4. Conclusion and future prospects
As a barometer of grassland health, the wide distribution of toxic weeds
worldwide indicates that land degradation is a serious issue that
threatens the sustainable developmental goal of “no poverty, zero
hunger” of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.
This review provides an understanding of the adaptive abilities of toxic
weeds and presents a new interpretation of their role in degenerated
grassland ecosystems. Here, we argue that toxic weeds can provide
self-protective mechanisms of degraded pastures and promote their
resilience. In some cases, taking no action might be superior to taking
actions that end up doing more harm than good. The blind removal of
toxic weeds through the promotion of increased grazing will likely
expose pastures to excessive damage, jeopardizing ecosystem balance.
Thus, robust grassland management requires policy makers, managers and
other personnel to continuously monitor and evaluate the long-term
trade-offs between the development of livestock farming and the
maintenance of multiple ecological services. An improved understanding
of toxic weeds is valuable for the sustainable management of grasslands
and for meeting the 2030 Global Land Degradation Neutrality Target set
by the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (Tothet al. 2018).