Benefits Poverty is often endemic in arid zones. Poverty can be reduced by producing marketable products such as meat and wool and adding value to them through meatpacking and yarn production. Inequality can also be reduced if poor people can participate effectively in such activities. If climatic conditions permit and some diversification of economic activities can be introduced, it will reduce pastoralists’ dependence on only one economic activity and their vulnerability to economic loss, especially if drought occurs. Environmental benefits from sustainable management of pastoral systems result from the reduction of overgrazing, which causes the loss of browse and desirable grasses, spreads weed species, erodes soil, and leads to the deterioration of key resources, such as water sites, salt licks, and bottom lands. Sustainable pasture management prevents loss of plant and animal biodiversity and negative livestock-wildlife interactions. The role of grasslands as a storehouse of carbon makes them potentially important in efforts to mitigate global climate change, and carbon sequestration may provide a future income opportunity through transfer payments. Policy and Implementation Issues Population pressure. A growing population will add pressure to the resource base and can greatly affect development of a sustainable pastoral system. For this reason, agroecological assessments must embrace the entire system and projected changes over time. Assessments should cover population, especially numbers of people and animals; household indicators of wealth and well-being, such as herd or flock size; and social support mechanisms, such as extended family or tribal obligations. Environmental indicators should include the condition and health of the resource base, particularly for key resource areas such as flood plains, bottom lands, and drought refuges, which are important in more arid zones. Enabling policies. Policy issues that have affected or currently affect sustainable pastoral development include: Exchange rate policies. The 1994 devaluation in the CFA countries of francophone West Africa affected livestock prices.
Trade policies. Open trade regimes are generally desirable but can result in imports of food, such as meat, with negatively effects on local production.
Crop input prices. If governments support agriculture with price policies that favor crop production to the disadvantage of pastoral systems (as has been the case), then crop production can encroach considerably into marginal range areas.
Feed subsidies. If governments provide subsidies in general or to cover losses from drought, they may have detrimental environmental effects on range areas and raise equity issues.
Land tenure and laws. Pastoralists often graze animals on land that is owned by the state but whose use is actually governed by a complex interaction between customary institutions and their rules, and national law. Land tenure laws become important to protect pastoralists’ rights when pastoral land is sought by outsiders for pasture or other uses.     
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