Range management for eastern Africa concepts and practices
2006
Alemayehu Mengistu
Rangelands are plants of the total land system used by mankind. Rangelands cover 47% of world land area. rangelands are home both to significant concentrations of large mamals and plants with high value in both leisure and scientific terma and to human populations that have historically been excluded and marginalized pastoralists and hunter-gatherers. Rangelands are endowed with diverse resources which comprise of many different products and services such as marketable products such meat, and recreational services. All range resources need to be weighted against the uses to mazimize the accrued benefits. The benefit may be societal, ecological, nutritional or financial, and the conflicts inevitable in deciding amongst these priorities must be resolved. A responsible attitude to conservation of range as natural resource and good ecological understanding is essential to the range manager for effective range conservation. Vegetation dynamic is common phenomenon in the rangelands and there is need for the range managers to understand these changes to improve the productivity of these rangelands to meet the management purposes. These changes can be daily annual seasonal or successional. These changes can be due to land use systems or climatic changes. There is need to differentiate such kind of changes to respond appropriately. Range condition and trend are principle terms as well as management tools used in rangeland management. The condition and trend are dynamic and they should be assessed continuously using consistent methodologies. Parameters used to measure the condition and trend are vetetation types, composition, abundance, soil nutrients dynamic, erosion and compaction.
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