Integration of Livestock and Wildlife

Environmental Issues Population pressure and agriculture encroachment on natural ecosystems is increasing rapidly in many countries, threatening wildlife. Livestock farming or agricultural activity often requires prior transformation of natural land and leads to progressive deterioration of wild animal habitats and the reduction of indigenous animal and plant biodiversity. | Environmental Issues Impact

A large proportion of wild animals live in unprotected areas. For example, it is recognised 70% of the big mammals in Kenya live outside reserves. Areas of extensive livestock ranching are equally suitable as habitats for wildlife: protection of the biodiversity should also occur in unprotected areas.

Protected areas are expensive, not always economically sustainable, not always easily accepted or respected by neighbouring rural people, and consequently cause conflicts.

However, economic exploitation and conservation of natural habitats are not incompatible. They may be achieved simultaneously by proper management of wild animal populations. Utilisation combining livestock and wildlife has many advantages because the wild species are locally adapted and the farmers find it advantageous to diversify activities and productions.

| Cattle and impala (Aepyceros melampus) foraging in the same savannah woodland on a mixed game-cattle ranch in Zimbabwe (Kelvin Grove ranch, ARDA Battlefield, Mashonaland West)

Impact

- Positive environmental impact

- Combining livestock farming and synergetic resources can preserve or even increase animal wealth. Integration takes advantage of complementary use of diverse niches.
- The impact of a herd comprising several herbivore species on vegetation and soil is less marked than that of a comparable herd composed of a single species (see Choice of herbivores, mixed species herds).
- Degradation of natural pastures (graze) can prove negative for the livestock (reduction in forage accessible to the animals) but can improve the habitat of some wild species (for example bush encroachment encourages browsers).
- Apart from notable exceptions (rinderpest, MCF…), there is no sanitary incompatibility between wildlife and livestock.

- Negative environmental impact

- Livestock farming can lead to changes in vegetation and other components of the environment which are likely to alter wildlife habitats (for example, bush encroachment disadvantages grazers). (Another example, degradation of river banks and water pollution can be harmful to certain aquatic species).

- There can be direct competition on pasture resources of domestic species with certain wild species. This is true for wild animals and also for plant species (forage plants, plants carried by animals).

- Wild animals can be a source of disease or parasites for domestic animals, just as domestic animals can promote the transmission of diseases affecting wildlife.

- The removal of health constraints (for example tsetse control) enables domestic herds to access virgin natural spaces

Situations in which mixing livestock/wildlife can be advantageous:

- The combination of livestock and synergetic resources can be a means of preserving wild animal diversity, or even increasing it.
- Hunting carried out in controlled conditions can help in the conservation of wild species.
- In some situations, the allocation to people or communities of rights (ownership or usufruct) over land and wildlife can contribute to sound and sustainable management of natural resources.
- Farming wild species can contribute to reducing pressure on wild populations (see Unconventional livestock production).
- The removal of health constraints (for example tsetse control) enables livestock to enter previously unhealthy areas where only wild animals managed to survive.

Situations in which mixing livestock/wildlife can be disadvantageous:

- All indirect impact of human activity on wildlife. Impact of agriculture on wildlife is much more significant than pastoralism by modification or destruction of habitats.
- The direct impacts on wildlife caused by excessive harvesting of the wildlife resource. The opening of natural habitats to human activities (for example control of insect vectors of diseases, development of infrastructures) requires appropriate measures to control wildlife off-take.

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