Goat grazing in Cyprus
In his advocacy of silvipastoralism as a solution to the problems of the Mediterranean forest in the slate twentieth century, Vasilios Papanastasis (Integrating goats into Mediterranean forests, Unasylva, 38, (154):44-52) is going against the body of Mediterranean forestry and forest land-use experience. The history of man's use and abuse of the Mediterranean forests establishes quite incontrovertibly the significant role of goat grazing in the complex of political, socioeconomic, cultural and biological effects that have brought the forests to their present degraded state.
The arguments Mr Papanastasis advances are similar to those of his livestock counterparts in Cyprus in the 1930s and 1940s, prior to the exclusion of the goat from the forests of that island. While Cyprus is more compact and possibly more "manageable" than some Mediterranean countries it, nonetheless, serves as a sand-table for many critical parts of the region. Its 40 years of freedom from the ravages of the free-range goat has shown such fears and views as are now expressed by Mr Papanastasis to be unfounded. The island's livestock population has not decreased. Although, reflecting the vagaries of climate, it fluctuates from year to year, the national herd has remained at much the same level throughout this century. Consequent to improved husbandry on the better lands and a change from goats to sheep, the productivity of the flocks has increased. The remaining shepherds have a better life. Floristically, the forests are enriched. Forest management and restocking of the forest goes on apace. Growth of wood and hence timber production have increased. Tourism and recreational use flourish.
Fuels have not built up to unmanageable levels, understorey vegetation is beneficial in providing soil cover to facilitate the process of biological recovery. The forest areas lost in the catastrophic fires that occurred during the communal troubles of the early 1970s have been restocked after a monumental effort that would have been impossible in the presence of goat grazing. The scourge of fire, and particularly incendiarism, is no more. The life of the forest villagers is transformed. In total, forest productivity in all its aspects is enhanced, the people of Cyprus look to the forest as a national heritage and the forest service can get on with the task of silvicultural management that was impossible during the reign of the goat.
The Cyprus experience demonstrates that the problems of the Mediterranean forest can be resolved, not through controlled grazing which has been tried and found wanting, but through the consistent application of forest policy coupled with the provision of alternative employment, whether this be forest-based, through improved use of agricultural lands and livestock improvement, or through industrial development, or some combination of the three.
Mr Papanastasis hopes that through education and careful handling, shepherding societies will cooperate and become amenable to restrictions on their traditional use of the forests. By the time the lessons have been learned, the progressive forest shepherd will have long abandoned his traditional flock and will no longer be grazing goats. If he is to be kept on the land, other employment must be made available that will permit a higher standard of living than is possible by running a flock of starveling free-range goats eking out an existence from the poor diet available to them in the forests.
The late R.O. Whyte, former Director of the Commonwealth Bureau of Pastures and Field Crops, who it may be remarked was not a forester, presented a notable report on forest grazing realities at the 1946 Middle East Land Use Conference held in Nicosia, Cyprus, while goat exclusion was being effected. Among other comments, he said: " (Mediterranean) Department(s) of Agriculture must surely accept responsibility for providing fodder for the animal population from agricultural land and not continue to assume that... forest reserves are to be regarded as the main fodder reserves... merely because they are available free of cost... Department(s) of Agriculture should be much in evidence in developing alternative methods of making a living."
His comments remain equally valid 40 years later.
In many of the less advanced parts of the Mediterranean region the reality of goat grazing continues and is certain to continue for a long-time to come but, in all but a few situations, the long-term solution to the massive degradation of the region's forests lies not in the perpetuation of an anachronistic way of life and in the perpetuation of the silvipastoralism that has brought the Mediterranean forest to its present debased state, but through the provision of agricultural extension services and alternative sources of employment, so that the erstwhile pastoralist can satisfy his very reasonable desire for a life that approximates to the expectations of the late twentieth century, while the forester can set about restoring the forest to a potential that has been so obscured by misuse as to have been lost sight of by many even within the region.
J.V. Thirgood
The University of British Columbia
Vancouver, B.C. Canada
FAO FORESTRY PAPERS
47 (1984): Technical forestry education: design and implementation
A guide to forestry training at the technical level, by H.A. Hilmi and D. Sim. (available in English only)
65 (1986): Forest legislation in selected African countries
A comprehensive analysis and review of selected forestry laws and regulations, by F. Schmithüsen. (available in English and French)
66 (1986): Forestry extension organization
A guide to organizing a forestry extension programme (available in English only)
71 (1986): World compendium of forestry and forest products research institutions
A catalogue of worldwide research resources, by H.A. Hilmi. (available in English, French and Spanish)
FOOD AND AGRICULTURE ORGANIZATION OF THE UNITED NATIONS
These colourful cover posters are from an FAO/Netherlands community forestry project in the Peruvian Andes, sponsored by the National Forestry and Wildlife Institute, and reproduced by kind permission. The artist is Carlos Tovar.
