Thread by @PabloPastos

📢 It's out! The paper by @AgusBC3 @gpardoBC3 and me (@BC3Research & @GCCGtweet) at #npjClimAtmosSci @Nature_NPJ on emissions in two savannas in northern Tanzania, one dominated by wild herbivores and the other dominated by ruminant livestock.

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nature.com/articles/s4161…

Distinguishing between natural GHG emissions (belonging to the ecosphere) and anthropogenic ones (belonging to the technosphere) is important for designing effective mitigation interventions. Abating ecosphere emissions is conceptually ineffective.

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https://twitter.com/PabloPastos/status/1634957800299446273

We took advantage from the availability of data in the Serengeti area, with sound information both on wildlife and on livestock abundances.
The wildlife scenario is also dominated by one of Earth's last wild migrations, which is important for the system's carrying capacity.
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Wild herbivore migrations allow to escape from top-down regulation by carnivores, which are territorial & cannot follow the moving herds. Additionally, herbivores access fresh pasture with a better nutritional content, & experience better environmental conditions (heat...)

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It's a similar situation for mobile pastoralism

https://twitter.com/PabloPastos/status/1634957817043099649

- the basis of the productive system in #Loliondo, where herds get no concentrates in normal years and the profit from natural resources is maximized.
Our results show that the similarities in the...

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...production system extend into greenhouse gas emissions. With some differences in the total biomass, both the wildlife- and the livestock-dominated systems achieve a very similar emission per ha, in the mean values we obtain after applying different estimations.

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It implies that, in very low input systems as the ones present in Sub-Saharan Africa or South Asia, livestock could be occupying the ecological niche of wild herbivores researchgate.net/publication/33… & most of its GHG emissions belong to the ecosphere - they are not anthropogenic.
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Both regions have well-conserved wild herbivore guilds, able to overtake livestock emissions in abandonment scenarios, yet are attributed with 38% of the global livestock emissions.
This highlights the need to reconsider low-input systems (fig. from researchportal.helsinki.fi/en/publication…)
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The study adds to the necessary considerations on well-managed livestock as an effective substitute of wild herbivores in the world's ecosystems, as we show in our recent video

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Cc @REGENETARIANISM @AllanRSavory @SavoryInstitute @herdyshepherd1 @1GarethWynJones @GeorgeMonbiot @TableDebates @FCRNetwork @FAOLivestock @EU_ENV @EUClimateAction @EUAgri @eu_eeas @UNEP @EUEnvironment @Environment_Ke @moefcc @India4Climate @EPA

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