Nature conservation aspects of pastoral farming in Georgia

Current livestock systems in Georgia (Caucasus) are focused mainly on self-supply. Pasturing is present almost everywhere. As mineral fertilizers, concentrated feed and modern machines are almost absent, animal production is basically limited by the natural productivity and carrying capacity of the ecosystems. The ecological effects were enhanced by traditional transhumance (migratory) systems, which caused extensive degradation of soils and vegetation in the summer and winter pasture areas. National independence in 1991 and subsequent civil war resulted in a sharp decline in the stock of domesticated animals. The former transhumance systems collapsed.The current effects of pasturing on nature are ambivalent. Recent livestock grazing obviously caused considerable soil degradation and erosion. But it is doubtful whether any other kind of land use would improve the situation in ecologically fragile areas. Nor is it clear to what extent current pastoral farming increases damage initiated during Soviet times or even earlier. Positive effects are the generation of a diverse habitat spectrum on a medium spatial scale and of highly diverse “mosaic” landscapes, resulting in very high levels of biodiversity and providing resources for threatened species.The data from Georgia prove that large-scale pasturing can be an alternative for the development of regions in central Europe where conventional plant production in agriculture vanishes due to insufficient farm income, provided that the western European standards can be kept by subsidies and incentives linked to active measures supporting nature conservation targets.