Work Package 5 (WP5) of the SUPER-G project will develop Decision Support Tools (DSTs) to assist farmers and policy makers to assess Ecosystem Service (ES) provision on Permanent Grassland (PG). Within WP5, as part of Task 5.1, we undertook a survey and review of existing DSTs used by farmers, advisors, policy makers and others to support any aspect of permanent grassland management within Europe. The review identified 127 DSTs from 16 countries, across 6 biogeographic regions. The review also differentiated the DSTs based on their format (software, spreadsheet or paper-based), target ecosystem service(s) (Biodiversity and pollination, Carbon storage and GHG, flood and erosion control, water quality, landscape and recreation including cultural value, and grass for livestock, biomass, bioenergy and other products) and their end user (farmers, advisors, policy makers, other).
Based on this review, we have identified key gaps (geographical, sectorial and thematic) currently lacking in DSTs for the biogeographic regions and farming systems. The review will be used to inform the development of farm-level (Task 5.4) and policy level (task 5.6) tools to support profitable and sustainable PG systems.
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