Socioeconomic drivers of livestock browsing, and its impact on Chilean forests

Livestock browsing is a significant driver of forest degradation, with major ecological consequences. In Chile, high livestock stocking densities (LSD) negatively impact on forests, yet their social determinants remain poorly understood. Based on 100 farms that are part of the National Forest Inventory Dataset (farm-level socioeconomic and biophysical data measured in both 2016 and 2022), semi-structured interviews and forest plots (species, sizes, health, and regeneration plots) were performed to evaluate the impact of livestock on forests, understand its socioeconomic drivers, and propose policies to better regulate this activity. We observed that livestock production was stable between 2016 and 2022, despite the huge impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on productive systems. LSD decreased when the importance of off-farm incomes increased. Forest cover was also relevant, as LSD increased in larger and more deforested farms. It means deforestation exacerbates animal load and its negative impacts on the remnant forest fragments. A high LSD decreases seedling and sapling abundance, and increases damage on them, even in farms with supplementary fodder supply. We also observed a significant correlation between damage on tree regeneration and low-quality adult-trees (shape, health and diversity), which exposes past impacts of livestock on forests. As livestock is stable along time, this correlation shows how livestock has been degrading previous tree-cohorts and modifying forest dynamic in a silent process, which exposes how important regulating animal load is for the future of Chilean forests. Finally, we develop several policy proposals to better regulate livestock and its negative impacts.