Biodiversity and food production in semi-natural pastures
Project overview
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Short summary
This project addresses the unresolved conflict between three important goals: efficient use of land for food production, mitigation of climate change, and conservation of biodiversity in semi-natural grasslands.
Semi-natural grasslands throughout Europe have been shaped by traditional farming with constant removal of nutrients through haymaking and grazing and without fertilization and ploughing. These lands hold great biological and cultural values and are key habitats for conservation of red-listed species.
As agriculture has intensified, large areas of semi-natural pastures and meadows have been lost. A majority of Sweden's grassland habitats are therefore in a poor conservation status.
On the one hand, grazing ruminant livestock can contribute to biodiversity in pastures, on the other hand, livestock contribute considerably to climate change. We will develop novel methods for including the contribution of grazing to biodiversity conservation in environmental impact of grazing-based meat and milk production. Developed methods will be tested on real farms.
We will also, in cooperation with stakeholders, develop scenarios for how conservation of semi-natural grasslands in Sweden can be achieved while minimizing climate impact and land use for feed production. The scenarios will be modelled in a food systems model to study effects in production, climate impact, land use, fossil and renewable energy use, and nutrient flows.