Knowledge and insights gained from the research studies on Climate-induced changes in nomadic behaviors and Nature-based solutions for rehabilitating degraded rangelands

Pakistan is an arid and semi-arid country of which major land areas are comprised of rangelands. Literature review, key informant interviews with communities, users, regulators, and other stakeholders, field observations, focused group discussions, and other secondary sources of information like remote sensing and spatial analyses were used for this study. Resultantly, a SWOT matrix was drawn. The key drivers of climate-induced changes in nomadic behaviors and rangeland degradation were presented along with the short, medium, and long-term measures for nature-based ecological restoration. Conducting research studies/trials for assessing the feeding preferences of grazing and browsing animals - profiling of plant palatability and nutrition for saving the highly palatable and nutritious plants from high pressures and informing the grazing management is suggested. It is noted that palatability, nutritional value, digestibility, and mineral content are important characteristics of range vegetation. Best practices in feeding management need to be learned, tested, and disseminated. Nutritional profiling of range vegetation can help better plan the ecosystem improvement initiatives. There is also a need for Pakistan, in particular, to learn from the best practices in animal feeding in rangelands. Given the climate change, water-efficient vegetation be identified and expanded - which plants are there when there is no rain. Deep-rooted and drought-resistant, high in biomass and nutrition content, good in digestibility and palatability species of grasses, gravel shrubs, and trees be propagated after their successful trials. Trees could include suaberry (Zizyphus), oak, polosa, toot. Grafting of livestock/range-friendly scions over the indigenous deep-rooted rootstock could be an option for creating a win-win situation of low water intake and high biomass yield.

Knowledge and insights gained from the research studies on Climate-induced changes in nomadic behaviors and Nature-based solutions for rehabilitating degraded rangelands Keywords:

Ecosystem services , Climate change , Awareness raising , Livestock farming