Climate Change Impacts on African Rangelands

Abstract

Africa; nearly 13 million km 2 or 5.1 million square miles), although a signifi cant amount of livestock production also occurs within the agricultural lands and some also on the margins of bare soil environments, particularly during above-average rainfall years. Their composition and productivity are infl uenced primarily by rainfall, fi re, and grazing, although over longer time frames, changes in temperature and the concentration of atmospheric CO 2 are also important.A wide range of land use systems, governed by often complex land tenure arrangements, affect Africa's rangelands. Within this complexity, there are three main types of livestock systems: 1) industrial livestock systems, 2) agropastoral and pastoral systems, and 3) smallholder croplivestock systems. Irrespective of the system used, however, livestock are central to the livelihoods of more than 200 million Africans who rely on them for income from sales of milk, meat, and skins, and for protein consumption, draft power, and ritual and spiritual needs, among other uses. Owning livestock is one way by which many people are able to diversify their risk, increase their assets, and improve their resilience to sudden changes in climate, disease outbreaks, and unfavorable market fl uctuations.Agricultural production (of which livestock production is an important part) not only contributes to the livelihoods of individual households, but also to the continent's economy as a whole. It accounts for 20-30% of the gross domestic product of sub-Saharan Africa and 55% of African exports. Despite rapid rates of urbanization, more than 60% of Africans still live in rural areas, and more than 56% of the total labor force (estimated at over 200 million people) was engaged in some form of agricultural activity in 2002. Estimates are that nearly 90% of the poorest inhabitants work primarily in agriculture and more than two thirds own E ven though Africa has contributed the least to global greenhouse gas emissions, it is considered the continent most susceptible to climate change impacts because of 1) the large proportion of people who live in the subtropics, a region predicted to be affected by increased temperature and reduced precipitation; 2) the high dependence of people on natural resources, livestock, and agriculture for their livelihoods; 3) extreme poverty in many parts of Africa, which makes it diffi cult for affected people to respond to an increased incidence of drought and fl oods; and 4) the degraded state of Africa's natural resources, which renders them less resilient to the impact of higher temperatures and lower and more variable precipitation. Africa's Rangelands and Their Importance to the ContinentAfrica covers about 30 million km 2 (11.6 million square miles) and, although it is slightly smaller in size than Asia, it is unique in having its land mass distributed more or less equally in both hemispheres. Its vast length (8,050 km or 4,990 miles), breadth (7,560 km or 4,867 miles) and elevation range (−153 to 5,895 m or −500 to 19,340 feet) results...

Farmers’ perceptions of climate change and its implication on livestock production in mixed-farming system areas of Bale highlands, Southeast Ethiopia

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