Assessment of pastoral resources at a landscape scale: a case study in the Parco Nazionale delle Foreste Casentinesi, Monte Falterona e Campigna (AR, Italy)

Abstract

IntroduzioneLo studio delle risorse pastorali può essere affrontato secondo differenti approcci, anche se l'aspetto più comune è quello di ottenere indicazioni gestionali, in modo da determinare per l'area pascoliva in esame la capacità di carico, ossia il numero massimo di animali che possono insistere su una certa superficie per un certo periodo di tempo senza degradazione della risorsa (Allen et al. 2011). Le metodiche messe a punto prevedono la determinazione di alcu- (AR, Italy). Investigations on pastoral resources are mainly represented by surveys aimed to assess the main characteristics of pastures in order to obtain useful information on the carrying capacity of a pastoral surface. At a territorial level, different approaches can be used, involving also remote sensing and use of geographical information systems. The study presented here has been carried out in a National Park in Tuscany, central Italy (Parco Nazionale delle Foreste Casentinesi, Monte Falterona e Campigna) on a pastoral surface of about 1500 ha, with the aim of evaluating the potential stocking rate in the studied area. The whole investigated territory was subdivided into three wide districts, and inside each of them a photointerpretation was performed to classify the occurring pastoral resources into different classes of quality, based on the percentage of ground covered by trees and shrubs encroaching the pastures. Inside each district and class of pasture, botanical relevés were conducted to assess the presence of different herbaceous species and to compute the pastoral value, a key parameter used to determine the potential stocking rate of a pastoral resource. Photointerpretation allowed an easy and efficient classification of different pastures in relation to shrubs encroachment and to quantify the surfaces occupied by each identified class. Vegetation assessment confirmed the accuracy of the followed method to rank pastures, in terms of presence of herbaceous species and of pastoral value, which resulted highly related to the presence of woody species in the pastures. Moreover, average pastoral value and carrying capacity of each quality category were very similar for all districts, thus demonstrating the validity of the utilized method and the representativeness of chosen areas.