Two databases related to grassland in Bosnia and Herzegovina (B&H) have been
used in this research-the Copernicus Grassland (GRA) and CORINE Land Cover
(CLC). The data have been processed by using GIS tools, and the spatial
distribution of grass vegetation in relation to three biogeographical and
four elevation zones has been determined. By using the Copernicus Water and
Wetness (WaW) database, an insight into the coverage of grass vegetation in
wetlands has been obtained. In addition, the analysis of changes in
databases determined the total amount and location of the largest grassland
losses. Based on GRA database, B&H is one of the richest countries, with
22.4% of its territory covered by grassland. According to the CLC database,
pastures occupy 6.3% and natural grasslands 5.6% of the territory of B&H.
However, grassland is exposed to various anthropogenic and natural processes
that affect its distribution, quality, functions, etc. The CLC database has
been processed by extracting the grasslands (pastures and natural
grasslands) and calculating their spatial coverage and changes which
happened during the three six-year periods from 2000 to 2018. The trend of
decreasing pasture areas and increasing natural grasslands has been noticed.
The pastures are most endangered by the processes of conversion to other
types of agricultural land, while natural grassland increased spatial
coverage during the period 2012-2018 mostly due to the revitalization and
grazing of burned areas in the region of Herzegovina. Grasslands have been
particularly targeted for afforestation and cropland conversion at present.