Embracing complexity and humility in rangeland science

Abstract

More often than not, there is untapped potential for win-wins between livestock production and conservation. On the other hand, it is impossible to achieve every objective everywhere, all the time. Sometimes the tradeoffs are real. We need to spend less time searching for general rules and more time embracing the complexity and context-dependence within rangeland science. Rather than writing off findings that do not fit our current worldview, we should challenge ourselves to broaden our views in ways that reconcile multiple findings or multiple truths. It is possible we are all partly or mostly right, and we just need to figure out why, how, and in what contexts. There is value in doing research in a way that focuses on really listening to and respecting multiple perspectives so that the results we produce not only qualify as facts, but also as truths that many people can buy into and get behind.