TY - JOUR

T1 - Wood-pastures of Europe

T2 - Geographic coverage, social-ecological values, conservation management, and policy implications

AU - Plieninger, Tobias

AU - Hartel, Tibor

AU - Martín-López, Berta

AU - Beaufoy, Guy

AU - Bergmeier, Erwin

AU - Kirby, Keith

AU - Montero, María Jesús

AU - Moreno, Gerardo

AU - Oteros-Rozas, Elisa

AU - Van Uytvanck, Jan

PY - 2015/10/1

Y1 - 2015/10/1

N2 - Wood-pastures are archetypes of High Nature Value Farmlands in Europe and hold exceptional ecological, social, and cultural values. Yet, wood-pastures have been through a sharp decline all over Europe, mainly due to processes of agricultural intensification and abandonment. Recently, wood-pastures have found increasing attention from conservation science and policy across Europe. In this paper we (i) perform the first pan-European assessment of wood-pastures, considering individual countries and biogeographic regions, (ii) present the ecological and social-cultural values of a wide diversity of wood-pasture systems in Europe, (iii) outline management challenges around wood-pastures, and (iv) provide insights for the policy agenda targeting wood-pastures in Europe. We estimate that wood-pastures cover an area of approximately 203,000km2 in the European Union (EU). They are distributed across all biogeographical regions, but more abundantly in the Mediterranean and Eastern European countries. Substantial ecological values are revealed in terms of landscape level biodiversity, ecosystem dynamics, and genetic resources. Social-cultural values are related to aesthetic values, cultural heritage, and rich traditional ecological knowledge. We discuss the anthropogenic character of wood-pastures, requiring multifunctional land management, which is a major conservation challenge. Despite increasing societal appreciation of wood-pastures, their integration into effective agricultural and conservation policies has proved to be complicated, because institutional structures are traditionally organized within mono-functional sectors. We offer suggestions as to how these shortcomings might be overcome in the Common Agricultural Policy, including Rural Development policy, and the Habitats Directive of the EU. We conclude that research should be guided by a holistic vision of wood-pastures, which integrates information about ecology, societal values, and institutional arrangements.

AB - Wood-pastures are archetypes of High Nature Value Farmlands in Europe and hold exceptional ecological, social, and cultural values. Yet, wood-pastures have been through a sharp decline all over Europe, mainly due to processes of agricultural intensification and abandonment. Recently, wood-pastures have found increasing attention from conservation science and policy across Europe. In this paper we (i) perform the first pan-European assessment of wood-pastures, considering individual countries and biogeographic regions, (ii) present the ecological and social-cultural values of a wide diversity of wood-pasture systems in Europe, (iii) outline management challenges around wood-pastures, and (iv) provide insights for the policy agenda targeting wood-pastures in Europe. We estimate that wood-pastures cover an area of approximately 203,000km2 in the European Union (EU). They are distributed across all biogeographical regions, but more abundantly in the Mediterranean and Eastern European countries. Substantial ecological values are revealed in terms of landscape level biodiversity, ecosystem dynamics, and genetic resources. Social-cultural values are related to aesthetic values, cultural heritage, and rich traditional ecological knowledge. We discuss the anthropogenic character of wood-pastures, requiring multifunctional land management, which is a major conservation challenge. Despite increasing societal appreciation of wood-pastures, their integration into effective agricultural and conservation policies has proved to be complicated, because institutional structures are traditionally organized within mono-functional sectors. We offer suggestions as to how these shortcomings might be overcome in the Common Agricultural Policy, including Rural Development policy, and the Habitats Directive of the EU. We conclude that research should be guided by a holistic vision of wood-pastures, which integrates information about ecology, societal values, and institutional arrangements.

KW - Agro-forestry

KW - Habitats Directive

KW - High Nature Value farmland

KW - Land-use change

KW - Silvo-pastoralism

KW - Social-ecological research

KW - Sustainability Science

KW - Geography

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84936065048&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1016/j.biocon.2015.05.014

DO - 10.1016/j.biocon.2015.05.014

M3 - Journal articles

AN - SCOPUS:84936065048

VL - 190

SP - 70

EP - 79

JO - Biological Conservation

JF - Biological Conservation

SN - 0006-3207

ER -