Global climate change: Perspectives in the BC cattle ranching industry

A quantitative analysis of the BC cattle ranching community in light of global climate change provides insight as to how stakeholder needs and observations can be included in future planning. This analysis is an important first step towards an understanding of existing capacity and identifying areas of focus. Over sixty percent of survey respondents believe that human activities are increasing the rate at which global climate changes occur. Cattle ranchers operating for less than 20 years were more likely to agree that human activities are increasing the rate of global climate change on comparison to those operating more than 40 years. This may be a reflection of the fact that the concept of climate change has gained more public acceptance in the past two decades and would likely be perceived as a legitimate risk to an operation by those in this category in comparison to those who have been operating for a long period of time and tend to rely on experiential or embedded knowledge. Operation scale in terms of head of cattle appears to influence perceptions of localized climate variation on rangelands due to global climate change and changes in forage productivity and quality on a regional scale. Regional analysis provided some areas of potential focus for programs that would assist producers in further adapting to changes in climate. Movement towards building adaptive capacity must be a collaborative effort. Including experiential and scientific knowledge will be crucial to reducing the vulnerability of this sector and building adaptive capacity.