Mobile Pastoralism is the most Climate Friendly Livestock Farming System (Day 14)

It’s almost as if pastures along migration routes expect these short stay visitors each year. Without goats this photograph wouldn’t be complete. Pastures are one of the largest carbon sinks on the planet. Mobile pastoralism must be used as a critical tool in the fight against climate change as it maintains carbon-rich soils and sustains ecosystems with high carbon fixation capacity – enabling the practice to contribute directly to climate change mitigation. It is also the livestock production system that requires the least fossil fuel energy, helping reduce in turn the demand of industrial feed whose production and transport produce large GHG emissions. The above points translate into mobile pastoralism being the most climate-friendly livestock production system, and based on these reasons new research demonstrates that policy recommendations to reduce extensive livestock to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions will be counter-productive. Keeping these areas managed under sustainable grazing practices is essential.