ForPast: Grazing of forest-pasture ecotones to promote biodiversity, animal welfare and rural economy
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Short summary
ForPast investigates in a holistic, interdisciplinary and bi-national approach (Swedish-Swiss joint project) how grazing of forest-pasture ecotones improves biodiversity, landscape structure and rural economy while ensuring wood production, animal welfare, and meat quality requirements.
Grazing of forests was common in Europe until the 19th century. Grazing animals created mosaic landscapes with species-rich transition zones between forest and pasture, so-called forest–pasture ecotones. This habitat type is characterized by very high biological diversity and therefore represents an ecosystem of high conservation value. Industrialisation, intensified forestry and new legislation during the second half of the 19th century led to a separation between forest and agricultural land, and the occurrence of these ecotones has therefore decreased drastically. The loss of biodiversity is a global problem, and there is a widespread need for measures to restore and manage areas with high biological value.
ForPast is a binational project carried out in collaboration between Swedish and Swiss researchers. The two participating countries differ substantially: Switzerland consists of approximately one third agricultural land and one third forest, with long stretches of forest-pasture ecotones between the two land-use types. In Sweden, only about 7% of the land is agricultural land and two thirds are forest, with scattered and adjoining semi-natural pastures. Despite these differences, both countries would benefit from expanding the use of forest land for grazing in order to improve management efficiency, profitability and biological diversity. In Switzerland, forest grazing is still prohibited and grazing of the forest edges is replaced by mechanical clearing. We will therefore study the short-term effects of grazing in Switzerland, while in Sweden we will observe long-term effects and differences between established forest grazing systems and ungrazed forest.
A prerequisite for using forest land for grazing is that it does not negatively affect profitability or animal welfare. The project therefore aims to study:
- How grazing affects forest health and production – to what extent does the occurrence of mechanical damage and rot increase as a result of trampling and grazing?
- How access to forest affects animal welfare – does the occurrence of, for example, heat stress decrease and do animals gain greater opportunities to express natural behaviours?
- How forest grazing affects meat quantity and quality – are animal growth and meat characteristics influenced by including forest grazing in the diet?
