Grasslands provide highly valued habitats and offer an enormous range of benefits. They support a huge range of biodiversity above and below surface level, act as barriers to forest fires, protect water resources and store carbon.

The most biodiverse grasslands are threatened by a variety of changes in land use including conversion to arable farming, comprising energy crops; intensification of management; overgrazing; land abandonment; urban development, or afforestation.

 

Examples from…

 

Germany : Grassland in Germany consists mainly of meadows and pastures on sites that are often steep, wet or moist or have sensible shallow soils. Due to these site conditions grassland often is also of very high significance for plant and animal species as well as for many habitat types. Moreover the grassland use on these soils serves not only for biodiversity protection but also for water protection, for the prevention of soil erosion and for climate protection (especially on organic and wet soils). Read more…

 

Bulgaria : Bulgaria became a member of the EU in 2007 and immediately afterwards a wide-scale destruction of grasslands took place. The implemented Common Agriculture Policy (CAP) with its Single Farm Payments (SFP) led to ploughing of grasslands even in protected Natura 2000 sites. The problem of extensive ploughing of natural habitats has become wide spread in protected grassland habitats, particularly in low altitude areas. Read more…