**Abstract**

Grassland habitat degradation intensified in the last century worldwide and in Europe. In Romania, substantial areas of biodiverse grassland habitats that persisted due to small-scale farming are now threatened by recent land-use intensification. However, data regarding the deviation from grazing optimum, essential for management plans encompassing both socioeconomic sustainability and environment conservation, are not yet available. To fill this gap, detailed statistics of the stocking rate and its deviation from optimum were generated by spatial modeling techniques. A toolbox was developed to assess such deviations inside or outside the Natura 2000 Network of protected areas. The analysis covered an area of 33529.42 km2 , corresponding to all the Romanian permanent grasslands within the land parcel identification system. The results indicate that over half of this area is degraded, mostly from overgrazing. Less than 10% is not impacted by inadequate livestock density. Of the national grassland area, 17.34% is included within the Natura 2000 protected sites, indicating the substantial overlapping of agricultural and protection activities. For this category, the degraded area is slightly lower than at the national level (50.34% vs. 52.45%). These results can be applied for environmental conflict anticipation and optimal management of grassland habitats to achieve both socioeconomic and conservation objectives.

**Keywords:** vegetation, carrying capacity, grazing livestock density, grassland degradation, Natura 2000 Network, spatial modeling

## **1. Introduction**

Grasslands are defined as herbaceous vegetation habitats with a low cover of woody vegetation, dominated mostly by grass species (family: *Poaceae*) [1, 2]. They play an important role in livestock farming but also in environmental and biodiversity conservation [3–7]. Therefore, agricultural production and nature conservation compete for the many different services that grassland habitats provide [8–10]. Although the value of grasslands, from a socioeconomic perspective and for the environmental services provided, is widely recognized, their degradation process is continuous and global [1, 11–13]. Grassland degradation generally implies a negative reduction in biodiversity, vegetation coverage, plant height, and biomass production [14–16]. Also, the deterioration of ecosystem services and functions was also included in this definition [1, 17]. The degradation process generates a series of ecological problems—loss of biodiversity, carbon sink, and water storage capacity—as well as the intensification of soil degradation and dust storms [3, 6, 18].

Worldwide, up to 50% of grasslands are affected by degradation, mainly due to human activities and climate change [12, 13, 19]. Several studies reveal that land-use changes are responsible for up to 66% of the grassland degradation, whereas the climate dynamics account for approximately 20% [13, 14, 19, 20]. At a European level, climate is the primary degradation agent in some areas of Northern and Northwestern Europe and the southern part of European Russia, but in most areas, including Eastern Europe, degradation is mainly caused by land-use issues [13, 21]. Sudden changes in land-use intensity such as overgrazing or abandonment of traditional farming practices are among the main factors identified to cause the degradation of grassland habitats [13, 22–25]. The alteration of agricultural practices (intensification or abandonment), along with the area of degraded grasslands and the associated environmental problems, shows an upward trend [26–28].

The most important policies aiming to manage and mitigate these issues that have been developed within the European Union (EU) are the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) framework and the Environmental Directives (especially Habitats Directive 1992/43/ECC-HD and Birds Directive 2009/147/EC-BD). For grassland habitats, these policies mainly focus on agricultural production (livestock density) and, respectively, on biodiversity conservation. The CAP directives include livestock density determination according to the grassland carrying capacity, while the Habitats Directive (1992/43/ECC) implements the conservation of the habitats of community importance which were selected according to their structure (floristic diversity) and environmental ecological functions. The favorable conservation status of these habitats must be reached or maintained within all the sites which are included in the European Natura 2000 Network (N2000). The network includes a large number of protected areas (27863 sites), being acknowledged as one of the world's most effective legal instruments for biodiversity and nature conservation, with an important function in conserving Europe's natural capital. It is estimated that approximately 16% of the habitats in N2000 areas depend on a perpetuation of extensive farming practices and especially on maintaining the extensive management of grasslands [29]. In the EU-27, approximately 18% of the permanent grasslands are within the protected N2000 Network [30]. However, the effects of grazing livestock density (stocking rate) on the grassland habitats protected within N2000 sites have rarely been considered so far, particularly the context of their actual spatial overlap. Moreover, for some countries hosting very large areas of permanent grasslands in the EU (e.g., Romania), spatially detailed data at the landscape level are not yet available, although the agricultural statistics are reported at the national level by each member state. For instance, the spatial distribution of livestock in Europe was modeled using statistical downscaling of province-level livestock statistics [31], but the possible deviations from the grassland habitats' optimal livestock density (carrying capacity) are not yet assessed.

This paper aims to evaluate the degradation status of grassland habitats by modeling and mapping the grazing livestock density and the subsequent deviations from the optimal grassland carrying capacity within and outside the N2000 sites from Romania. The permanent grassland habitats from Romania are among the

**31**

*Deviation from Grazing Optimum in the Grassland Habitats of Romania Within...*

most extensive and diverse from the EU [23, 32]. They cover more than 45,000 km2

which represents 8% of EU-27 permanent grassland habitats. Only the UK (17%), France (15%), Spain (15%), and Germany (9%) have a larger grassland area [32]. Also, the legally protected Sites of Community Importance (SCI) from N2000 Network which are designed for the conservation of all the habitats enlisted in the HD now cover 16.7% of the EU land surface and 19.5% of Romania's total territory. Detailed knowledge regarding the spatial patterns of grazing intensity within and outside the N2000 sites is therefore needed in order to identify the areas where the intensity of agricultural practices is divergent from optimum and particularly where these and nature conservation efforts overlap. Also, the identification of such areas may serve as a basis for land managers and agriculturists but also for the organizations involved in biodiversity conservation to better design the grazing patterns and protection measures in order to avoid grassland degradation either by intensification or abandonment. In the context of the high value of grassland habitats, both from socioeconomic and ecological reasons, this approach provides a meaningful perspective on the relationship between agricultural land values and nature conservation for all relevant stakeholders. This insight could further support policies aiming at a future conflict-free combination of agricultural production and nature conservation. Detailed statistics regarding the deviation from the optimal livestock density were generated by spatial modeling techniques in a geographic information system (GIS) environment. A GIS toolbox was developed for the spatial modeling of these deviations inside or outside of the protected areas. This can be used for the environmental conflict anticipation and subsequent management of the grassland

habitats so that both socioeconomic and conservation targets are achieved.

in Southeastern Europe, bordering on the Black Sea and the Danube, with the Southeastern Carpathian Mountains in its center (**Figure 1**). The natural landscape includes almost even proportions of mountains (31%), plains (33%), and hills (36%) that expand rather uniformly from the mountains, reaching elevations above 2500 m, to the Danube Delta, a few meters above sea level. The climate is transitional between temperate and continental. The average annual temperature goes from 11°C in the south to 8°C in the north. Annual precipitation decreases eastward and downward, averaging up to 1010 mm in some mountainous areas, 635 mm in the Transylvanian Plateau, 521 mm in Moldavia, and only 381 mm in Dobruja and

The Corine Land Cover dataset [33] reports for Romania the following land cover classes: artificial areas (5.34%), arable land and permanent crops (39.37%), pastures mosaics (17.65%), forested land (31.68%), seminatural vegetation (2.78%), open space and barren soils (0.10%), wetlands (1.35%), and water bodies (1.69%). The General Agricultural Census in Romania, performed in 2010, indicates that

hay meadows, that together make up about 33% of total utilized agricultural land [32, 34]. The greatest surface covered by permanent grasslands is in the Carpathian Mountains region and in the Transylvanian Plateau, where every county has

The geomorphological and climatic diversity of Romania, the geographical position at the intersection of several floristic provinces, and the extensive traditional

of grassland.

; capital Bucharest 44°25′57″N, 26°06′14″E) is located

, including both grazed pastures and

,

*DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.85734*

**2. Materials and methods**

Romania (area 238397 km<sup>2</sup>

the permanent grasslands cover 44940 km<sup>2</sup>

**2.1 Study area**

close to the Black Sea.

between 1000 and 3500 km<sup>2</sup>

*Deviation from Grazing Optimum in the Grassland Habitats of Romania Within... DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.85734*

most extensive and diverse from the EU [23, 32]. They cover more than 45,000 km<sup>2</sup> , which represents 8% of EU-27 permanent grassland habitats. Only the UK (17%), France (15%), Spain (15%), and Germany (9%) have a larger grassland area [32]. Also, the legally protected Sites of Community Importance (SCI) from N2000 Network which are designed for the conservation of all the habitats enlisted in the HD now cover 16.7% of the EU land surface and 19.5% of Romania's total territory. Detailed knowledge regarding the spatial patterns of grazing intensity within and outside the N2000 sites is therefore needed in order to identify the areas where the intensity of agricultural practices is divergent from optimum and particularly where these and nature conservation efforts overlap. Also, the identification of such areas may serve as a basis for land managers and agriculturists but also for the organizations involved in biodiversity conservation to better design the grazing patterns and protection measures in order to avoid grassland degradation either by intensification or abandonment. In the context of the high value of grassland habitats, both from socioeconomic and ecological reasons, this approach provides a meaningful perspective on the relationship between agricultural land values and nature conservation for all relevant stakeholders. This insight could further support policies aiming at a future conflict-free combination of agricultural production and nature conservation. Detailed statistics regarding the deviation from the optimal livestock density were generated by spatial modeling techniques in a geographic information system (GIS) environment. A GIS toolbox was developed for the spatial modeling of these deviations inside or outside of the protected areas. This can be used for the environmental conflict anticipation and subsequent management of the grassland habitats so that both socioeconomic and conservation targets are achieved.
