By UN Environment
Walking backward, Georgina unspools a thick white ribbon in a rectangle about half the size of a soccer pitch, before planting fence posts into the thick grass and stringing up an electric fence in Ecuador’s mountainous Pichincha province.
The fence in place, she ushers her 13 prized cows into the lush, green meadow—a now daily routine for the 46-year-old rancher.
She has only managed her pasture this way for eight months, but the improvement in the health of both her cattle and the grass they rely on has been profound since she began restricting grazing areas.
This is in contrast to less than a year ago, when the sparse, dry pasture had slashed her cattle’s productivity, forcing the family to sell part of their herd and rent additional land to feed those that remained.
“We have had to make a lot of sacrifices. It shouldn’t be this way,” she says, wiping away a tear as she recalls how the family struggled to pay her children’s school and university fees.
But since replicating sustainable land management practices piloted by the Multiplying Environmental and Carbon Benefits in High Andean Ecosystems project, the family’s situation has started to improve.
“We’ve seen an improvement in our pasture and we’ve learned the importance of looking at the whole ecosystem—maintaining the trees, and conserving the water,” Georgina says, showing off the rich pasture that now fills her fields. Read more>>
