Fragmentation of Australian rangelands: processes, benefits and risks of changing patterns of land use
C. J. Stokes A C , R. R. J. McAllister B and A. J. Ash BA CSIRO, Sustainable Ecosystems, Davies Laboratory, PMB PO Aitkenvale, Qld 4814, Australia.
B CSIRO, Sustainable Ecosystems, 306 Carmody Road, St Lucia, Qld 4067, Australia.
C Corresponding author. Email: chris.stokes@csiro.au
The Rangeland Journal 28(2) 83-96 https://doi.org/10.1071/RJ05026
Submitted: 26 July 2005 Accepted: 8 November 2005 Published: 9 November 2006
Abstract
Pastoral development of Australian rangelands has been accompanied by fragmentation of land use, which has changed the scale at which humans and livestock access patchily-distributed resources in landscapes. These changes have tended to be targeted towards achieving narrowly defined policy or land management objectives, and have ignored the broader consequences for land use. We describe the processes of rangeland fragmentation, the factors that have driven these changing patterns of land use, and current trends towards enterprise consolidation and intensification, which continue to reshape the way humans and livestock use rangelands. Although there is growing interest in intensified systems of rangeland management, some of the benefits are uncertain, and there are several risks that serve as a caution against overoptimism: (i) intensification involves multiple simultaneous changes to enterprise operations and the benefits and trade offs of each component need to be better understood; (ii) if intensification proceeds without addressing constraints to implementing these management options sustainably then overutilisation and degradation of rangelands is likely to occur; (iii) further fragmentation of rangelands (from increased internal fencing) could compromise potential benefits derived from landscape heterogeneity in connected landscapes. Adaptation by the pastoral industry continues to reshape the use of rangelands. A broad-based approach to changes in land use that incorporates risks together with expected benefits during initial planning decisions would contribute to greater resilience of rangeland enterprises.
Additional keywords: grazing systems, heterogeneity, land tenure, synchronisation.
Acknowledgments
This work is part of the SCALE project, and was supported by a US National Science Foundation Grant #DEB-0119618 and the CSIRO Complex Systems Science centre. We are grateful to the landholders participating in this study for their involvement, and for sharing their knowledge and experiences with us. Leigh Hunt, Iain Gordon and 2 anonymous reviewers provided comments that helped to improve this paper.
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