Systematic targeting of management actions as a tool to enhance conservation of traditional rural biotopes

Abstract

Traditional rural biotopes (TRBs), which are biologically and culturally valuable habitats maintained by low-intensity grazing and mowing, are a core element of biodiversity in Europe. During the last decades, TRBs have faced severe habitat loss and fragmentation due to agricultural modernization. Despite their well-known critical state, their conservation remains inadequate, thus raising a need to advance TRB conservation via spatial land-use planning. In this study we analyze a national GIS database on TRBs in order to examine how the current TRB network can be complemented in terms of conservation value based on known ecological characteristics. Given different target scenarios for the amount of managed TRBs, we demonstrate where management should be directed to both on protected and unprotected areas. We conclude that in current state, biodiversity depending on TRB management is not efficiently sustained in Finland. Substantial amount of TRB habitats and populations of threatened TRB species are left unmanaged. Based on our results, we suggest that to advance TRB conservation in Finland, the cover of managed TRBs should be rapidly extended to form ecologically functional networks. The expansion would prioritize additional management to the Baltic Sea coast and smaller clusters within inland Finland, double the cover of managed TRBs, and direct management subsidies in a more cost-effective way.