Changing year-round habitat use of extensively grazing cattle, sheep and pigs in East-Central Europe between 1940 and 2014: Consequences for conservation and policy

Varga, Anna and Molnár, Zsolt and Biró, Marianna and Demeter, László and Gellény, Krisztina and Ujházy, Noémi and Ulicsni, Viktor and Babai, Dániel (2016) Changing year-round habitat use of extensively grazing cattle, sheep and pigs in East-Central Europe between 1940 and 2014: Consequences for conservation and policy. AGRICULTURE ECOSYSTEMS & ENVIRONMENT, 234. pp. 142-153. ISSN 0167-8809

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Abstract

Abstract Many habitats in Europe have been managed by grazing for thousands of years. However, extensive grazing systems are becoming increasingly rare in the region, and there is a lack of understanding of the functioning of these systems. We carried out 147 structured interviews in 38 landscapes throughout the Carpathian Basin, with 3–5 informants/landscape. The number of actively grazing cattle, sheep and pigs, their year-round habitat use and the proportion of herds actively tended were documented for four characteristic historical periods (before, during and after socialist cooperatives and after EU Accession). The numbers of grazing cattle and sheep had decreased substantially by 2010 (by 71% and 49%, respectively), while pig grazing almost disappeared by the 1970s. Cattle primarily grazed habitats with taller vegetation. Sheep grazed dry pastures and stubbles, while pigs were driven into marshes and forests. In general, the importance of dry and wet grasslands increased, while the significance of marshes, stubble fields, vegetation along linear elements, second growth on hay meadows, wood-pastures and forests decreased over time. Approximately half of the grazed habitats were not typical pasture grasslands, and functioned as supplementary pastures during droughts, autumn and winter. The number of habitat types grazed per month per site dropped, and herding decreased substantially, in particular in the case of cattle and pigs. Contributing factors of the economic and social changes of the examined period included the collapse of the communist-era legal framework, the intensification of livestock husbandry, EU Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) regulations, and the rise of a nature conservation ethic. We conclude that agricultural policies should take into account the full spectrum of habitat types necessary for the effective operation of extensive grazing systems. We argue that conservation-oriented extensive grazing should use the traditional wisdom of herders but adapted to the present situations.

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