From Richard Dunham
“Free-for-all” exploitation of biological resources usually upsets ecologists, unless the resources are abundant. It is therefore surprising that Fred Pearce suggests that “free-for-all” grazing is the most sustainable way of utilising the native vegetation in Jordan’s Badia region (“Shepherds & wise men” 23/30 December 1995, p 24).
Most observers familiar with the Badia believe its vegetation is dwindling. It is not mostly “covered by grass” as Pearce states. Although the downward trend has not been monitored precisely, a study for the International Fund for Agricultural Development in 1993 concluded that the overall annual offtake of forage from Jordan’s rangelands had decreased by more than 50 per cent over the previous 15 years, in spite of the large increase in livestock numbers.
