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Map 4. Cattle density
Map 5. Sheep and goat density
Map 6.
Tropical livestock unit (TLU) density
Maps 4,
5 and 6 were
assembled from various sources. Cattle densities for Africa are from
ILRI’s databases; for CSA, from CIAT–ILRI databases; and for Asia,
from Wint et al. (2000), and FAO country statistics (FAO, 2001a).
Sheep and goat densities are from Wint et al. (2000) for much of
Asia, and from FAO country statistics for CSA, Africa and parts of
Asia (FAO, 2001a). Map 6 includes data for buffalo, horses, mules,
donkeys, and pigs from FAO (2001a) at the country level.
Of the 3882 species of domesticated animals (de Haan
et al., 1997), only 12 species dominate global livestock production
(Blench, 2000). In Africa, livestock keepers’ systems rely on
cattle, sheep, goats, donkeys and dromedaries; in central Asia,
livestock owners keep horses, cattle, goats, sheep, donkeys and, in
some areas, Bactrian camels. Yaks dominate production in the
highlands of Asia. Llama and alpaca are common in Andean systems of
South America. Water buffalo are important in India and many other
Asian countries.
For this analysis, we focused mostly on the
distribution of cattle, sheep and goats. Cattle and sheep/goats are
found in the same areas in most of Africa, but their distribution
differs significantly in much of the rest of the world (Map 4 and
Map 5). In Africa, most of the cattle are in or near the Sahel, the
higher-potential areas of East Africa (including the Ethiopian
highlands), Zimbabwe and South Africa. Sheep are also concentrated
in these areas, and in parts of northern Africa. In Asia, Map 4
includes numbers of water buffalo in the cattle-density figures.
Here, cattle/buffalo are most abundant in far-western Asia (e.g.
the Newly Independent States), India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Pakistan,
China and many of the SEA countries. Sheep and goats are much more
widespread across central Asia and in many of the same regions as
cattle. In Latin America, cattle are concentrated in south-eastern
Brazil, Uruguay, Paraguay and north-eastern Argentina. By contrast,
sheep and goats are more common in Peru, Chile and western
Argentina. Cattle are more widespread than sheep and goats in
Central America.
We created a global map (Map
6) of TLUs, using the
species values of Jahnke (1982) to bring together the distributions
of cattle, buffalo, sheep, goats, horses, donkeys, mules and pigs.
The greatest density of TLUs is found in Brazil, Uruguay and
Argentina; the Ethiopian highlands and around Lake Victoria; India,
Pakistan, Nepal and Bangladesh; northeast and southeast China;
Kazahkstan, Azerbaijan, Georgia and Armenia.
It is as important to
recognise where the TLU density is relatively lower: much of the
Amazon basin, the Sahara, the humid forests of western and central
Africa, northern Zambia, Angola, Mozambique, the western part of
Botswana and eastern Namibia, the Arabian peninsula, western
Pakistan and the desert areas of China and Mongolia.
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