Mediterranean Landscape Re-Greening at the Expense of South American Agricultural Expansion

Abstract

The stabling of livestock farming implies changes in both local ecosystems (regeneration of forest stands via reduced grazing) and those located thousands of kilometers away (deforestation to produce grain for feeding livestock). Despite their importance, these externalities are poorly known. Here we evaluated how the intensification and confinement of livestock in Spain has affected forest surface changes there and in South America, the largest provider of soybeans for animal feed to the European Union. For this purpose, we have used Spanish soybean import data from Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina and a land condition map of Spain. The area of secondary forest in Spain that has regenerated as a result of livestock stabling has been ~7000 kha for the decade 2000–2010. In the same period, 1220 kha of high value South American ecosystems (e.g. Chaco dry Forest, Amazonian rainforest or Cerrado) have been deforested. While these figures may offer a favorable interpretation of the current industrial livestock production, it is not possible to speak of compensation when comparing the destruction of well-structured ecosystems, such as primary South American forests, with the creation of secondary forest landscapes in Spain, which are also prone to wildfires. Our results highlight how evaluating land use change policies at a national or regional level is an incomplete exercise in our highly telecoupled and globalized world.

Desertification in Spain: A Sound Diagnosis without Solutions and New Scenarios

“…(ii) Over 2 Mha of cropland have been lost so far in the 21st century (Figure 3A), and livestock farming is now mainly carried out in industrial sheds [36,37]. Between 2005 and 2013, over 108,000 farms have been lost and the only category showing considerable growth (25%) is those without grazing land [38] (Figure 3C). Abandoned lands are at the mercy of various threats of degradation [39,40], as we will discuss below.…”

“…In terms of livestock farming, Spain is immersed in the so-called livestock revolution [43]. In general, animal production is decoupled from the environment due to the process of livestock intensification that has occurred over the last decades in Spain [38]. Consequently, overgrazing and erosion-related processes have vanished.…”

“…Spain has become the leading feed producer in the EU [45], and its meat production continues to grow (Figure 3D). The general improvement in land condition and the huge import of soya used in the manufacture of animal feed [38] can be interpreted as a transfer of the degradation to those regions that produce the raw materials.…”

Extensive sheep grazing is associated with trends in steppe birds in Spain: recommendations for the Common Agricultural Policy

“…During the second half of the 20th century, land abandonment due to rural depopulation generated a reduction in extensive sheep farming in Spain, as well an increase in stocking rates ( Soto et al, 2016 ; Martínez-Valderrama et al, 2021 ). However, changes in CAP subsidies during the 21st century have also led to important structural changes in the sector ( De Rancourt et al, 2006 ).…”

“…An example is the decoupling of CAP payments in 2003, which provoked a decrease in sheep numbers in less-favoured areas, while the persistence of CAP subsidies coupled to cattle and beef-cattle production has provoked a shift from sheep-based to cattle-based systems in permanent pastures ( Ramos et al, 2021 ; Faria & Morales, 2020 ; Mújica et al, 2015 ), usually with an increase in stocking rate. All of these changes have had a great impact on land use ( Soto et al, 2016 ; Riedel, Casasús & Bernués, 2007 ) and have led to an increase in shrub and tree cover in these areas ( Martínez-Valderrama et al, 2021 ). While a number of studies have assessed the relationship between grazing pressure and bird abundance in farmlands and uplands in the United Kingdom ( Newton, 2004 ; Douglas et al, 2017 ; Fuller & Gough, 1999 ), our current knowledge about the association between grazing and farmland and steppe birds in Mediterranean landscapes is still limited (see Leal et al, 2019 ; Riedel, Casasús & Bernués, 2007 ; Reino et al, 2010 ).…”