Rangeland stewardship envisioned through a planetary lens.

Rangelands comprise approximately 50% of ecologically intact landscapes available to mitigate biodiversity loss and to provide natural climate solutions. However, their planetary value is often overshadowed by local priorities on select provisioning services. A transformative stewardship strategy will require an inversion of priorities placed on ecosystem service categories supplied by rangelands.

Perceptions of Utah ranchers toward carbon sequestration: policy implications for US rangelands.

Enhanced carbon sequestration is one means to mitigate climate change. Rangelands are arid and semi-arid lands, typified by relatively low and variable levels of net primary productivity, where carbon sequestration might be increased via alterations in land management. Rangelands are vast in size and dominate the land area in the western US and worldwide. It has been estimated that privately owned rangelands in the US could sequester an additional 60 million tons of carbon annually, roughly equal to five percent of the US annual CO(2) emissions. Ranchers are the target population that could implement changes in rangeland management to promote carbon sequestration, but little is known about how they might receive such programs. Therefore, for Utah, we conducted a combined mail and telephone survey of 495 randomly selected ranchers to assess their knowledge of and attitude toward carbon sequestration, possible benefits of carbon sequestration as perceived by ranchers, and factors influencing their likelihood of participating in carbon sequestration programs. Overall, despite that 70 percent of respondents had little or no self-reported knowledge about carbon sequestration, 63 percent had negative views about it. Ranchers reporting the most knowledge also tended to have the most negative attitudes. The least important benefit that might accrue to ranchers from carbon sequestration was seen as climate change mitigation, while the most important benefit was improved land stewardship. Only four percent of respondents indicated an unconditional willingness to participate in carbon sequestration programs, but 71 percent could be interested depending on new information received. Before carbon sequestration programs are developed for rangelands, further research is needed to clarify why more knowledge of carbon sequestration can lead to greater skepticism of relevant programs. We respect this finding, as it may be based on well-founded rancher concerns such as technical or administrative efficacy. If such concerns can be overcome, extension efforts should be tailored to emphasize the ecological merits of carbon sequestration for rangeland management, which will facilitate the ability of ranchers to achieve their personal goals.

Linking Human Perceptions and Spotted Hyena Behavior in Urban Areas of Ethiopia.

Humans have shaped carnivore behavior since at least the Middle Paleolithic period, about 42,000 years ago. In more recent times, spotted hyenas (Crocuta crocuta) in Ethiopia have adapted to living in urban areas, while humans have adapted to living with hyenas. Yet, relationships between coexisting humans and carnivores are rarely addressed beyond mitigating conflicts. We provided a case study for how to broadly think about coexistence and how to study it when measuring if humans and carnivores affect one another. We collected data in four Ethiopian cities: Mekelle, Harar, Addis Ababa, and Arba Minch. We held focus groups and key informant interviews that incorporated feedback from 163 people, representing a wide array of religious, economic, and educational backgrounds. We also determined how many hyenas resided in these cities, hyena behavioral responses to humans using a flight initiation test, and problem-solving abilities via puzzle box trials. We found that in three of the cities, hyenas and humans coexist at high densities and frequently encounter each other. While all participants recognized the importance of hyenas as scavengers to maintain a clean environment, there was pronounced variation in cultural perspectives across cities. For example, while the people of Harar revere hyenas in spiritual terms, in Arba Minch hyenas were regarded as nuisance animals. Hyenas were universally respected as a formidable predator across cities but reports of attacks on livestock and humans were few. Flight initiation tests revealed hyenas fled at significantly closer distances in Harar and Addis Ababa than in Mekelle. Hyenas succeeded at solving a puzzle box in Harar but not in Mekelle. These variable behavior in hyenas correlated to different human perceptions. Our case study results suggest that the hyena-human dynamic is highly variable across these locations. We conclude by exploring the implications of these findings for how humans and hyenas can shape one another's behavior. Developing studies to link human perceptions and animal behavior could advance wildlife conservation, especially in urban areas.

Capacity building helps pastoral women transform impoverished communities in Ethiopia.

Poverty, drought, and hunger devastate people on Africa's rangelands. We used an action-oriented approach from 2000 to 2004 to build capacity among thousands of pastoralists to diversify livelihoods, improve living standards, and enhance livestock marketing. The process included collective action, microfinance, and participatory education. Poor women previously burdened by domestic chores became leaders and rapidly changed their communities. Drought occurred from 2005 to 2008. We assessed intervention effects on household drought resilience with a quasiexperimental format that incorporated survey-based comparisons of treatment groups with ex post controls. Interventions led to major improvements in trends for quality of life, wealth accumulation, hunger reduction, and risk management. Human capacity building can be a driver for change, generating hope and aspirations that set the stage for the use of new information and technology.