Indicators in the study sites

Table of Contents

1. Compilers and contributors
2. Introduction
3. Climate indicators
4. Water indicators
5. Soil indicators
6. Vegetation indicators
7. Water runoff indicators
8. Forest fires indicators
9. Agriculture indicators
10. Cultivation indicators
11. Animal husbandry indicators
    1. Grazing control
    2. Grazing intensity
12. Land management indicators
13. Land use indicators
14. Water use indicators
15. Tourism indicators
16. Human characteristics indicators
17. Institutional indicators
18. Conclusions
19. References

Animal husbandry indicators

Desertification of grazing lands and landscapes caused by grazing animals is a complex process affecting both vegetation and soil characteristics. Grazing animals remove in the first stage the more palatable species followed by less palatable ones, which finally these species dominate in the grazed area. In addition, trampling on the soil surface by the animal hooves exerts high pressure resulting in soil compaction, digging and soil structure deterioration. Therefore, degradation of vegetation, accompanied by decrease in plant cover and destruction of surface soil aggregates, favors surface water runoff generation and soil loss. Soils in grazing lands are shallow overlying the bedrock. Thus any loss of soil negatively affects vegetation growth and water storage capacity, leading in extreme cases to desertification. Besides overgrazing, undergrazing can also cause desertification due to the growth of high amount of flammable biomass affecting ignition of wildfires and leading to high erosion rates and degradation of the land. In addition, undergazed lands which are not burned are invaded by woody species resulting in loss of biodiversity due to high plant competition which is also a form of ecological decline. Therefore, a sustainable grazing of the pasture land is considered the best land management practice for protecting such areas from desertification. The following two indicators have been selected for assessing desertification risk related to grazing: (a) grazing control, and (b) grazing intensity.

Table 9. Number of field sites in which indicators related to husbandry was recorded in the filled questionnaires