Tradition, Change and Sustainability: Livestock Farming in the Falkland Islands

The environmental impact of livestock production must be reduced in the face of increasing global population and affluence and thus appetite for animal protein. Climate change presents additional uncertainties that call for adaptive decision-making by livestock farmers. Islands are generally useful study areas for their lack of boundary issues, but in particular for studies of sustainability, because of the need for self-sufficiency. Qualitative interviews with Falkland livestock farmers, stratifying to capture the extant variety of grazing practices, were taken during a visit in the Falklands from mid November to early December 2016. Interviews explored producer perceptions of their sector, landscape and climate, how these have changed, and how that drives management decision-making. A report coming from the analyses of the data will be available on request to the owner