Only one major recruitment event of Mitchell grass occurred during a 26-year grazing experiment at Julia Creek in north Queensland. This recruitment was the result of a particular series of rainfall events and was more or less independent of the degree of utilisation of the Mitchell grass. A utilisation level of 30% resulted in a sustainable Mitchell grassland for the duration of this experiment.

Plant species richness was highest with the lowest level of utilisation but lowest both with grazing excluded for 26 years and the unsustainable, highest level of utilisation. The interstitial species present at the low levels of utilisation were generally palatable species whereas those at the higher levels were less or not palatable to sheep. The interstitial species present were very dependent on the rainfall patterns from year to year.

Enclosures are areas protected from livestock grazing during the rainy season and are widely used by pastoralists in East Africa. The direction of vegetation change following the removal of grazing livestock has been a controversial issue, and we compared vegetation changes inside and outside a set of enclosures established in the rangelands of eastern Ethiopia. The establishment of enclosures led to positive vegetation changes in terms of diverse desirable species and increased herbage mass.

New types of landholders have been moving into the pastoral country of Western Australia over the last 15 years. These new landholders are mostly mining companies, but also conservation agencies and aboriginal groups. Combined they manage, either directly or indirectly, some 8.6 million hectares or  20% of the total area of the central rangelands of Western Australia. As mining companies and conservation agencies, both private and government, are not dependent on earning a living from their pastoral leases, they may be in a better position to not only deploy ecologically sustainable pastoral practices and restoration on their own leases, but also facilitate, fund and contribute to broader-scale management and nature conservation initiatives which cross property boundaries.

Desertification threatens large areas of Mediterranean arid rangelands but remains difficult to describe, quantify and accurately locate for management purposes. Overgrazing, fuel wood collection, hazardous cropping, mining industries and urbanisation reduce rangeland resources, leading pastoral communities to leave the rangelands. A methodological approach was developed to provide a spatial indicator of rangelands conditions and desertification. It is based upon field herbage mass measurements, rainfall data, a digital elevation model, the latest satellite imagery processing and GIS technology. The aim is to benefit local populations, managers and decision makers in arid Mediterranean regions.

The interactions among plant species have a crucial role in shaping plant communities. The spatial patterns and associations among some dominant species in a semiarid rangeland of middle Iran were analysed and positive interactions between species with different life forms and negative interactions between species with similar life forms were found. The findings may have applicability in the restoration and management of endangered rangelands.

Degradation of streams within the Australian rangelands takes many forms but includes the formation of defined channels eroded into valley floors, which can result in the accelerated loss of water and sediments from these valleys. A case study from a catchment in central New South Wales rangelands, which was the subject of landowner-instigated rehabilitation, is described where it was found that the rehabilitation measures applied resulted in increased retention of sediments in the channel. The measures described are cheap and easily implemented by landowners.

Restoration of abandoned and shrub-encroached alpine grasslands has become an important issue to preserve agro-pastoral activities and biodiversity. In our work, strategic placement of mineral mix supplements (MMS) attracted cattle on shrub-encroached and traditionally underused grasslands, resulting in a decrease in shrub cover and an increase in forage quality through the combined effect of trampling, grazing, and fertilization. Strategic placement of MMS may be a sustainable management practice to be considered for restoration of alpine grasslands within agri-environmental schemes.

Vegetation responses to differing sheep grazing regimes in an open communal experimental design were assessed over 3 years in grasslands of south-eastern Australia. Manipulation of season and duration of grazing exclusion led to few major changes in the cover of perennial grasses or forbs, although seasonal variation was considerable. This work highlights the need for a mosaic of flexible grazing regimes across the landscape to benefit native plant diversity.

Sandalwood (Santalum spicatum) harvesting from the wild stands of inland Western Australia is highly lucrative. Factors including drought, poor seed dispersal and grazing have caused sandalwood to be largely unable to regenerate without the intervention of soil cultivation and occurrence of a minimum threshold of winter rain. Information gained from this research has been applied by the Western Australian State Government to implement an extensive sandalwood seeding program.