The contribution of the commons to the persistence of mountain grazing systems under the Common Agricultural Policy

Galán, E.; Garmendia, Eneko; Garcia, Oihana

doi:10.1016/j.landusepol.2022.106089

Cited by 8 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 38 publications

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“…We show that the management of savanna ecosystems is possible by community governed village institutions and that this management intervention has benefits for livelihood and biodiversity. Such community governed management of commons has also been successful in managing waterbodies in Madhya Pradesh, India (Falk et al, 2020; Galán et al, 2022).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Enhancing ecosystem services through collaborative grass removal and fire exclusion in the Eastern Ghats

Soman,

Anjaneyulu,

Kumar

et al. 2023

Biotropica

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Human activities in mesic savanna ecosystems have resulted in plant communities that are heavily dominated by fire‐tolerant grass species, are less diverse, and offer fewer ecosystem services such as palatable plant biomass. Experimental studies manipulating fire and grass presence have mostly been conducted in ecosystems invaded by exotic grass species. However, these experiments are also relevant to ecosystems that have become dominated by native grass species due to changes in human activities. Our study compared three different management treatments in the Eastern Ghats of India, where mesic savanna ecosystems are highly dominated by the unpalatable native Cymbopogon grasses, specifically: (1) control (both Cymbopogon grasses and fire are present), (2) fire exclusion, and (3) manual removal of Cymbopogon grasses and fire exclusion. We found that both grass removal and fire exclusion were necessary to significantly increase palatable herbaceous plant biomass and species diversity, and that species diversity responses were only significant at larger spatial grains of investigation. High site‐to‐site variation in the grass removal and fire exclusion treatment prevented us from detecting significant differences in species composition across treatments, even though particular palatable grass species benefited from the treatment. Our study is in line with research from other mesic savanna systems showing that fire management alone is not sufficient to transition ecosystems to a desired or historical state. We demonstrate how normally costly management practices, such as manual removal of dominant grasses, can be reasonably achieved through collaboration between scientists, community governed village institutions, and government and nongovernment agencies in socioecological systems.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Enhancing ecosystem services through collaborative grass removal and fire exclusion in the Eastern Ghats

Soman,

Anjaneyulu,

Kumar

et al. 2023

Biotropica

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The Food Commons Approach “Put to the Test”: A Viable Alternative for the Achievement of the EU Goals for More Sustainable Food Systems?

Manzoni

2024

LITES - Legal Issues in Transdisciplinary Environmental Studies

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Governance, Mobility, and Pastureland Ecology. An Eco-Anthropological Study of Three Pastoral Commons in Northeastern Andalusia

Godoy-Sepúlveda,

Sanosa-Cols,

Parra

et al. 2024

Hum Ecol

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Community-based natural resource governance is increasingly valued by the leading international organizations that promote environmental conservation and sustainable development. At the same time, the ecosystems of the northeastern Andalusian mountains are intrinsically related to the long-standing presence of pastoralism and its different communal forms that have favored a very particular biocultural diversity and sustainable socio-ecological systems locally. Through a transdisciplinary anthropological and ecological study, we aimed to compare how different types of communal governance and pastoral mobilities impact pasturelands in the region. We focused on three contiguous mountain pastoral commons, those of Castril, Santiago de la Espada, and Pontones, which exhibit different forms of communal organization and two main transhumant types of mobility: long-distance and short-distance transhumance. We conducted long-term ethnographic fieldwork with year-round participatory observations of social life, pastoral practices, and governance systems, and performed botanical and soil analyses. As a general result, we found that local pastoralism positively impacts the environment. There were differences between commons and mobility regimes, with a positive impact related mainly to closer forms of cooperation between herders and daily guiding of flocks, along with seasonal long-distance transhumance, especially when the latter is combined with stricter formal community rules. Within the current context highly determined by public subventions, particularly from the EU, primarily directed at pastureland management’s administrative and economic aspects, local governance increasingly favors these methods over the conservation of traditional, sustainable uses of pastures. This innovative research marks the first step towards a sounder intertwining of anthropological and ecological approaches towards a more holistic understanding of pastoral commons in general and in the Mediterranean region specifically.

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The contribution of the commons to the persistence of mountain grazing systems under the Common Agricultural Policy

Cited by 8 publications

References 38 publications

Enhancing ecosystem services through collaborative grass removal and fire exclusion in the Eastern Ghats

Enhancing ecosystem services through collaborative grass removal and fire exclusion in the Eastern Ghats

The Food Commons Approach “Put to the Test”: A Viable Alternative for the Achievement of the EU Goals for More Sustainable Food Systems?

Governance, Mobility, and Pastureland Ecology. An Eco-Anthropological Study of Three Pastoral Commons in Northeastern Andalusia

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