Author(s):
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
Date: 2007
Persistent ID: http://hdl.handle.net/10400.5/5463
Origin: Repositório da UTL
Subject(s): grassland management; low-intensity systems
Description
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.
