Comparative typology in six european low-intensity systems of grassland management

• Main Authors: Caballero, Rafael, Riseth, Jan Age, Labba, Niklas, Tyran, Ewa, Musial, Wieslaw, Molik, Edyta, Boltshauser, Andrea, Hofstetter, Pius, Gueydon, Anne, Roeder, Norbert, Hoffmann, Helmut, Moreira, Manuel Belo, Coelho, Inocêncio Seita, Brito, Olga, Gil, Ángel
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier 2007
• Subjects: grassland management; low-intensity systems; Fennoscandia; reindeer husbandry; Sapmi
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10400.5/5463

European biodiversity significantly depends on large-scale livestock systems with low input levels. In most countries forms of grazing are organized in permanent or seasonal cooperations (land-owner/land-user agents) and covers different landscape such as alpine areas, forest, grasslands, mires, and even arable land. Today, the existence of these structures is threatened due to changes in agricultural land use practices and erratic governmental policies. The present chapter investigates six low-input livestock systems of grassland management with varying degrees of arrangements in different European countries and landscapes. These large-scale grazing systems (LSGS) are reindeer husbandry in Northern Sapmi (Fennoscandia), sheep grazing in the Polish Tatra mountains, cattle grazing in the Swiss and German Alps, cattle, sheep, and pig grazing in Baixo Alentejo, Southern Portugal, and sedentary sheep grazing in Central Spain. These systems showed very heterogeneous organizational patterns in their way of exploiting the pastoral resources. At the same time, these LSGS showed at least some of the following weaknesses such as poor economic performance, social fragility, and structural shortcomings for proper grazing management. Lack of proper mobility of herds/flocks or accession to specific grazing grounds can be a cause of environmental hazards. The surveyed LSGS are mostly dependent on public handouts for survival, but successive policy schemes have only showed mixed effects and, in particular study areas, clear inconsistencies in their aim to stop the general declining trend of LSGS.