Rangeland condition: its meaning and use

Abstract:

Rangelands occur around the globe in areas to dry or with soils and topography unsuitable for broad-acre farming but fertile and wet enough for pastoralism. Because pastoralism may intensively utilise water and vegetation some rangeland areas can become damaged. This damage means that pastoralism itself ultimately suffers and damage causes conflicts with other land uses such as conserving biodiversity, hunting and gathering bush foods or firewood. Conflicts occur over these multiple uses because people with a sincere interest in rangelands (stakeholders) desire to maintain them in a state of good condition. We define rangelands in good condition as those systems having healthy (i) biophysical functions that include a high capacity to retain water, capture energy, produce biomass, cycle nutrients and provide habitats for diverse populations of native animals, plants and microorganisms, and (ii) socio-economic functions that adequately provide people with their material, cultural and spiritual needs. To maintain rangelands in good condition, these biophysical and socio-economic functions need to be measured and reported. This involves developing monitoring procedures and a system for reporting monitoring information to stakeholders. In Australia, monitoring has historically been conducted by those responsible for maintaining healthy rangelands, typically State and Territory Government Department personnel in collaboration with local land managers and, in some cases, with regional catchment management authorities and natural resource management boards. Reporting rangeland monitoring information to stakeholders is facilitated by the Australian Collaborative Rangeland Information System (ACRIS), which was formed as a partnership between government agencies concerned with rangeland issues. State and Territory Departments provide rangeland monitoring data to the ACRIS, and assist with analysis, synthesis and reporting these data to stakeholders. Two national reports have been produced for stakeholders: Rangelands – Tracking Changes, the Australian Collaborative Rangelands Information System (in 2001), in which ACRIS was proposed, and Rangelands 2008 – Taking the Pulse. The ACRIS Management Committee commissioned this discussion paper to evaluate the way in which biophysical information on vegetation and soils was compiled in the latter report – biodiversity information is being evaluated in another paper – and to recommend possible ways to improve future reporting. This paper also reviews the literature describing the concept of rangeland condition and what it means according to different stakeholders’ values and land use goals.