Managing risks related to climate variability in rangeland-based livestock production: What producer driven strategies are shared and prevalent across diverse dryland geographies?

Rangeland-based livestock production (RBLP) primarily occurs in drylands where interannual variation in rainfall directly and indirectly affects economies, plant primary productivity (forage production), and livestock reproduction and mortality. Tight ecological and economic links to climate variation constrain production in dryland systems, but producers have a breadth of strategies to reduce climate-related risks and maintain RBLP. Research on these strategies has focused on context-specific tactics linked to specific systems and/or geographies. Inspired by studies that look for broader patterns to offer frameworks for discourse and to advance collective knowledge, we review global literature to identify risk management strategies related to climate variability that are in widespread use across dryland rangeland systems and geographies. We organize strategies within three key decision areas for producers engaged in RBLP: profit and return options, land use, and herd management. Across the decision areas, four strategies emerge as playing a strong role in risk management across the globe, with refinements based on local conditions. These shared and prevalent producer driven strategies are dynamic management of forage supply (in the decision area of land use), dynamic management of animal demand (in the area of herd management), and diversification and use of social networks (both of which apply across all three decision areas). Within each of the decision areas, we found diversification reduces climate related risks but has circumstances under which it is less effective; for example, large landholders already buffered to risk via landscape diversity benefit less from livelihood diversification. In practice, implementation of the four strategies often results in livestock producers who do not maximize short-term profits but instead prioritize land resilience, large herd sizes, lifestyle goals, and longer-term economic sustainability. In this synthesis, we considered existing producer strategies for reducing risk related to climate related variability -- an intrinsic and defining characteristic of dryland rangelands -- in order to highlight valuable areas in which research can support problem solving across diverse RBLP geographies and economies, especially in a changing climate.

The Economics of Global Climate Change: A Historical Literature Review

We review the literature on the economics of climate change with a focus on the evolution of the literature from some of the early classic papers to the latest contributions. We divide the paper into three main sections: trends in greenhouse gas emissions, mitigation, and adaptation.

Sustainable grazing management for temporal and spatial variability in north Australian rangelands – a synthesis of the latest evidence and recommendations

Rainfall variability is a major challenge to sustainable grazing management in northern Australia, with management often complicated further by large, spatially-heterogeneous paddocks. This paper presents the latest grazing research and associated bio-economic modelling from northern Australia and assesses the extent to which current recommendations to manage for these issues are supported. Overall, stocking around the safe long-term carrying capacity will maintain land condition and maximise long-term profitability. However, stocking rates should be varied in a risk-averse manner as pasture availability varies between years. Periodic wet-season spelling is also essential to maintain pasture condition and allow recovery of overgrazed areas. Uneven grazing distributions can be partially managed through fencing, providing additional water-points and in some cases patch-burning, although the economics of infrastructure development are extremely context-dependent. Overall, complex multi-paddock grazing systems do not appear justified in northern Australia. Provided the key management principles outlined above are applied in an active, adaptive manner, acceptable economic and environmental outcomes will be achieved irrespective of the grazing system applied.