Diversity, threats and conservation of European wood-pastures

Grazed wooded landscapes have played a crucial role in the history of the European countryside. From the Neolithic, wood-pastures have been at the heart of subsistence economies of most rural societies throughout Europe, and they are still locally relevant for the economic integrity of some marginal rural areas. Various, often complex, forms of agro-silvopastoral systems evolved and became part of the regional cultural history. Although the number of wood-pastures has declined significantly over the past century, most countries retain a significant number of these habitats. Sharing the common elements of scattered trees and bushes accompanied by herbaceous vegetation, European wood-pastures nevertheless exhibit a wide range of structures and types, due to the variety of biogeographic and environmental conditions (climate, soil, topography, geology) as well as social contexts in which they develop. Wood-pastures are also influenced by the regional land use history, current management, grazing animals and seasonality. Also the uses of wood-pastures vary widely over space and time. Remarkable in their multifunctionality, wood-pastures can provide a variety of products and services, such as building materials, fuel, forage, food, cork, shelter and recreation, the importance of which depends on the local context (see also Oppermann, this volume). Agricultural and industrial developments have affected the economic value of wood-pastures, which is now very low in most parts of Europe. Although still in active use in many parts of Southern and Eastern Europe, in Western and Northern Europe they are mostly relicts or new achievements primarily maintained for biodiversity conservation purposes (Bergmeier et al., 2010). Wood-pastures are vulnerable across Europe. Among the major threats are

forest regrowth due to land abandonment, land-use change and the degradation caused by a reduction in the number of old trees and the lack of regeneration due to overgrazing. Although national or local conservation approaches exist to maintain wood-pastures as important habitats for biodiversity (Finck et al., 2002), they are poorly supported by international policies. At the European Union level, wood-pastures are only partially recognised in conservation policies such as the Habitats Directive (Bergmeier et al., 2010), while agricultural policy is actively detrimental to wood-pastures in some areas (Peeters and Warda, 2012).