Fragmentation of Australian rangelands: processes, benefits and risks of changing patterns of land use

Pastoral development of Australian rangelands has been accompanied by fragmentation of land use, which has changed the scale at which humans and livestock access patchily-distributed resources in landscapes. These changes have tended to be targeted towards achieving narrowly defined policy or land management objectives, and have ignored the broader consequences for land use. We describe the processes of rangeland fragmentation, the factors that have driven these changing patterns of land use, and current trends towards enterprise consolidation and intensification, which continue to reshape the way humans and livestock use rangelands. Although there is growing interest in intensified systems of rangeland management, some of the benefits are uncertain, and there are several risks that serve as a caution against overoptimism: (i) intensification involves multiple simultaneous changes to enterprise operations and the benefits and trade offs of each component need to be better understood; (ii) if intensification proceeds without addressing constraints to implementing these management options sustainably then overutilisation and degradation of rangelands is likely to occur; (iii) further fragmentation of rangelands ( from increased internal fencing) could compromise potential benefits derived from landscape heterogeneity in connected landscapes. Adaptation by the pastoral industry continues to reshape the use of rangelands. A broad-based approach to changes in land use that incorporates risks together with expected benefits during initial planning decisions would contribute to greater resilience of rangeland enterprises.