Biodiversity–livestock interface: a case study

Abstract

• The protection of environmental and ecological resources and commercial livestock management should not be a contradiction. Although the impact of livestock on wildlife conservation is under debate, it depends on factors such as climate, animal species, and grazing intensity. Eliminating livestock farming is not considered the solution since although it partly contributes to the problem, it also can play a part in the solution participating in the creation and maintenance of the multiple circular flows of nutrients in the soil, water bodies, and suitable conditions for certain wild species. In a pilot monitoring study in mainland Spain, we observed a positive relationship between livestock presence and diversity indexes. • There is a strong linkage between biodiversity and livestock production and win-win outcomes are plausible. Landowners should be facilitated and incentivized, encouraging their involvement in enhancing biodiversity since they are the greatest managers of wildlife. Designing agroecosystems for optimizing and sustaining biodiversity and livestock productivity in the long term is challenging but necessary to reach socially sustainable rural development.