Adaptive Management of Climate Resilience in Rangelands

Adaptive management of climate resilience in rangelands is an iterative framework that integrates monitoring, learning and stakeholder engagement to strengthen the capacity of grazing ecosystems and pastoral communities to respond to climatic variability. By combining ecological assessments—such as vegetation cover, soil moisture and biodiversity indicators—with social insights on land‐user priorities and risk perceptions, adaptive approaches enable flexible grazing schedules, targeted restoration measures and proactive drought or flood planning. Scenario modelling and early‐warning systems inform strategic decisions on stocking rates, forage allocation and water harvesting, while participatory governance structures ensure that local knowledge and scientific evidence are co-produced. This management paradigm spans scales from individual ranches to transboundary pastoral landscapes, emphasising feedback loops that refine interventions over successive seasons. Globally, such approaches have been applied across arid and semi-arid regions—from North American sagebrush steppes to African communal rangelands—demonstrating enhanced forage productivity, reduced land degradation and greater livelihood security. By aligning ecosystem services with socioeconomic objectives, adaptive management offers a resilient pathway for sustaining rangeland functions under accelerating climate change.

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Adaptive Management of Climate Resilience in Rangelands publication trend

The graph below shows the total number of articles in adaptive management of climate resilience in rangelands across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).

Technical terms

Adaptive management: An iterative process of decision‐making that incorporates monitoring and learning to refine interventions under uncertainty.

Climate resilience: The capacity of ecosystems and communities to absorb disturbance, adapt to change and maintain essential functions.

Rangelands: Extensive natural landscapes dominated by grasses, shrubs and sparse trees, primarily used for grazing livestock.

Human agency: The ability of individuals or groups to make informed choices and enact actions that influence system outcomes.

Ecosystem services: The benefits—provisioning, regulating and cultural—that humans derive from ecological processes.

References

1. Adaptive Rangeland Decision-Making and Coping with Drought. Sustainability (2016).
2. Using scale and human agency to frame ranchers’ discussions about socio-ecological change and resilience. Journal of Rural Studies (2022).
3. Grand challenges and transformative solutions for rangeland social-ecological systems – emphasizing the human dimensions. Rangelands (2021).