This paper presents the main social and economic in¯uences of small ruminants on the environment as well as the impact of
small ruminants on natural resources in two of the most dominant world farming systems, arid and temperate. The analysis of
the arid system underlined the apparent incapacity of the land to support the numbers of domestic animals that caused most of
the damage in addition to that accomplished through cultivation and gathering of wood species. The ecological integrity of
these systems was weakened once the strategies behind their adaptation to arid and marginal areas (diversi®cation and
mobility) were threatened. In addition, the transformation that these systems are going through (social, economical and
political) has threatened the viability of these traditional systems. In temperate zones, there are concerns that both too little and
too much grazing by small ruminants is leading to environmental degradation. There is a need to more fully understand the
role that grazing plays in maintaining habitats and landscapes in favorable condition. Environmental concerns of small
ruminant systems in intensive grassland systems are those of all intensive grassland systems, pollution from animal waste,
from silage, and nitrate and phosphate discharge to wate