Nature-based solutions for cattle farming in South American grasslands: Searching for economic and environmental synergies

Unofficial AI-generated summary based on the public title and abstract. Not an official translation.

🔬研究者:Provides a multi-criteria evaluation of NbS for livestock, useful for researchers studying agricultural GHG mitigation and ecosystem services.

🏢実務担当者:Offers insights into the economic viability and environmental impacts of different NbS, guiding farmers and land managers in decision-making.

🏛政策担当者:Demonstrates the need for public financial support for high-cost NbS like native forest restoration, informing policy design for climate commitments.

Abstract Cattle farming in South America’s temperate grasslands is a vital economic activity, a major source of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and an integral part of a highly valuable ecosystem for biodiversity conservation. This study evaluates the economic and environmental performance of four nature-based solutions (NbS) for Uruguay’s cattle farming systems: grazing management practices based on ecological intensification, forest plantations for shade and shelter, native forests for shade and shelter, and extended pasture phase in crop-pasture rotations. We combined cost-benefit analysis, GHG mitigation potential estimation, and an expert survey on the effects on ecosystem services. Our results highlight multiple synergies and trade-offs across the four NbS. Grazing management practices demonstrate potential to generate substantial and consistent economic benefits across scenarios and enhance most ecosystem services, while reducing GHG emissions—although the magnitude of mitigation depends on context-specific carbon sequestration assumptions. The integration of native forests also presents relevant GHG mitigation potential and multiple benefits on ecosystem services, but high restoration costs lead to negative direct economic returns for farmers, suggesting the need for public financial support. Forest plantations deliver strong economic and mitigation outcomes, with clear differences between harvest scenarios: harvesting doubles net benefits, whereas the no-harvest option delivers the highest mitigation potential across all solutions. However, experts indicated mixed effects on most supporting and regulating services and potential negative impacts on cultural ecosystem services. Extending the pasture phase in rotations reveals high mitigation potential and positive effects on regulating and supporting services, yet its overall effect on crop production and economic feasibility depend on the baseline crop rotation configuration. These findings have direct policy implications for South American grasslands—particularly for Uruguay, as the four assessed strategies belong to its climate change commitments under the Paris Agreement. Adopting NbS in cattle farming offers opportunities to enhance sustainability, although potential trade-offs must be addressed to ensure an integral approach beyond the economic and carbon outcomes.

• openalex https://doi.org/10.1088/2976-601x/ae708afirst seen 2026-06-08 04:41:12