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10 December 2021 A Synthesis of Ranch-Level Sustainability Indicators for Land Managers and to Communicate across the US Beef Supply Chain
Marissa A. Ahlering, Clare Kazanski, Patrick E. Lendrum, Pablo Borrelli, William Burnidge, Lexi Clark, Chad Ellis, Kirk Gadzia, Jonathan Gelbard, Sasha Gennet, Jeff Goodwin, Jeffrey E. Herrick, Emily Kachergis, Corrine Knapp, Nancy Labbe, Kristie Maczko, Elizabeth Porzig, David Rizzo, Sheri Spiegal, Christopher Wilson
Author Affiliations +
Abstract

While increasing numbers of ranchers are striving to demonstrate sustainable ranching operations geared toward a healthy landscape, companies are seeking to advance sustainability along beef supply chains and consumers are making more environmentally oriented purchasing choices. Yet there is a need for greater clarity on which indicators are most effective for assessing and monitoring sustainable management and continuous improvement of ranching operations. Our objective was to synthesize existing guidance on monitoring and assessing ranch-scale sustainability in the United States and to identify core ecological, social, and economic indicators that could identify well-managed ranching, support adaptive management, and demonstrate producers' sustainability and continuous improvement to retailers and consumers. We evaluated 21 range and pastureland assessments from nongovernmental organizations, agencies, and academics that totaled 180 indicators. From this, we selected 20 commonly used “core” indicators (12 ecological and 8 socioeconomic). We identified indicators that are designed to detect change over time for management practices, common among many approaches, and/or critical indicators for outcomes of common interest to producers, companies, and consumers. The synthesis of indicators across many guidance documents offers insight into what a diverse set of range professionals and institutions see as critical to demonstrate and track ranch-level sustainability, and producers, consumers, and companies may find a subset of these indicators to be relevant for their operation and region, values, and/or company sustainability goals. The synthesis also highlights the need for more integration and agreement on socioeconomic indicators of ranch sustainability. We acknowledge that socioeconomic indicators are context dependent and discuss the pitfalls of not integrating them into ranch assessments. Finally, we identified four issues to consider in operationalizing widespread use of common indicators: 1) who bears the cost, 2) agreement on simple and robust standardized protocols, 3) developing region-specific thresholds, and 4) issues of data privacy and sharing agreements for data use.

© 2021 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. on behalf of The Society for Range Management.
Marissa A. Ahlering, Clare Kazanski, Patrick E. Lendrum, Pablo Borrelli, William Burnidge, Lexi Clark, Chad Ellis, Kirk Gadzia, Jonathan Gelbard, Sasha Gennet, Jeff Goodwin, Jeffrey E. Herrick, Emily Kachergis, Corrine Knapp, Nancy Labbe, Kristie Maczko, Elizabeth Porzig, David Rizzo, Sheri Spiegal, and Christopher Wilson "A Synthesis of Ranch-Level Sustainability Indicators for Land Managers and to Communicate across the US Beef Supply Chain," Rangeland Ecology and Management 79(1), 217-230, (10 December 2021). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rama.2021.08.011
Received: 14 January 2021; Accepted: 30 August 2021; Published: 10 December 2021
KEYWORDS
beef supply chain
ecological
economic
measures
social
sustainable rangelands
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