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Which habitats of European importance depend on agricultural practices?

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Abstract

The aim of this paper is to identify the habitat types listed in the Habitats Directive Annex I that require low-intensity agricultural management for their existence. We assessed the link between the Annex I habitat types and agricultural practices in order to identify habitat types that depend on the continuation of agricultural practices or whose existence is prolonged or spatially enlarged via blocking or reducing the secondary succession by agricultural activities. 63 habitat types that depend on or which can profit from agricultural activities—mainly grazing and mowing—were identified. They are classified into 2 groups: (1) habitats fully dependent on the continuation of agricultural management; (2) habitats partly dependent on the continuation of agricultural management. This paper also briefly discusses habitat types for which either doubts remain on their dependence on agricultural management, or the relation to extensive farming practices exists only in part of their area of distribution in Europe or under certain site conditions, respectively. Assessments of the conservation status of habitats of European Importance by 25 EU Member States in 2007 showed that habitats identified by us as depending on agricultural practices had a worse status than non-agricultural habitats.

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Abbreviations

CAP:

Common Agricultural Policy

CEC:

Commission of the European Communities

EEA:

European Environment Agency

EU:

European Union

HNVF:

High Nature Value Farmland

JNCC:

Joint Nature Conservation Committee

JRC:

Joint Research Centre of the European Union

UNEP:

United Nations Environment Programme

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Acknowledgments

The authors wish to thank to Gabriela Augusto, Panayotis Dimopoulos, Axel Ssymank for comments on the selection of habitat types depending on agricultural practices and to Maria Luisa Paracchini and Peter Veen for comments to manuscript. The paper is based on the research supported by the European Environment Agency and the Slovak grant agency VEGA (project No. 2/0166/08 “Assessment of the agro-environment programs contribution to conservation and maintenance of rural landscape diversity”).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Landscape Ecology, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Branch Nitra, Akademická 2, P.O. Box 22, 949 01, Nitra, Slovakia

    Lubos Halada

  2. European Topic Centre on Biological Diversity, Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle, 57 rue Cuvier, FR-75231, Paris, Paris Cedex 05, France

    Doug Evans

  3. European Environment Agency, Kongens Nytorv 6, 1050, Copenhagen K, Denmark

    Carlos Romão & Jan-Erik Petersen

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  1. Lubos Halada
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  2. Doug Evans
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  3. Carlos Romão
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  4. Jan-Erik Petersen
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Correspondence to Lubos Halada.

Additional information

This paper is a contribution to the work of identifying areas of High Nature Value Farmland currently in progress in Europe.

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Halada, L., Evans, D., Romão, C. et al. Which habitats of European importance depend on agricultural practices?. Biodivers Conserv 20, 2365–2378 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10531-011-9989-z

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