Species-rich grasslands provide a range of benefits to biodiversity and human society.

Global grasslands are a source of biodiversity and provide a host of benefits to humans, including food production, water supply, and carbon storage. But their future looks bleak without action to halt their degradation and promote their restoration, according to the authors of a new paper published in the journal Nature Reviews Earth & Environment. A team of international experts, led by the University of Manchester and including Urs Schaffner, CABI Switzerland, propose a series of strategies to halt the degradation of grasslands globally and promote their restoration to meet United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals. Using the example of the invasion of East African grasslands by the alien tree Prosopis juliflora, it illustrates how different management scenarios may help meeting the demands for ecosystem services by different stakeholder groups.

Paper reference:

Bardgett, R., Bullock, J.M., Lavorel, S. et al. (2021) Combatting global grassland degradation. Nature Reviews Earth and Environment. doi: 10.1038/s43017-021-00207-2