“Beyond the grassland”: habitat use of extensively grazing cattle, sheep

Abstract

The role of extensive grazing in nature conservation is growing. The historical importance of this management type in Europe is widely acknowledged, but detailed, systematic description of the practices and of the related traditional knowledge is still absent. Our aim was to study which habitat types were grazed and what was their role in the extensive grazing systems during the last 80 years. 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. It can be stated that the majority of these extensive grazing systems could be considered as agroforestry and silvopastoral systems. 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. Our results encourage forest grazing for nature conservation purpose, thus under strictly defined conditions.