Overgrazing Policy Pressures and Policy Options

Increased Overgrazing

The policy pressures that contribute to overgrazing in arid, semi-arid and sub-humid systems are of various types and include:

- Inappropriate land tenure policies that fail to respect local natural resource management practices and constraints

- Inappropriate financial policies, including for example:

> - subsidies on feed as drought relief
> - subsidies for dryland cropping
> - exchange rate and import/export policies

- Lack of encouragement of banking institutions

Reduced Overgrazing

Policy options that can lessen the risk of overgrazing in these systems include:

- policies on land tenure and related issues

- strengthening local natural resource management
- promoting conflict resolution mechanisms
- curtailing direct control of stocking rates
- introducing well-designed grazing fee regimes
- drought management policies
- planning of water point provision
- human service delivery to mobile pastoralists
- zoning of rangelands

- financial policies to:

- remove subsidies on feed
- remove subsidies for dryland cropping
- create price incentives for offtake and for stratification
- establishment of pastoral banking systems

- encouragement of non-pastoral employment

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