Pasture Landscapes and Nature Conservation

“The book is a series of studies on vegetation of pastures, and certainly the field botanist or environmental scientist concerned with these ecosystems or interested in their conservation will find a wealth of rich material. It provides readers with a vivid picture of the environmental, social and political changes that pastoral societies face in different regions. … From an academic perspective, this book further develops the field of social-ecological theory and resilience thinking by systematically connecting theories with management practices.” (Khalid Hussain and Tasadoq Hussain Jaweed, Pastoralism, December, 2017)

• I. Introduction.- Pasture Landscapes and Nature Conservation - New strategies for preservation of open landscapes in Europe.- Nature conservation in pastoral landscapes: Challenges, chances and constraints.- II. Grazing as a phenomenon in Europe.- Nature conservation and pastoralism in Wallony.- Stipa austroitalica garigues and mountain pastureland in the Pollino National Park (Calabria, Southern Italy).- Landscapes of northern Spain and pastoral systems.- Nature conservation aspects of pastoral farming in Georgia.- Grazing systems and their influence on biodiversity in the region of the Dnister river.- Managing wood pasture landscapes in England; the New Forest and other more recent examples.- The role of invisible biodiversity in pasture landscapes.- III. Grazing as a Nature Conservation strategy.- Pasture landscapes in Germany - progress towards sustainable use of agricultural land.- Maintaining biodiversity and open landscapes by grazing in the County of South Jutland, Denmark.- Nature development along the river Scheldt: Combining ecosystem functions in the Kruibeke-Bazel-Rumpelmonde polder.- The Border Meuse Nature Development Project.- The Lake Pape: Grazing of coastal grasslands. WWF Latvia project.- Galloway-based grazing systems in Schleswig-Holstein (Germany) - projects run by BUNDE WISCHEN e. V. association.- Low intensity pig pastures as an alternative approach for habitat management.- The Eidertal pasture landscape - Mire restoration and species conservation in a river valley of Schleswig-Holstein (northwest Germany).- Inland Sand Ecosystems: Dynamics and restitution as a consequence of the use of different grazing systems.- Management concepts for abondoned xerothermic slopes in the middle Rhine Valley: A case study in the sustainable development of cultural landscapes.- Examples of the maintenance and restoration of wood pasture sites in the UK and the potential for creation.- Grasslands and scrublands in the northwest of the Iberian Peninsula: Silvopastoral systemy and nature conservation.- Landscape development and species protection in woodlands, forests and pastures using large herbivores.- The Large Herbivore Initiative: An Eurasian conservation and restoration programme for a key-species group in ecosystems (Europe, Russia, Central-Asia and Mongolia).- Urbanized man and the longing for a New Wilderness.- The significance of EU agricultural policy on the nature conservation of pastoral farmland.- IV. Grazing and habitat dynamics - results of scientific research.- Methods for the investigation of patterns and processes in large-scale grazing systems.- Effects of large-scale cattle grazing on Orthoptrea (Saltatoria et Mantodea) on pastures in Georgia (Caucasus).- Does large-scale, multi-species pasturing maintain high biodiversity with rare and endangered species? - The Sava floodplain case study.- Large-scale grazing systems by herdsmen and their impact on landscape patterns and biodiversity in western Ukraine’s Carpathians.-Co-operative grazing systems (“Allmende”): An alternative concept for the management of endangered open and semi-open landscapes.- MOSAIK: Semi-open pasture and ley - a research project on keeping the culural landscape open.- Natural succession in a dynamic riverine landscape and the protection of open areas.- V. Outlook.- Significance of pasture landscapes for nature conservation and extensive agriculture.