Twofold excessive utilization rate yields high financial equivalent but seriously threatens public rangelands in Turkey

Abstract

The aim of this study was to estimate the utilization rate and financial equivalent of the utilized rangeland forage to quantify the extent of grazing pressure on the semiarid Turkish rangelands, and to attract the public attention to the importance of rangelands in national economy. The study was conducted in Erzurum province of Turkey. In permanent 12 representative sites in each of village rangelands, cages of 1 m height and 1 m × 1 m floor area, were placed and forage under cages was clipped to the ground at the end of the grazing seasons in 2007 and 2008. Simultaneously, the forage outside the cages was sampled with random quadrats. Financial equivalent of the utilized rangeland forage was estimated using surrogate market valuation method. In data analysis were employed descriptive statistical methods and one-way ANOVA test. According to the results, the average rangeland dry forage yield was 1012 kg.ha–1 and rangeland utilization rate was 69 per cent, roughly two-fold higher than suggested rates. Under the prevailing conditions, the financial equivalent of the utilized rangeland forage is about 526 TRY or 92 USD per hectare. It was concluded that utilization rate or grazing period should be deflated by 50% for sustainable resource use by allowing rangeland plants to regenerate.