European Mediterranean mountain regions have been characterized by a sort of competition between the tourism sector and the agro-silvo-pastoral system, which in recent years has contributed to generate a continuous decline of the second one. Neverthe...
To ensure the sustainable development of mountain livestock farming, the adequate remuneration of high-quality dairy products is fundamental. In this sense, communication strategies aimed at promoting mountain products and ensure better positioning a...
Livestock systems contribute significantly to environmental issues and need to undergo an agroecological transition. This transition is not only technical, but also involves an evolution of farmers’ ways of seeing and interpreting the world, i.e., wo...
The Campania region has a genetic heritage, both vegetal and animal, of great scientific interest, but many genetic resources risk extinction or abandonment. Thus, from a sustainability perspective, their conservation is very important and represents...
In mountain farms, challenges posed by the degree of land slope, altitude and harsh climate further compound multiple other possible constraints, particularly in relation to the distance of the farm from the farmstead. This study focused on how mount...
Mountain husbandry systems and their related products may directly or indirectly provide either ecosystem services (ESs) or disservices to humanity. The present study aims to evaluate the perception that a local mountain community has towards animal...
Livestock plays a crucial role in the global food system, not only as an important source of nutrients but also as a means of economic and social well-being. It constitutes a critical parameter of agricultural production in Mediterranean countries, w...
The studied farms are small family businesses, and so, in more than half of the cases, their continuity is not guaranteed. Livestock management is typical of a mountain system, in which the animals graze throughout the year in cultivated fields, sown...
In Kyrgyzstan, most farming systems focus on animal husbandry, which depends on mixtures of crops and pastures around settlements and higher-elevation summer pastures. These farms face the problems of insufficient fodder production and pasture degrad...
As income is rising and urbanization progressing, the consumption of meat and dairy products is increasing, especially in developing countries. However, increasing livestock production leads to challenges that need to be addressed, such as yielding e...
As roughage consumers, ruminants have the unique ability to convert raw materials that are otherwise inedible for humans into valuable food products, thereby making them crucial to Swiss agriculture, particularly in mountainous regions. This article...
The path to sustainable development involves creating coherence and synergies in the complex relationships between economic and ecological systems. In sustaining their farm businesses farmers’ differing values influence their decisions about agroecos...
The livestock sector is facing serious challenges in combatting the increasing predation of domestic livestock. In this scenario, wild carnivores, especially wolves, represent key predators. To allow the coexistence of wild and domestic animals, defe...
Mountain agriculture is a very important source of ecosystem services, such as cultural heritage, traditional knowledge, and biodiversity. However, traditional farming practices in those areas, particularly dairy livestock, are in sharp decline. For...
In the process of animal husbandry production through grazing, animals are active in large grassland or mountain areas, and it is very difficult to obtain and deal with the information on animal activity and state of life. In this paper, we propose a...
Dairy goat farming is an important agricultural activity in the Mediterranean region. In Greece the activity offers occupation and income to thousands of families mainly located in mountainous and semi-mountainous areas of the country where it utiliz...
Since the mid-20th century, the landscapes of Mediterranean mountain regions have undergone a significant transformation, linked to the socioeconomic changes caused by the opening up of these regions to the market economy. This prompted a rural exodu...
Designing sustainable farming systems in mountainous regions is particularly challenging because of complex economic, social, and environmental factors. Production models prioritizing sustainability and environmental protection require integrated ass...
The Eurasian Griffon Vulture (Gyps fulvus) is the most abundant obligate scavenger in Europe. It depends on wild and domestic carcasses whose availability and location are relatively unpredictable in terms of space and time, but also on predictable s...
Precision Livestock Farming (PLF) applies a complex of sensor technology, algorithms, and multiple tools for individual, real-time livestock monitoring. In intensive livestock systems, PLF is now quite widespread, allowing for the optimisation of man...
This study analyzed the link between organic beef production and agroecosystems in mountain areas and the potential effects of land use change in eight farms of Catalan Pyrenees with a three step approach: (i) assessment of structural and management...
The detrimental effects of climate change require countries and regions to use green and low-carbon strategies as the basis for economic development. Agriculture and livestock industry have become among the main industries that emit greenhouse gases....
Meadows are the most important source of feed for extensive livestock farming in mountainous conditions, as well as providing many environmental services. The actual socioeconomic situation and climate change risk its conservation. That is why findin...
Extensive unsupervised livestock farming is a habitual technique in many places around the globe. Animal release can be done for months, in large areas and with different species packing and behaving very differently. Nevertheless, the farmer’s needs...
Provincially Administered Tribal Areas (PATA) of Punjab-Pakistan are comprised of hilly mountains with small ruminants as a sole source of income. In this study, farming practices, productivity, health and the economic value of sheep were evaluated i...
Livestock contributes to global warming through greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Reducing these emissions is an ongoing challenge for the small ruminant sector. Despite its significant role in national economies, limited studies on the carbon footprin...
In the last decades, the European Union (EU) agricultural policy has encouraged extensive livestock farming systems as a sustainable way of production, while more recently, voluntary certification schemes on mountain origin and autochthonous breeds h...
The recreational value of forests in mountain areas creates significant potential for local growth. Indeed, in recent decades, it has been noted that there has been an increase in the popularity of forests recognized as tourism destinations with a st...
Innovation processes includes social and communicative elements. The role of innovative technology for the development of farming systems is investigated in literature, but only a few studies deal with the influence of networks on the adoption of tec...
European mountain areas have experienced a persistent loss of agricultural land and economic activities over time, with negative effects from both an environmental and a cultural perspective. In 2012, the European Union devised the mountain product (...
The stability of performance may be proved to be the last frontier for adopting certain genotypes in various cultivation systems and environments. The main objective of the present study was to analyze the forage yield stability performance of seven...
This study investigated the mountain food systems in the Hindu Kush Karakoram Pamir Landscape (HKPL) in Pakistan. It analyzed the impacts of climate change on agriculture and livestock and identified key opportunities which can be tapped into to impr...
Background/Objectives: In the Aosta Valley, the alpine grazing system integrates livestock production and land management. Valdostana breeding has adapted to this mountainous region, but the spread of Staphylococcus aureus within pastures may impact...
Wood pastures have been characteristic farming types in the Pannonian biogeographical region over the centuries. In the present work, we studied wood-pastures of typical geographical locations in the North Hungarian Mountain Range of Hungary characte...
Mediterranean mountain landscapes are undergoing a widespread phenomenon of abandonment. This brings, as a consequence, the loss of traditional land use practices, such as transhumant pastoralism, as well as shrub and wood encroachment, with repercus...
Adaptation provides a new perspective for the study of farmers’ livelihood transformation and sustainability. This research aimed to explore the influencing factors of different types and adaptation of farmers’ livelihood transformation d...
Plantations support local economies and rural livelihoods in many mountainous regions, where poverty and a fragile environment are often interlinked. Managing plantations sustainably and alleviating poverty is a major challenge. This study reports on...
This research article focuses on the evolution of a Mediterranean landscapes and the intricate interplay between natural and human-induced processes in the context of the Italian Anti-Apennine mountains. The study employs a multi-temporal approach to...
Hydrochemical processes under intense human activities were explored on the basis of the hydrochemical characteristics of 109 surface water samples and 129 groundwater samples collected during August 2015 to September 2016, in the Kaidu River Basin....
Ticks are well-known parasites that affect livestock productivity. This paper reviews the current knowledge regarding the spread of ticks with their impact in animal health and the limitations to achieve effective control measures. The forecasted tre...
As a major agricultural province, understanding the spatial distribution characteristics of non-point source pollution in Liaoning Province plays a crucial role in preventing and controlling non-point source pollution. This paper uses the pollution d...
A common-pool resource (CPR) is a type of good consisting of a natural or human-made resource system. Jeju common ranches are historical CPRs located in Jeju Province where mid-mountainous grassland has been shared for livestock farming by the member...
Significant achievements have been made in the control of point source pollution. However, agricultural non-point source pollution (AGNPSP) has become a serious threat to ecological environment quality and is now the main source of pollution in the Y...
The term deagrarianization refers to the dwindling importance of agrarian activity as the economic and social basis of a rural area. Deagrarianization is reflected in the declining number of people engaged in agricultural production and a reduction i...
Cultivated land resources are crucial to food security and economic development. Exploring the spatiotemporal pattern of cultivated land non-agriculturalization and its drivers is a prerequisite for cultivated land conservation. This paper used Globe...
3 July 2021
The impact of climate change on farmers’ livelihoods has been observed in various forms at the local and regional scales. It is well known that the Himalayas region is affected by climate change, as reflected in the basic knowledge of farmers in the...
Climate variability, land use and land cover changes (LULCC) have a considerable impact on runoff–erosion processes. This study analyzed the relationships between climate variability and spatiotemporal LULCC on runoff–erosion processes in...
Simulating potential glacier collapses can provide crucial support for local disaster prevention and mitigation efforts. The Xiaomagou Glacier in the Amnye Machen Mountains, Qinghai–Tibetan Plateau, has experienced five collapses in the past tw...