• Energy Research
• 15. Life on land close

The study was conducted in Desa'a Forest with the objective of investigating livestock-forest interaction. This study also evaluated the grazing pressure on Desa'a Forests from livestock, the potential of forests biomass feed production and current livestock density relation to the sustainable stocking rate. Data on socio-economic and community perception about livestock-forest interaction were collected through structured questionnaire on 90 households. To determine the species composition, abundance, density and diversity of woody plants, using stratified random sampling, four transect lines were laid out in east, west, north and south direction. Accordingly, the results are representative of Desa'a Forest. In the study area, 90% of the respondents (81 households) entered their livestock into Desa'a Forest and only 10% of the respondents (9 households) did not use Desa'a Forest. A total of 63 woody plant species were identified in the study area. According to farmers and pastoralists' opinion, 49.15%, 15.25%, 28.81% and 6.79% of woody species were identified as highly palatable, palatable, less palatable and unpalatable respectively. The mean herbaceous biomass production in Desa'a Forest is 1255.86 kg/ha. The predicted mean annual browse biomass production was 3000.72 kg/ha. The potential stocking rates for Desa'a Forest were 68480.39 TLU/year obtained based on the amount of fodder available to the livestock in the forest. The available potential browsing unit per hectare in the centre, North-West direction and south-east direction was 1432.66 BU/ha, 665.83 BU/ha and 203.66 BU/ha, respectively. Only 5.65% of the total surveyed households practice forage development which are the key to overcome feed shortage and decrease the pressure from the forest. Keywords: Biomass, Feed resource, Stocking rate, Desa'a Forest

Land provides a host of ecosystem services, of which the provisioning services are often considered paramount. As the demand for agricultural products multiplies, other ecosystem services are being degraded or lost entirely. Finding a sustainable trade-off between food production and one or more of other ecosystem services, given the variety of stakeholders, is a matter of optimizing land use in a dynamic and complex socio-ecological system. Land degradation reduces our options to meet both food demands and environmental needs. In order to illustrate this trade-off dilemma, four representative services, carbon sinks, water storage, biodiversity, and space for urbanization, are discussed here based on a review of contemporary literature that cuts across the domain of ecosystem services that are provided by land. Agricultural research will have to expand its focus from the field to the landscape level and in the process examine the cost of production that internalizes environmental costs. In some situations, the public cost of agriculture in marginal environments outweighs the private gains, even with the best technologies in place. Land use and city planners will increasingly have to address the cost of occupying productive agricultural land or the conversion of natural habitats. Landscape designs and urban planning should aim for the preservation of agricultural land and the integrated management of land resources by closing water and nutrient cycles, and by restoring biodiversity.