Holistic Management Shifts Ranchers’ Mental Models for Successful Adaptive Grazing

IF 2.4 3区 环境科学与生态学 Q2 ECOLOGY
Paige Stanley , Nathan Sayre , Lynn Huntsinger
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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Unprecedented climatic and economic uncertainty, in particular severe drought, calls for management that can preclude some of the costs of reactionary measures for California ranchers. Increasing adaptive capacity has been widely recommended to address such uncertainty. Within this context, holistic management (HM), a decision-making framework marketed for ranchers, is of interest because it emphasizes systems-based thinking, maximizing flexibility and adaptability, ecological monitoring, soil health, and goal setting. Many HM ranchers use adaptive multipaddock (AMP) grazing management, characterized by the combination of moderate to high animal stock densities, fast rotations, pasture rest, iterative monitoring, and adaptive management. We interviewed a small group of AMP-HM ranchers in northern California to 1) examine how their on-the-ground implementation of AMP grazing relates to mental models for rangeland grazing as shaped by HM, including embedded decision-making processes, motivations, barriers, and catalysts; and 2) understand how AMP-HM ranchers believe the strategy helps them respond to increasing challenges. Our findings suggest that first, AMP-HM shifted ranchers’ mental models through its emphasis on monitoring combined with increased interaction with land and animals, changing the ways interviewees saw and understood their management. Second, through its decision-making framework and trainings, AMP-HM increased ranchers’ agency to operationalize new mental models. Together, these two facets culminated in a common suite of strategies that interviewees viewed as key to ranching profitably and sustainably. These include building flexibility into herd sizes and structures to increase temporal and spatial mobility, diversifying ranch enterprises to increase financial flexibility, building soil health, and reducing input costs—all of which have been recommended in rangeland management practices for decades. These findings suggest that AMP-HM, as an integrated package of rangeland management and decision-making practices, accompanied by education and training, may hold promise in helping ranchers strengthen their adaptive capacity and cope with uncertainty.

整体管理改变牧场主的心智模式,实现成功的适应性放牧
前所未有的气候和经济不确定性,尤其是严重干旱,要求管理部门能够避免加州牧场主因采取应对措施而付出一些代价。为应对这种不确定性,人们普遍建议提高适应能力。在此背景下,整体管理 (HM) 这一面向牧场主的决策框架引起了人们的兴趣,因为它强调以系统为基础的思维、最大限度的灵活性和适应性、生态监测、土壤健康和目标设定。许多 HM 型牧场主采用适应性多牧场 (AMP) 放牧管理,其特点是将中高畜群密度、快速轮牧、牧场休牧、迭代监测和适应性管理相结合。我们采访了加利福尼亚州北部的一小部分 AMP-HM 型牧场主,目的是:1)研究他们在实地实施 AMP 型放牧与 HM 形成的牧场放牧心理模型之间的关系,包括内含的决策过程、动机、障碍和催化剂;2)了解 AMP-HM 型牧场主认为该策略如何帮助他们应对日益严峻的挑战。我们的研究结果表明,首先,AMP-HM 通过强调监测以及增加与土地和动物的互动,改变了牧场主的心智模式,改变了受访者对其管理的看法和理解。其次,通过其决策框架和培训,AMP-HM 增强了牧场主将新的心智模式付诸实施的能力。这两个方面最终形成了一套共同的战略,受访者认为这些战略是实现牧场盈利和可持续发展的关键。这些策略包括:在牧群规模和结构中增加灵活性,以提高时空流动性;使牧场企业多样化,以提高财务灵活性;保持土壤健康;降低投入成本--所有这些都是几十年来牧场管理实践中一直推荐的策略。这些研究结果表明,AMP-HM 作为牧场管理和决策实践的综合方案,辅以教育和培训,有望帮助牧场主增强适应能力,应对不确定性。
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来源期刊
Rangeland Ecology & Management
Rangeland Ecology & Management 农林科学-环境科学
CiteScore
4.60
自引率
13.00%
发文量
87
审稿时长
12-24 weeks
期刊介绍: Rangeland Ecology & Management publishes all topics-including ecology, management, socioeconomic and policy-pertaining to global rangelands. The journal''s mission is to inform academics, ecosystem managers and policy makers of science-based information to promote sound rangeland stewardship. Author submissions are published in five manuscript categories: original research papers, high-profile forum topics, concept syntheses, as well as research and technical notes. Rangelands represent approximately 50% of the Earth''s land area and provision multiple ecosystem services for large human populations. This expansive and diverse land area functions as coupled human-ecological systems. Knowledge of both social and biophysical system components and their interactions represent the foundation for informed rangeland stewardship. Rangeland Ecology & Management uniquely integrates information from multiple system components to address current and pending challenges confronting global rangelands.
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