Capturing and storing carbon in soil: Is it real and can it scale?

EurekAlert via Arizona State University: Can beef production help restore ecosystems? A team of scientists, advisors and communications specialists are banding together to explore whether ranching management can create robust soils, watersheds and wildlife habitat while sequestering atmospheric carbon dioxide.

The Arizona State University-SoilCarbon Nation team is examining the adaptive multi-paddock (AMP) grazing management technique that involves using small-sized fields to provide short periods of grazing for livestock and long recovery periods for fields. The method mimics the migrations of wild herd animals, such as elk, bison and deer. The science team proposes a whole system science measurement approach in comparing AMP grazing with conventional, continuous grazing methods.

Peter Byck, professor of practice at the School of Sustainability and the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at ASU, is helping organize the project. "By using measures - such as the carbon stored, the water absorbed and retained, populations of fungi, bacteria, wild life and insects, and rancher and animal well-being - we are comparing adaptive grazing with conventional grazing to see if the former actually improves ranch ecosystems," he said. "We hope to study and compare 36 ranches located in four diverse eco-regions across the U.S. and southern Canada."

While individual members of the team concentrate on aspects and impacts of various grazing techniques, Byck's focus is to discover whether the methods store carbon in the soil, and if so, which is the most successful.

According to Byck, the idea for the project came from researching Soil Carbon Cowboys, a short Carbon Nation 2.0 film made in collaboration with ASU. His feature documentary, 2011's Carbon Nation, focuses on climate change solutions....

"While filming Soil Carbon Cowboys, we came across ranchers who were adopting healthier grazing practices to rejuvenate their land and their livestock," said Byck. "What they did not know is that they were helping capture a significant amount of carbon dioxide from the air."....

US Agricultural Research Service photo of a cattle herd

Research finds lethal wolf control backfires on livestock

A press release from Washington State University: Washington State University researchers have found that it is counter-productive to kill wolves to keep them from preying on livestock. Shooting and trapping lead to more dead sheep and cattle the following year, not fewer.

Writing in the journal PLOS ONE, WSU wildlife biologist Rob Wielgus and data analyst Kaylie Peebles say that, for each wolf killed, the odds of more livestock depredations increase significantly. See the paper at http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0113505.

The trend continues until 25 percent of the wolves in an area are killed. Ranchers and wildlife managers then see a “standing wave of livestock depredations,” said Wielgus. Moreover, he and Peebles write, that rate of wolf mortality “is unsustainable and cannot be carried out indefinitely if federal relisting of wolves is to be avoided.”

The gray wolf was federally listed as endangered in 1974. During much of its recovery in the northern Rocky Mountains, government predator control efforts have been used to keep wolves from attacking sheep and livestock. With wolves delisted in 2012, sport hunting has also been used. But until now, the effectiveness of lethal control has been what Wielgus and Peebles call a “widely accepted, but untested, hypothesis.”

Their study is the largest of its kind, analyzing 25 years of lethal control data from U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services Interagency Annual Wolf Reports in Montana, Wyoming and Idaho. The researchers found that killing one wolf increases the odds of depredations 4 percent for sheep and 5 to 6 percent for cattle. If 20 wolves are killed, livestock deaths double.

Work reported in PLOS ONE last year by Peebles, Wielgus and other WSU colleagues found that lethal controls of cougars also backfire, disrupting their populations so much that younger, less disciplined cougars attack more livestock....

A female gray wolf, shot by Seney Natural History Association, Wikimedia Commons, under the Creative Commons 2.0 license 

Drought hits Central America's crops, cattle

Seed Daily via AFP: ...Nicaragua and the rest of Central America has been hit by a major drought that has killed thousands of cattle, dried up crops and forced cities to ration electricity. Costa Rica, Honduras and Guatemala have declared emergencies in the worst affected areas to speed up aid delivery. El Salvador and Nicaragua have opened special funds to help farmers.

In northern Nicaragua, vultures are eating the carcasses of cows that are dropping dead in dried out pastures. ... Central American agriculture ministers held a videoconference on Wednesday to seek coordinated actions to cope with the drought.

The lack of rain has been blamed on the probable arrival of the El Nino weather phenomen
on, which is characterized by unusually warm Pacific ocean temperatures that can trigger droughts. It is the latest trouble to hammer a region already beset by gang violence and poverty, which have driven families and unaccompanied children to migrate illegally to the United States.

The drought has swept across a region known as "the dry corridor," which covers nearly a third of Central America, where 10 million people live, according to a 2013 study by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization. Nicaragua's government says the country is enduring its worst drought since 1976...

Neil Palmer (CIAT) took this photo of a farmer irrigating crops during the dry season in drought-affected Nicaragua, made possible by the use of special reservoirs to capture and store excess rainwater during the country's rainy season. Wikimedia Commons via Flickr,  under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license

Giving up beef will reduce carbon footprint more than cars

Damian Carrington in the Guardian (UK): Beef’s environmental impact dwarfs that of other meat including chicken and pork, new research reveals, with one expert saying that eating less red meat would be a better way for people to cut carbon emissions than giving up their cars.

The heavy impact on the environment of meat production was known but the research shows a new scale and scope of damage, particularly for beef. The popular red meat requires 28 times more land to produce than pork or chicken, 11 times more water and results in five times more climate-warming emissions. When compared to staples like potatoes, wheat, and rice, the impact of beef per calorie is even more extreme, requiring 160 times more land and producing 11 times more greenhouse gases.

Agriculture is a significant driver of global warming and causes 15% of all emissions, half of which are from livestock. Furthermore, the huge amounts of grain and water needed to raise cattle is a concern to experts worried about feeding an extra 2 billion people by 2050. But previous calls for people to eat less meat in order to help the environment, or preserve grain stocks, have been highly controversial.

“The big story is just how dramatically impactful beef is compared to all the others,” said Prof Gidon Eshel, at Bard College in New York state and who led the research on beef’s impact. He said cutting subsidies for meat production would be the least controversial way to reduce its consumption....

Cattle branding in Queensland, around 1897

Africa’s first ‘Islamic-compliant’ livestock insurance pays 100 Kenyan herders for drought-related livestock losses

Susan Macmillan in ILRI News: Today, for the first time in Africa, an insurance policy that combines an Islamic-compliant financial instrument with innovative use of satellite imagery is compensating Muslim pastoralists for drought-induced losses suffered in Kenya’s northeastern Wajir County, where livestock are valued at Ksh46 billion (USD550 million).

Thirty women and 71 men in arid and semi-arid Wajir are the first beneficiaries of livestock insurance that conforms to the Islamic concept of takaful, in which risks are shared among a group of participants. Through a contract called tabbaru (donation), participants make contributions to a risk fund. In the case of a payout, which happened today, the fund makes payments commensurate with the contributions received.

The pilot program is paying approximately Ksh500,000 (USD5,800) for losses suffered to their herds of sheep, goat, cattle and camels during the long dry season that typically ends in March. The herds were insured last August by Takaful Insurance of Africa (TIA) with an Index-Based Livestock Insurance (IBLI) product, branded as Index-Based Livestock Takaful (IBLT).

IBLI uses satellite imagery—measuring the conditions of grazing lands—that is fed into an algorithm that predicts livestock loses. Predictions beyond the 15-percent level trigger indemnity payments. Drought conditions in much of Wajir County have surpassed the index trigger and active contract holders in these areas were compensated today.

This payout is critical for building confidence in the concept of insurance for the pastoral, drought-prone regions of East Africa, where life revolves around livestock and droughts can bring disaster,” said Andrew Mude, who leads the IBLI program of the Nairobi-based International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI)....

Wajir from the air, shot by lex Maisuradze, Wikimedia Commons, under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license

Can Turkana be food sufficient?

Lemukol Ng'asike in AllAfrica.com via the Star (Kenya):  Drought in Kenya, and particularly in Turkana, is not a new thing. It came calling in 1952 killing nearly 50 per cent of livestock. After almost a decade of breeding and laughing it came back in 1960 decimating the remaining livestock. Then it occurred in 1970, 1980, 1990, 2000 and 2010. And now, in 2014 the cries of hungry babies and skinny, malnourished mothers can still be heard from this corner of Kenya. The culprit none other than drought.

Fruitless military operations Northern Kenya has endured countless military operations under the guise of flashing out tribal warlords and restoring peace and order. During these escapades, many innocent lives were lost, women raped and peoples' livelihoods destroyed. There is nothing tangible for one to see. Northern Kenya is still insecure. Bandits still reign. Lives are lost daily. Livestock is stolen.

Which begs the questions - what is ailing this segment of the republic? Could there be a different dose? Stronger, food secure Northern Kenya Northern Kenya, contrary to the perception of many Kenyans, can stand on its own. It can feed its people. It has the potential to produce more than it needs. There are reasons why this has never been achieved. Convoluted thinking is the mother of all the ailments bedevilling the north.

The people of northern Kenya have more than 58 million livestock. Surely, they should not depend on relief food for generations. But what is the problem? Water is still a preserve of a few. Large portions of the population can neither read nor write. They must be supported for them to support themselves. They are thirsty for knowledge....

The main street in Kalokol, Turkana, shot by Mr.matija.kovac, Wikimedia Commons, under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license 

Climate change study suggests cutting herds

Eric Mortenson in the Capital Press (Oregon): New report from an OSU scientist says reducing cattle and other ruminant herds is the most effective way to reduce methane gas emissions and ease climate change. A new climate change study issued by an Oregon State University professor and others concludes the best way to reduce methane gas emissions is to reduce cattle, sheep and other ruminant herds worldwide.

The conclusion isn’t likely to be favored by industry groups, but OSU forestry Professor William Ripple and co-authors said herd reduction should be considered an antidote to climate change along with cutting back on fossil fuel use. “Because the Earth’s climate may be near a tipping point to major climate change, multiple approaches are needed for mitigation,” Ripple said in an OSU news release.

The Oregon Cattlemen’s Association dismissed the recommendation to reduce herds. Methane produced from “enteric fermentation” by livestock amounts to only about 2 percent of greenhouse gas emissions, association communications officer Lauren Montgomery said in an email. She said other sources, including wildfires, produce much more.

She said such studies have not taken into account what “substitute” greenhouse gases might be produced if livestock are reduced or even eliminated.

The association believes assessments of greenhouse gas impacts should include an accounting of energy used per gas unit produced...

A 1943 shot of livestock in Colorado, Clelland, Joe, War Relocation Authority photographer, Photographer (NARA record: 8464457)

Stopping disease swaps between humans and animals

Dana MacLean in IRIN: With more than half of all human infections originating in animals, experts say a multi-sectoral, global response to zoonoses - diseases passing between animals and humans - is urgently needed. IRIN talked to a panel of experts to learn just how deadly humans and animals can be to one another, and ultimately how each can save the other.

“By neglecting the health of animals and ecosystems, we fail to recognize that human health is inextricably linked with animal and ecosystem health,” said Laura H. Kahn, a physician and researcher at Princeton University in the US. Khan co-founded the One Health Initiative, which links human health to how well animals and the ecosystem fare.

With almost half of the some 1,000 pathogen species found in livestock and animals kept as pets able to cross over into humans, poor animal health undoubtedly increases the risk of poor human health, experts warn.

Known zoonoses cause an estimated 2.3 billion cases of sickness and 1.7 million human deaths annually, reported the Nairobi-headquartered International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) in 2012. But then there are the unknown viruses, which are estimated to number at least 320,000, according to calculations by Simon Anthony and co-researchers published in 2013.

...A good part of zoonoses (some 70 percent of which come from wildlife) are directly attributable to human actions that have vastly changed animal environments, decreasing animals’ resilience against infection and boosting the risk of humans falling ill....

A livestock market in Buenos Aries, shot by Jorge Royan, Wikimedia Commons, under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license

Somalia's 6,000 cyclone victims in receive food aid

AllAfrica.com via Sabahi: At least 6,000 people affected by the tropical cyclone in Somalia's Puntland region have received one-month food rations, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said Sunday (November 17th).

"A lot of people in these areas are in dire need," said Patrick Vial, the head of the ICRC delegation to Somalia. "Reports reaching our staff in the field speak of dozens of dead and the loss of significant numbers of livestock."

The cyclone has left as many as 300 people dead. The rains have also flooded parts of Middle Shabelle, especially Jowhar, and Somaliland.

The ICRC estimates that 10,000 people have been forced from their homes due to the harsh weather conditions, which have contaminated many drinking water wells and destroyed the possibility of a harvest for many farmers. Aid for about 26,000 people has been sent to the area and will be distributed in coming days. "The long-term effect of this cyclone is also likely to be severe," Vial said...

Study evaluates how climate change affects North American rangelands

Texas A&M AgriLife Today: A group of eight U.S. scientists, including Texas A&M University’s Dr. David Briske and Dr. Bruce McCarl, recently published two assessments that identify trends and projections for rangeland effects of climate change and evaluate adaptation strategies.

...Changes in mean climatic trend and increased variability will affect the ability of rangelands to provide ecosystem services and support human livelihoods, but in varied and geographically specific ways, Briske said.

Climate models project that the U.S. Southwest and Southern Plains will become warmer and drier. The Northwest will become warmer and drier during summer and experience less snowpack in winter. The northern United States and southern Canada are projected to become warmer and wetter. “Such developments will affect rangeland enterprises  and productivity,” said McCarl, a Texas A&M AgriLife Research economist.

The interacting effects of atmospheric warming, increased carbon dioxide concentrations, and modified precipitation patterns will modify fire regimes, soil carbon content, and forage quantity and quality, according to the scientists. This will, in turn, affect livestock production, plant community composition, and the distribution of plant, animals, and diseases.

Human actions to minimize negative impacts and to capture potential opportunities need to be geographically specific to effectively contend with these varied consequences, according to the authors. The study authors also indicate that specific actions to increase carbon sequestration are not an economically viable mitigation strategy because carbon uptake is limited by low and variable precipitation....

Aftermath of the 2012 Long Draw Fire in Oregon, photo by the Bureau of Land Management

Sustainable livestock production is possible

Seed Daily via SPX: Consumers are increasingly demanding higher standards for how their meat is sourced, with animal welfare and the impact on the environment factoring in many purchases. Unfortunately, many widely-used livestock production methods are currently unsustainable.

However, new research out today from the University of Cambridge has identified what may be the future of sustainable livestock production: silvopastoral systems which include shrubs and trees with edible leaves or fruits as well as herbage.

Professor Donald Broom, from the University of Cambridge, who led the research said: "Consumers are now demanding more sustainable and ethically sourced food, including production without negative impacts on animal welfare, the environment and the livelihood of poor producers. Silvopastoral systems address all of these concerns with the added benefit of increased production in the long term."

Current cattle production mostly occurs on cleared pastures with only herbaceous plants, such as grasses, grown as food for the cows. The effects on the local environment include the removal of trees and shrubs as well as the increased use of herbicides, all of which result in a dramatic decrease in biodiversity....

Shot by *christopher*, Wikimedia Commons via Flickr, under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license

Trends in climate change show need rangeland adaptation

Drovers Cattle Network: ...The journal Rangeland Ecology & Management presents two companion articles that identify trends and projections for climate change and assess mitigation and adaptation strategies to cope with pending change. These articles offer an objective assessment of climate trends and contingency planning as it relates to North American rangelands.

The authors assess three main components of climate change: rising concentrations of atmospheric carbon dioxide, atmospheric warming, and altered patterns of precipitation.  Climate models project that the southwest and southern plains of the United States will become warmer and drier. The Great Basin will become warmer and drier during summer and experience less snowpack in winter. The northern United States and southern Canada are predicted to become warmer and wetter.

Continued increases in greenhouse gas concentrations will modify fire regimes, soil carbon content, forage quantity and quality to affect livestock, plant community composition, and the distribution of plant and animals. This, in turn, will affect the ability of rangelands to provide ecosystem services and livelihoods for human populations.

Humans can take steps to mitigate the effects of global warming, adapt to minimize negative impacts, and transform rangeland systems to provide alternative ecosystem services with different management practices and expectations. An assessment of climate change projections and strategies to mitigate and adapt to these changes will increase future preparedness. For example, the authors contend that rangeland carbon sequestration is not an economically viable mitigation strategy. Adaptation strategies, including changing perceptions of risk, greater flexibility in production systems, and modification of institutions and policies to emphasize climatic variability, rather than consistency, will be much more viable.

Rangeland professionals are in a position to provide leadership on the challenges of climate change. Increasing awareness of and preparedness for climatic variability will promote both the supply of ecosystem services and the maintenance of human livelihoods well into the future....

Cow photo by Brian Thomas, public domain

Vaccinating cattle against E. coli O157 could cut human cases of infection by 85 percent

Seed Daily via SPX: Vaccinating cattle against the E. coli O157 bacterium could cut the number of human cases of the disease by 85%, according to scientists. The bacteria, which cause severe gastrointestinal illness and even death in humans, are spread by consuming contaminated food and water, or by contact with livestock faeces in the environment. Cattle are the main reservoir for the bacterium.

The vaccines that are available for cattle are rarely used, but could be significant.

The research was lead by a team of researchers at the University of Glasgow in collaboration with the University of Edinburgh, the Royal Veterinary College, Scotland's Rural College, Health Protection Scotland, and the Scottish E. coli O157/VTEC Reference Laboratory.

The study, published in the online journal PNAS, used veterinary, human and molecular data to examine the risks of E. coli O157 transmission from cattle to humans, and to estimate the impact of vaccinating cattle.

The risk of E. coli O157 infection is particularly significant when the cattle are 'super-shedding' - excreting extremely high numbers of bacteria in their faeces for a limited period of time. Vaccines against the bacteria exist that can reduce super-shedding....

E. coli shot by Mattosaurus, public domain

Overgrazing turning parts of Mongolian Steppe into desert

Oregon State University News & Communications: Overgrazing by millions of sheep and goats is the primary cause of degraded land in the Mongolian Steppe, one of the largest remaining grassland ecosystems in the world, Oregon State University researchers say in a new report.

Using a new satellite-based vegetation monitoring system, researchers found that about 12 percent of the biomass has disappeared in this country that’s more than twice the size of Texas, and 70 percent of the grassland ecosystem is now considered degraded. The findings were published in Global Change Biology.

Overgrazing accounts for about 80 percent of the vegetation loss in recent years, researchers concluded, and reduced precipitation as a result of climatic change accounted for most of the rest. These combined forces have led to desertification as once-productive grasslands are overtaken by the Gobi Desert, expanding rapidly from the south.

Since 1990 livestock numbers have almost doubled to 45 million animals, caused in part by the socioeconomic changes linked to the breakup of the former Soviet Union, the report said. High unemployment led many people back to domestic herding.

The problem poses serious threats to this ecosystem, researchers say, including soil and water loss, but it may contribute to global climate change as well. Grasslands, depending on their status, can act as either a significant sink or source for atmospheric carbon dioxide...

Two shepherds in Mongolia, shot by JaapV, Wikimedia Commons, under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license 

New project will adapt dairying to climate change

Bob Mitchell at the University of Wisconsin-Madison News: Agricultural scientists from across the nation are embarking on a new five-year, $10 million, USDA-funded effort to identify dairy production practices that minimize the emission of greenhouse gasses (GHG) and will be more resilient to the effects of a changing climate.

The project is led by UW-Madison and involves researchers and extension staff from seven universities, five federal labs of the U.S. Departments of Agriculture and Energy, and the Innovation Center for U.S. Dairy. U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack announced the project in Madison on May 7 during a visit to the USDA's Dairy Forage Research Center on the UW campus.

The goal is to find ways to reduce GHG emissions generated in all phases of dairy production while continuing to grow profitability and productivity, says project director Matt Ruark, UW-Madison assistant professor and extension soils specialist.

"We will be working across the entire dairy production system to improve production efficiency while decreasing negative impacts in an effort to support U.S. dairy producers' ongoing sustainability efforts," Ruark says.

"This is about adaptation — how to move agriculture forward to be as productive as possible as we move into a changing climate," Ruark says. "Anything we can do to reduce losses of carbon, nitrogen and water from the system can lead to greater efficiency. This will lead to more profit for the producer, less impact on the environment and a sustainable milk supply for the consumer."...

Cow photo by Brian Thomas, public domain

Decline in biodiversity of farmed plants, animals gathering pace

Alister Doyle in Reuters: A decline in the diversity of farmed plants and livestock breeds is gathering pace, threatening future food supplies for the world's growing population, the head of a new United Nations panel on biodiversity said on Monday.

Preserving neglected animal breeds and plants was necessary as they could have genes resistant to future diseases or to shifts in the climate to warmer temperatures, more droughts or downpours, Zakri Abdul Hamid said.

"The loss of biodiversity is happening faster and everywhere, even among farm animals," Zakri told a conference of 450 experts in Trondheim, central Norway, in his first speech as founding chair of the U.N. biodiversity panel.

Many traditional breeds of cows, sheep or goats have fallen out of favor, often because they yield less meat or milk than new breeds. Globalization also means that people's food preferences narrow down to fewer plants.

Zakri said there were 30,000 edible plants but that just 30 crops accounted for 95 percent of the energy in human food that is dominated by rice, wheat, maize, millet and sorghum.

He said it was "more important than ever to have a large genetic pool to enable organisms to withstand and adapt to new conditions." That would help to ensure food for a global population set to reach 9 billion by 2050 from 7 billion now....

Artwork of a bull on an antique steam-powered tractor at the Wooden Shoe Tulip Farm. Image from Gary Halvorson, Oregon State Archives, Wikimedia Commons

Traditional ranching practices enhance African savanna

Terra Daily via SPX: That human land use destroys natural ecosystems is an oft-cited assumption in conservation, but ecologists have discovered that instead, traditional ranching techniques in the African savanna enhance the local abundance of wild, native animals. These results offer a new perspective on the roles humans play in natural systems, and inform ongoing discussions about land management and biodiversity conservation.

For thousands of years, pastoralists in East African savannas have penned their cattle overnight in brush-walled corrals, called bomas. Bomas remain in use for about a year, resulting in tons of manure that fertilizes these small areas.

After abandonment, a lush carpet of grass springs up and these fertile "glades" - sometimes as large as a football field - remain visibly distinct from the surrounding savanna for over a century.

The team of ecologists, based at the Mpala Research Center in Kenya, found that trees close to the edges of glades grew faster and were generally larger than trees elsewhere in the savanna. They also found more insects and, the particular focus of the study, higher densities of a native species of gecko, Lygodactylus keniensis.

"The effect of these glades is clear," said Colin Donihue, the Yale University doctoral student who led the research, which is described in Ecology's April issue....

Savanna in Kenya, shot by Christopher T Cooper (CT Cooper), Wikimedia Commons, under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license

Foreign demand for beef, soybeans adds pressure on Amazon forest

Alister Doyle in Reuters: Rising foreign demand for beef and soybeans will tempt Brazil to clear more of the Amazon rainforest, in a reversal of recent success in slowing forest losses, a study said on Thursday.

About 30 percent of deforestation in Brazil in the decade to 2010 was due to farmers and ranchers seeking land to expand export production of beef and soybeans, against about 20 percent in the 1990s, the report said.

"Trade is emerging as a key driver of deforestation in Brazil," according to experts at the Center for International Climate and Environmental Research, Oslo (Cicero). "This may indirectly contribute to loss of the forests that industrialized countries are seeking to protect through international agreements," they wrote in the journal Environmental Research Letters.

Exports of beef and soybeans accounted for 2.7 billion metric tons (1 metric ton = 1.102 tons) of carbon emissions caused by Brazil's deforestation in the decade to 2010, the report said. That exceeds greenhouse gas emissions of a nation such as Egypt over the same period....

Beef cuts in Brazil, by MarioM, Wikimedia Commons, under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license

Shanghai river's dead pig total approaches 15,000

Seed Daily: The number of dead pigs found in a river which runs through Shanghai had reached nearly 15,000, officials and reports said Tuesday, as a newspaper claimed the government was concealing the true tally.

The images of dead pigs in China's commercial hub have proved a huge embarrassment for the city, which is seeking to become an international financial centre.

Shanghai city workers retrieved 369 bodies from the Huangpu River on Monday, bringing the municipality's total to 10,164 since the first were found earlier this month, the city government said in a statement.

Jiaxing in neighbouring Zhejiang province, whose farmers are accused by Shanghai of dumping the pigs into the river upstream, had found another 4,664 dead pigs, media reports said Tuesday.

But the Xiao Xiang Morning Herald, based in the central province of Hunan, quoted residents of Xinfeng in Jiaxing as estimating more than 10,000 pigs had been recovered from the water there….

The Huangpu River in Shanghai, shot by Jakub Hałun, Wikimedia Commons, under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license

Mali conflict ups pressure on climate-stressed herders

Soumaila T. Diarra in AlertNet: The recent conflict in northern Mali, where the situation remains volatile, has left many livestock herders in fear of losing millions of cattle, sheep and goats at a time when they were already struggling to find enough pasture for their animals due to drought.

Since the spring of 2012, violence between Islamist groups who grabbed much of the north from Tuareg nomads, and the army, supported by foreign troops for the past two months, has disturbed the West African nation’s traditional grazing system, in which herders migrate according to the seasons.

Cattle-rearing is at risk from the ongoing France-backed operation to flush out the defeated Islamists, now hiding out in the northern mountains, and the aftermath of the insurgency, according to Rene Alfonse, leader of a federation of several herders’ associations.  Malian herders own around 9 million cows and 32 million small animals like sheep and goats, he noted. “About 50 percent of Malian cattle are under threat of being destroyed,” Alfonse said, explaining that the violence has made it harder to access grazing land and vaccinations to stop animals falling sick.

The livestock sector is important for Mali’s economy, providing the third-largest source of exports after gold and cotton, and accounting for 14 percent of the country’s gross domestic product. Alfonse said the past 10 months have been tough for Mali’s herders. Some have moved into neighbouring countries, including Mauritania, Niger and Burkina Faso, to escape the fighting….

From 2006, a livestock market in Mali, shot by ILRI, Wikimedia Commons via Flickr, under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license