Effects of interforest grazing on forest ecosystem and water environment of basin-Interforest grazing and ecosystem service

Abstract

There is a myriad of issues that form our global crisis of climate change and the destruction of the environment. If we are to develop sustainable practices that can help reverse the destructive trends, we need revolutions across a range of industries. The agricultural industry is huge, globally essential activity that will always be with us. It is intimately tied to the environment and has multiple direct impacts on it. Naturally, the world will always require food, whether that be from livestock or crops. Therefore, we need to continue improving our agricultural practices if we are to sustain the global population. Livestock pose a particular set of questions as to how best maintain them. They take up significant space, consume a lot of vegetation and produce a lot of waste. Whilst avoiding and reducing meat consumption is a growing social movement, this will never eliminate meat consumption and only further emphasises how we should rear livestock in a sustainable and non-destructive manner. Typically, livestock such as cattle are raised on large areas of meadows and grasslands. The more cattle you are looking to raise, the greater the amount of land needed. Where they feed has a profound impact on the environment around them. They can alter the vegetation growing and their waste can affect the water system. When it rains, their waste seeps into the soil and then into streams and rivers. Rivers are basins for large areas of grassland and likely multiple cattle farms. This means a huge multiplication of waste run off from livestock rearing. Dr Yuri Yamazaki of the Faculty of Regional Environment Science, Tokyo University of Agriculture is investigating alternative methods of cattle rearing. This work has developed directly from her doctoral studies which were aimed at evaluating the impact of dairy farming and upland farming on river water quality. This work led her to exploring the forest grazing of cattle as a potential alternate way of maintaining livestock. She is now working hard to evaluate this proposition.