The sustainable management of rangelands, both nationally and at the ranch level, cannot be assessed on the basis of ecological indicators, alone. Social, economic and legal considerations are also vital when it comes to understanding long-term trends of rangelands and their associated communities. The Sustainable Rangelands Roundtable developed 10 broad indicators within a criterion called, “Legal, Institutional, and Economic Framework for Rangeland Conservation and Sustainable Management.â€Â They are land law and property rights, public information and participation, institutions and organizations, economic policies and practices, professional education and technical assistance, land management programs, land planning, protection of special values, measuring and monitoring, and research and development. These indicators are intentionally broad in scope in order to allow agencies, practitioners, and interest groups the flexibility to devise more precise measures that are relevant to the scale of the rangeland system being monitored. Examples of how legal and institutional indicators can be applied at the regional/national level and for individual ranch business planning are discussed.
Oral presentation and poster titles, abstracts, and authors from the Society for Range Management (SRM) Annual Meetings and Tradeshows, from 2013 forward.