When Livestock are Good for the Environment: Benefit Sharing of Environmental Goods and Services

Abstract

"The environments in which most pastoral grazing systems and integrated crop-livestock systems are to be found are characterised by multiple uses and multiple users, all with legitimate claims on environmental goods and services, but not all of which can be compatible all of the time. The paper addresses ways of enhancing, through policy instruments, the sharing of environmental benefits between multiple users of the environment including livestock producers. It argues that the task of policy makers should be to expose these multiple, contested claims on the environment, to make explicit the political choices involved in the design of benefit-sharing mechanisms, and to seek out those that offer most promise of 'win-win' or at least 'win-no regret' solutions."