Fitting the Stocking Rate with Pastoral Resources to Manage and Preserve Mediterranean Forestlands: A Case Study

Elisa Bianchetto, Ivan Buscemi, Piermaria Corona, Giovanni Giardina, Tommaso La Mantia and Salvatore Pasta
Additional contact information
Elisa Bianchetto: Consiglio per la ricerca in agricoltura e l'analisi dell'economia agraria—Agrobiology and Pedology Research Centre (CRA-ABP), Piazza Massimo d'Azeglio 30, 50121 Firenze, Italy
Ivan Buscemi: Agricultural and Forest Sciences Department, University of Palermo, Viale delle Scienze, Ed.4, Ingr. H, 90128 Palermo, Italy
Piermaria Corona: Consiglio per la ricerca in agricoltura e l'analisi dell'economia agraria—Forestry Research Centre (CRA-SEL), viale Santa Margherita 80, 52100 Arezzo, Italy
Giovanni Giardina: Agricultural and Forest Sciences Department, University of Palermo, Viale delle Scienze, Ed.4, Ingr. H, 90128 Palermo, Italy
Tommaso La Mantia: Agricultural and Forest Sciences Department, University of Palermo, Viale delle Scienze, Ed.4, Ingr. H, 90128 Palermo, Italy
Salvatore Pasta: Institute of Biosciences and BioResources, National Council of Research (IBBR-CNR), Unit of Palermo, Corso Calatafimi n° 414, 90129 Palermo, Italy

Sustainability, 2015, vol. 7, issue 6, 1-13

Abstract: Pasture practices have affected Mediterranean forest ecosystems for millennia, and they are still quite widespread in mountainous areas. Nevertheless, in the last decades, the stability of forest ecosystems has been jeopardized due to the abandonment of traditional agro-pastoral practices, so that the gradual reduction of open areas due to progressive succession processes has caused a high increase of grazing pressure by livestock and wild ungulates feeding on forest areas. This paper aims at showing a methodological approach for evaluating the effect of applying measures in order to improve the grazing value of grasslands and ecotonal patches and lower the grazing impact on native woodlands. A protected area in Sicily (Italy) is considered as a representative case study. The analysis of remotely sensed imagery and several field surveys enabled to identify and map six different land use units subject to grazing, i.e. , (1) forests; (2) grasslands (pastures dominated by palatable herbs and grasses); (3) overgrazed grasslands (dominated by poisonous and/or thorny herbs and forbs, not palatable); (4) encroached pastures; (5) roadside firebreaks (dominated by palatable herbs) with no shrubs; and (6) wooded/ encroached roadside firebreaks. Several data were collected through sample plots selected within each land use unit, in order to assess their pastoral value. These data have been used to define current and optimal animal stock rates aiming at addressing pasture management planning towards a sustainable use of forestland and shrubland.

Keywords: grazing; forest clearings; pasture types; forestry; biodiversity; secondary succession (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/7/6/7232/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/7/6/7232/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:7:y:2015:i:6:p:7232-7244:d:50680

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().