Not quite Mountains, we asked the same question about Upland grazing in UK. I attach one of the Papers for you to look at...ask for the 2nd if you need it...very good observation...

Thanks Mewa for the reply. I think that the problem is really serious in Southern Europe, not in UK and in temperate climates. The productivity of grasslands is limited, climate change has already an impact, and drought is the main stress factor for plants and animals in Mediterranean mountains. Great paper, thanks.

Excellent discussion Kiki; i was totally unaware that cattle are worst than sheep/goats above the treeline in Greece; I have seen no data and have little firsthand knowledge. Can we prove that cows are worst than sheep/goats? In my part of the word: Euboea and the islands - there used to be small-sized cows that are extinct, so we have several areas with extreme goat/sheep overgrazing issues (but these are probably localized: Crete,Kassos, south Skyros, Mouth Ochi, Samothraki come to mind). Sheep/goats also promote burning since they in the "woods" not above them. Was it better when both large bovids, horses, sheep/goats shared the mountains? Is the problem of monoculture and "modern management" more than just recent CAP-promoted cattle instead of sheep/goats. Should we target cows? Also, in Albania I saw lots of small-sized cows (like the Tsatsikes breed of southern Epirus) and was impressed - the've probably been there for many centuries. Food for thought and many thanks for the post.

@Stamatis, hi. Not yet extended scientific evidence about. I have submitted a project for investigating the issue in Pindos Mt range, waiting...Overgrazing is a threat anyway. I agree with you. would be really interested to know if other colleagues have observed a similar problem with cattles, given the overgrazing a trampling problem. Important also the tribe of cattles. For some species, such as Parnassius apollo, where cattles enter, the species is gone...Quite the same for Greek endemic grasshoppers, I.e Peripodisma, Podisma, Parnassiana sp. See relevant project on orthoptera conservation in my research gate. Greetings!

Hey, why do you think the land-use changes from sheep/goat to cow is a result of CAP substitues? Do livestock get fodder supply in the field/saison? Trampling probably is a serious problem, I agree. On the other hand, the browsing of cows is more compatible with conservation of many plant species. So probably it would be a good research approach to separate sites that are trampling-sensitive from sites thar are not (and therefore could even profit from this land use change).

Grazing Mechanisms:

Cattle grab sward with their tongue movement like we do with ou hand and pull. So tensile strength of the plants is important, Sheep on the other hand use their lips to break of sward in smll bites, no heavy pulling, hence les damage of the sward. Also cattle are much heavier and cause soil compaction if dry conditions but poaching in wet conditions. Sheep are lighter by weight and do little damage. I put together history of Grazing Research at out Institute (see attached)

Wao very interesting observations of great relevance to the conservation of biodiversity . I have not thought of this yet as an animal scientist. Am not too sure such a data exist in my own agroecological zone (western highlands ) in Cameroon. It will really be a good idea to investigate this via collaborative research involving Environmentalists, botanists, Zoologists and entomologists.

Hi, the 2nd paper from our upland study was on [ Impact on sward composition and stock performance of grazing Molinia-dominant grassland]. There seems to be lot of interest already, I attach the pdf of the 2nd paper

Another example of negative effect of livestoock farming on biodiversity worsened by the EU CAP, this in the Italian Alps: Article Toward the next Common Agricultural Policy reform: Determina...

In Bulgaria, the same problem is caused by horse breeding in high mountains.

Dear colleagues, Thank you deeply for your replies so far! I just upload here a recent short paper underlying the problem for grasshoppers. But we definitely need more research to investigate if it is a real problem or not and how severe. Some colleagues replied to me by message that the real problem is abandonment - well this is true as well, but this problem is more pronounced in sub-mountainous ecosystem 500-1000m around villages. We face at these altitudes the problem of forest encroachment, turning grasslands (important for farmland birds and invertebrates and flora) to forests, with loss of landscape heterogeneity as well. Goat grazing would be a nice management tool for keepling openings in the landscape. But again, difficult to implement due to rural depopulation. We have undertaken similar research as well for the Balkans. However, please stick to the mountainous grassland habitats. We are particularly interested in habitat 4090 above timberline. I would be grateful to collect opinions from other colleagues as well, if you observe the same problem or not at high altitudes.

You might like having a look to this link https://www.ted.com/talks/allan_savory_how_to_green_the_world_s_deserts_and_reverse_climate_change?language=en#t-1320495

Kind regards.

Antonio

Cattle grazing is widespread in many European high mountains and whereever I have seen such places their grazing impact seemed beneficial to me except where densities were too high. The latter often happens where mountain farms or dairies are connected to low altitudes by roads. So in your case I would first suppose that cattle densities are too high and perhaps the breed is not appropriate and too heavy. By no means sheep are generally better for biodiversity than cattle. In Transsylvania for instance many if not most sheep pastures are strongly overgrazed while most cattle pastures are fine.

Dear colleague, we registered a similar dynamics in Italy both the Alps and in the Apennines. We have the same problems, forest recolonization of abandoned pastures/grass/mountain agriculture and a loss of flora and fauna biodiversity (and of local Ecological knowledge) connected to this situation. On the bright side, in the medium/long term, this can improve the biodiversity connected to some larger species (for example the recent recovery of the wolf populations in Italy is directly connected to forest recolonization and marginal agriculture and pasture abandonment). In the Alps The change of land use is more rapid at lower altitudes, due to faster growth of the plants. For example, if you compare the situation inside a protected area (that typically includes high mountains) with areas that are not protected but located at lower altitude, the rate of forest recolonization is higher in the (abandoned) unprotected areas. Historical documents testify that overgrazing and over exploitation of marginal areas was a dramatic problem in Italy until the 50ies. Since these years, the abandonment that happened started a recovery of many ecosystem services that were dramatically altered before.

On the dark side, some synanthropic ecosystems were reduced and flora and fauna was altered. In the Alps, the Provinces are trying to encourage the return of sheep and cow grazing in some areas facilitating the recovery of Malgas (High mountain Farms). There is a more general sensibility about this problems that is leading to develop participation processes to involve local populations and authorities in long term sustainable initiatives.

These are some references:

Article Landscape changes, traditional ecological knowledge and futu...

Article Revitalizing Traditional Ecological Knowledge: A Study in an...

Article The Fate of Priority Areas for Conservation in Protected Are...

Article Monitoring spatial and temporal pattern of Paneveggio forest...

Article Governing mountain landscapes collectively: local responses ...

Article Balancing Economic Development and Environmental Conservatio...

Kind regards,

Marco Ciolli