10. Improving the efficiency of opportunism: new directions for pastoral development

Managing Variability: Herding Strategies in Communal Rangelands of Semiarid Namaqualand, South Africa

“…Unqualified proposals for opportunistic management may not produce the desired results of efficient environmental management if, as Sandford (1995) suggests, opportunism is determined more by an individual's need to balance income and stability than their environmental circumstances. This appears to be the case in a pastoral system such as Paulshoek, with a cash-based economy and a small, spatially bounded area.…”

Rangelands at equilibrium and non-equilibrium: recent developments in the debate

“…However, the economic efficiency and environmental sustainability of tight tracking strategies, particularly those which rely on buying stock after droughts, are still debated (e.g. Sandford, 1994;Illius et al, 1998;Campbell et al, 2000). Rainfall is such an important driving variable in rangeland systems, and its variability so high, that simulation modelling is necessary for exploring the economic outcomes of different stocking strategies.…”

“…Pastoralists employ a variety of strategies to cope with the variability of their environment (Sandford, 1983;Ellis and Swift, 1988;Scoones, 1994). Instead of aiming to keep animal numbers constant, pastoralists allow herd size to change with rainfall (Sandford, 1983(Sandford, , 1994Toulmin, 1994). Drought risks are minimized not by maintaining conservative stocking rates, but rather by allowing livestock numbers to increase in wet years.…”

Assessing optimal configurations of multi-paddock grazing strategies in tallgrass prairie using a simulation model

“…One view is that rangeland ecosystems reach a steadyestate equilibrium primarily in response to a fixed grazing pressure, which logically leads to the conclusion that rangeland degradation (loss of productivity) is attributable to excessive stocking rates per se (Lamprey, 1983;Dean and Macdonald, 1994). An alternative view is that rangelands are non-equilibrium systems responding primarily to variable and unpredictable rainfall, with biotic factors such as grazing exerting only marginal influence (Behnke and Scoones, 1993;Sandford, 1994;Scoones, 1994), which logically leads to the conclusion that fixed stocking rates are unsuitable and "opportunistic" grazing strategies should be employed (Westoby et al, 1989). These strategies typically involve de-stocking at the first indication of a pending drought and rapid restocking after the drought, with no provision for periodic de-stocking of pastures to allow for the recovery of defoliated vegetation, believed by many to be essential to maintain rangeland productivity, ecological function and resilience (Müller et al, 2007;Teague et al, 2004Teague et al, , 2011.…”