Grazing cows in Arkemheen, one of the oldest polders in the Netherlands under an evening sky.
Photo by Jantine van Middelkoop.

By Shan Jin, Yiying Cao, Michael Burd, Sophie Tindale, Zhiming Feng, Olivia Green, Paul Newell-Price, Victoria Vicario-Modroño, Gabriele Mack, Pedro Sánchez-Zamora, Rosa Gallardo-Cobos, Martina Spörri, Nadja El Benni, Natasha Alonso, Simona Miškolci, Samantha Outhwaite, Erik Hunter, and Lynn J. Frewer.

Read the full paper here.

Permanent grassland is land on which grasses for animal and human food or energy production have grown for no less than five consecutive years. Permanent grassland delivers multiple essential ecosystem services, including provisioning services (e.g., feed production for ruminant livestock, and human food production), regulating and maintenance services (e.g., carbon sequestration, erosion control, nutrient cycling, and pollination), and cultural services (e.g., aesthetic value, and recreation). However, people are concerned about the decreased ability of these grasslands to provide multiple ecosystem services. In Europe, some land managers are increasing the intensity of how they manage permanent grassland (e.g., reseeding or overseeding; controlling weeds and pests using agrochemicals; increasing land fertility using fertilisers; and increasing stocking rate), which may contribute the decreased ecosystem services delivered by permanent grasslands. In contrast, protecting permanent grasslands (e.g., lengthening grazing intervals; increasing grassland area without increasing farm stocking rate; improving soil health; and reducing the use of synthetic agricultural chemicals) might increase multiple co-existing ecosystem services.

In order to optimise permanent grassland management in Europe, we conducted interviews with 373 farmers from the Czech Republic, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. In these interviews, we explored how farmers’ identities and other farm and farmer attributes relate to future permanent grassland management plans. Farmers who identified themselves as focused on production were more likely to either intensify management or protect permanent grassland in the future, while those having a land caretaker identity were more likely to maintain current management practice. Farmers with higher dependence on income from agri-environment schemes were more likely to protect their permanent grassland in the future, while those with higher dependence on income from farm production were more likely to maintain current management practices. Older farmers were less likely to protect their permanent grassland, and those having organic and extensive farms were more likely to intensify permanent grassland in the future.

Future policies and interventions that aim to increase multiple and co-existing ecosystem services of permanent grasslands in Europe can be more targeted by considering specific farm attributes, farmer identities and their future grassland management intentions, as well as regional differences. Financial benefits and risks perceived by farmers should always be considered when promoting any management practices, including in relation to policy interventions and policy levers.