, biodiverse environments. Future markets could include payments to farmers for environmental services and maintaining the resource base that will affect how grasslands are managed. Many of the impacts and lessons learnt in Australia are paralleled in numerous other countries.

Grasslands are the predominant forage source for grazing animals and cover more of the Earth's land than any other major vegetation type. Their values are not always recognised, and conversion to other uses is continuing at a high rate leading to greater environmental and socio‐economic problems. Overgrazing is one of the main drivers of productivity decline of grasslands, reflecting the pressures from excessive human populations and a demand for food. Some 20% of the world's grasslands are in a severely degraded state; others have suffered shifts to less‐desirable species. Biodiversity and greenhouse gas production have also been particular concerns. Estimates of productivity change all show a decline over recent decades, yet animal numbers continue to increase, particularly in the developing world. This paper critically reviews the projected demands for livestock products, driven largely by human population growth; the current health of the world's grasslands and how current livestock systems that depend on land conversion and overexploitation of grassland are inappropriate and need to be improved. Central to this argument is that small holders in the developing world will be responsible for a large amount of the future red meat production, and this can be achieved through more efficient livestock production systems using lower stocking rates. The Australian sheep industry is provided as an example of how livestock production and reduced environmental impacts can be achieved with improved efficiency. Changes will require smallholders to transition to a competitive, market‐oriented livestock industry, which will provide challenges.

Grazing management systems seek to control the relationship among animals, plants and soil by regulating the number of animals and the duration and location of animals. A greater understanding of the diet selection and activity of livestock within grazing systems will assist producers to make informed management decisions about their management within complex pastures. In the present paper, differences in the diet quality, selection and activity of ewes managed within contrasting systems (continuous-grazing (CG) and an intensive (20-paddock) rotational-grazing (RG) system) within a native pasture in the Central Tablelands of New South Wales, using non-invasive methodologies, are described. During two time periods (late spring and early autumn), the animals grazing within the CG system consumed a diet of higher quality and spent less time active than did those within the RG system. These differences resulted in higher individual animal production of CG animals that were able to maintain the herbage of preferred areas in a vegetative and highly nutritious state. The grazing animals selected the green herbage of higher quality than the average pasture and adjusted their selection seasonally. An underlying mechanism driving selection is the green : dead ratio of the herbage. Practically the results indicated that the green : dead ratio (or greenness) of herbage may provide a management trigger to enhance the production of animals grazing within a RG system, in particular during periods of higher requirement.

Microlaena stipoides (microlaena) is an important perennial grass in over 7 million hectares of native pastures in southern Australia and can survive and persist despite severe soil water deficits during summer. Many other pasture species survive similar conditions by relying on summer dormancy, which raises the possibility that microlaena may behave similarly. A field experiment using rainout shelters was conducted on an existing microlaena pasture in north-east Victoria. The experiment was a split-plot design with two watering treatments (‘summer storm’ or ‘summer dry’) as main plots and three defoliation treatments (nil, intense defoliation, strategic defoliation) as subplots. The ‘summer storm’ treatment resulted in the formation of new buds and tillers and increased basal cover from 1% in February to 18% in March. A glasshouse pot experiment examined the recovery of microlaena after different periods of drought and subsequent rewatering. In the pot experiment, microlaena withstood relatively short (up to 30 days) dry periods and then recovered when rewatered. Thus, it appears that microlaena is a persistent, perennial pasture plant that, although it survives very dry summers in Mediterranean areas, is not summer dormant. Microlaena does not exhibit summer dormancy in response to moisture stress and enter a quiescent stage, because normal growth is prevented by the lack of water, but it quickly recommences growth when soil water becomes available. The ability of microlaena to withstand summer soil water deficits and to recruit from seedlings make it a valuable pasture species across drought-prone environments, and this undoubtedly partly explains its very broad adaptation across eastern Australia.