Mediterranean oak woodlands, Montados in Portugal and Dehesas in Spain have long been acknowledged as potential land use systems of high nature and social value providing relevant ecosystem services and biodiversity conservation. Nevertheless, these systems are now under severe threat, both due to abandonment in certain areas and overuse in others, extremes that may be limited by appropriate management practices and strategies. The High Nature Value concept can be a pathway for the understanding and assessment of management practices best adapted to the balance of the Montado and Dehesa, and also to the assessment of the thresholds of change, so that the long term sustainability of the Montado systems is preserved. This special issue aims to contribute for the understanding of how the Montado and Dehesa classification as High Nature Value may be a path for sustainable management. This classification can be achieved by different ways and implies different components of the Montado, and thus the first four papers of this special issue address different approaches and methodologies for the identification of HNV Dehesas and Montados, the following seven papers deal mostly with the effect of management practices on biodiversity and other Dehesas and Montados values and finally the last two papers address the causes for Montado decline and suggest mitigation measures for that decline.
The Portuguese silvo-pastoral system montado is broadly classified as a High Nature Value (HNV) system since it corresponds to farmland hosting high biodiversity levels, and such biodiversity depends on specific land use practices. However, in recent decades a decline both in the total montado area and in the tree cover density within the montado has been observed, driven mainly by management changes. This decline may result in biodiversity loss. Grazing is a central aspect determining the long-term sustainability of the montado system and it has implications also on the montado structural diversity, particularly on connectivity and heterogeneity, which is crucial for the maintenance of montado HNV. The aim of this paper is to demonstrate how variations in montado structural diversity are correlated with grazing management and its implications on the value of the system for conservation. The empirical data derives from a case study composed of 41 montado farms in two municipalities of the Alentejo region. Data on grazing management, biophysical and spatial factors were collected and several metrics were calculated to assess montado fragmentation and heterogeneity. A multivariate analysis was performed using generalized additive models. Results show that different grazing patterns, depending on stocking density and grazing animal type, are correlated with variations in montado fragmentation and heterogeneity. Particularly, cattle's grazing is shown to have adverse effects on the montado fragmentation, while sheep grazing is shown to have stronger impacts on the heterogeneity within the montado patches.
The Montado is the silvo-pastoral land use system dominant in Southern Portugal, and similar to the Dehesa in Southern Spain. These systems combine an open tree cover of cork and holm oaks with grazing in the undercover. Despite the acknowledged value of these systems due to their adaptation to the scarcity biophysical conditions of Southern Iberia, the uniqueness of cork production, the biodiversity values and the support of multiple public goods and services, in Portugal the area of the Montado is declining every year. It has been shown before how this decline is related to increased grazing pressure and use of inadequate soil mobilization techniques. Supported on social sciences theoretical insights, this paper focus on the farmers decision process, and the representations that support their decisions. The analysis is grounded on a large scale survey followed by in-depth interviews to Montado farmers. The results show that there is an underlying conflict between farmers representation of the Montado and the practices they are applying in their everyday management. Dominant representations of the Montado by farmers rely strongly on the tree cover and the forestry component of the system. While their management is strongly focused on the livestock and grazing resources. Farmers are abandoning a resilient thinking of their farm system considering the factors internal to the system, to adapt an external, driver oriented representation of their farm system. CAP coupled payments are seen as the main cause of this change. If the policy construction remains in its present state, the resilience of the Montado as a complex socio-ecological system is threatened in the very short term.
Due to their complex structure and traditional low-intensity management, Portuguese oak woodland rangelands known as montados are often considered high nature value (HNV) farming systems, and as such, they may be deemed eligible for subsidies and incentives by governmental and nongovernmental agencies. Too little is known about how the HNV concept might be applied to conserve complex silvopastoral systems. These systems, due to their structural and functional complexity at multiple scales, tend to support high levels of biodiversity. Montados are in sharp decline as a result of the rapid specialization of land management that, through simplification, undermines multifunctionality. Understanding how changes in management influence these systems and their biodiversity is needed for prioritizing conservation efforts and for ensuring they remain HNV systems. On the basis of a field survey in 58 plots distributed among 29 paddocks on 17 farms, we conducted an integrated analysis of the relationship between grazing intensity and biodiversity in montados of similar biophysical and structural characteristics. Data on management were obtained through interviews, and biodiversity data (vegetation, macrofungi, birds, herpetofauna) were obtained through specific field protocols. Additional spatial data, such as soil characteristics, slope, land cover, and linear landscape elements, were also analyzed. The results show no overall biodiversity variation as a result of different management practices. However, different groups of species react differently to specific management practices, and within a pasture, grazing impacts are heterogenous. In low grazing intensity plots, macrofungi species richness was found to be higher, while bird species richness was lower. Using tree regeneration as proxy for montado sustainability, results show less tree regeneration in areas with higher forage quality and more intense grazing. Pathways for future progress are proposed, including creating areas within a paddock that attract grazing away from where regeneration is desired.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.