Livestock biodiversity as interface between people, landscapes and nature

Abstract Livestock breeds, and the genetic diversity they embody, are components of global biodiversity. Intimately enfolded in human societies, they are also components of agroecosystems, providing food, non‐food products, and other services including labour and social security. Under traditional management in pastoral systems, they can assure conservation of landscapes and of floral and faunal biodiversity. Conservation of these genetic resources has been supported scientifically by animal genetics. This paper argues that ecosystem services science could provide further support to, and will in turn benefit from involvement in, genetic conservation. The focus is on the cultural significance in its landscape contexts of livestock biodiversity, and it is recommended that linkages be strengthened among ecosystem sciences, cultural geography and animal sciences. These linkages will help development of policies that enhance the delivery, and support the resilience, of the ecosystem services provided by livestock and the systems of which they are part. Policy interventions that promote the conservation and sustainable development of livestock biodiversity are likely to confer both ecological and cultural benefits, and strengthen linkages between people and nature. In turn, while the science of ecosystem services should take more account of livestock biodiversity, animal sciences should engage more with its cultural dimensions. A free Plain Language Summary can be found within the Supporting Information of this article.