Are we talking about the same thing? Stakeholder perspectives on grasslands management intensity

Tonn B.¹,², Ten Berge H.³, Bufe C.³, Buchmann N.⁴, Eggers S.⁵, Fernández Rebollo P.⁶, Klaus V.H.⁴, Lellei-Kovács E.⁷, Lombardi G.⁸, Ravetto Enri S.⁸, Stypinski P.⁹ and Newell Price J.P.¹⁰

¹University of Göttingen, Department of Crop Sciences, Germany; ²FiBL Switzerland, Department of Livestock Sciences, Switzerland; ³Wageningen Plant Research, Agrosystems Research, the Netherlands; ⁴ETH Zürich, Department of Environmental Systems Science, Switzerland; ⁵Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Department of Ecology, Sweden; ⁶University of Córdoba, Department of Forestry, Spain; ⁷Centre for Ecological Research, Institute of Ecology and Botany, Hungary; ⁸University of Turin, Department of Agricultural Forest and Food Sciences, Italy; ⁹Warsaw University of Life Science, Faculty of Agriculture and Biology, Poland; ¹⁰ADAS Gleadthorpe, United Kingdom

Abstract

Grassland management crucially influences the delivery of ecosystem services from permanent grasslands. Variability in management practices is often described along a gradient from ‘low intensity’ to ‘high intensity’. These terms are likely to carry different meanings across European regions that differ in environmental and socio-economic conditions as well as between different groups of stakeholders. We conducted an online survey among grassland stakeholders asking them to characterise what they consider as ‘low’, ‘intermediate’ and ‘high’-intensity management in terms of cutting frequency, grazing intensity, and nitrogen fertilization. The answers of the 125 respondents revealed high variability in the thresholds between management intensity levels. Professional background (‘agriculture’ vs ‘ecology/conservation’) explained only a small percentage of the variability. The biogeographical region on which the respondents’ expertise was based also influenced the evaluation of management practices. Our survey exposed the hidden problem of communicating about grassland management across regions and professional backgrounds, and identifies a need for a common terminology when making general recommendations for sustainable grassland management.

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