Dairy animals are a major driver for livelihoods in most rural landscapes and economies and provide an important contribution to nutritional security. Ruminant dairy systems can also play a positive role in improving climate and environmental conditions supporting protection and enhancement of biodiversity and contributing to better human health. Conversely, the various ecosystem services that ruminant farming systems provide to society are often overlooked and have been rarely fully recognized and quantified.
Ecosystem services are the benefits people and the planet obtain from ecosystems. These include providing nutritional food and versatile manure; regulating services for air quality, climate, water, disease, pollination, or natural hazard; cultural services that provide education values, social relations, and empowerment; and supporting services such as soil formation, photosynthesis, water and nutrient cycling.
To build strategies for truly sustainable dairy production systems, more attention needs to be focused on existing ecosystem services provided by dairy animals, and how the development of additional ecosystem services can be prioritized. This will help to better quantify, qualify and acknowledge the reliance of many food systems actors on these services and galvanize support for better understanding of how to expand potential services opportunities across differ types of food systems.
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