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• THE DECLINE OF TRADITIONAL LIVESTOCK FARMING IN SPAIN AND ITS IMPACT ON ECOSYSTEM SERVICES: UNDERSTANDING THE DYNAMICS THROUGH FOCUS GROUPS WITH SHEPHERDS

  Rodrigo Menor de Gaspar López

  Inmaculada Carrasco Monteagudo

  Miguel Ángel Gómez Borja

  Views:

  225

  Traditional extensive livestock farming has emerged as a potential sustainable development strategy in Europe, particularly to address rural depopulation and provide multiple positive externalities. Despite new European policies emphasizing its importance, the sector continues to decline. This study employs focus group methodology to examine the underlying causes of this decline from the perspective of shepherds. Two discussion groups were held with farmers from the regions of Castilla y León and Castilla-La Mancha in Spain, allowing us to contrast the testimonies of the practitioners with the existing literature. Our methodological approach emphasizes the value of focus groups in capturing complex socioeconomic dynamics within traditional livestock communities. 

  The findings reveal multiple interconnected challenges: low profitability derived from legal requirements and concentration of demand; increasingly complex access to pastures due to local and state regulations; significant barriers to entry, including economic requirements and bureaucracy; difficulties in work-life balance; bureaucratic obstacles to positive externalities; conflictive relations with the tourism sector; weak associationism; and limited technology adoption. This study contributes to the methodological literature by demonstrating how focus groups can effectively reveal hidden dynamics in declining traditional sectors. 

• Driving factors behind Uganda’s rural pastoral communities’ social-economic status; a comparison between Karamoja Region and Ankole Region

  STEWART ATEGEKA

  Views:

  571

  This study aimed to analyze the social-economic status of Karamoja, Uganda’s largest pastoral region that has consistently stood out as the least developed region in Uganda. The region is naturally endowed with a variety of minerals such as marble, limestone, gold, etc. This has attracted (both local and international) artisanal and small-scale miners into the region whose contribution to the region’s development seem negligible. The Majority of the residents derive their livelihoods from livestock as a primary source. Three major rural development aspects i.e., social, ecological, and economic dimensions were assessed and compared to the Ankole region, one of Uganda’s rural pastoral regions that have over time registered progress in livestock production and regional development.  Based on this comparison, similarities and differences can be identified and used to build the foundation for the development of a SWOT analysis that will focus on the Strength, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats that exist in this rural pastoral region of Karamoja.  This study creates a cornerstone for developing sustainable rural development strategies based on a focused analysis of sociological factors that are fundamental in unmasking the ground reality in the region.