APVV-21-0226 (11.7.2022-30.6.2026)
Species-rich Carpathian grasslands: mapping, history, drivers of change and conservation
European agriculture is at a crossroads. Continuing the industrial intensification of agricultural production and the associated abandonment of marginal land equals continuing the direct negative environmental impacts on landscape quality and further loss of biodiversity. The second available option is adopting the quality of the landscape and its sustainability as essential criteria for optimization and management of agricultural production. The main aim of our transdisciplinary project is to support this second option with practical scientific knowledge on environmental and societal potentials regarding sustainable grassland management in the Carpathians using traditional agricultural practices, as well as on which social and institutional features might help embedding such management within the modern Slovak economy. The main objectives of the project are: 1) to identify and map biodiversity-rich grassland areas in the Carpathians and related local environmental and social factors; 2) identify and map areas with high environmental and social potential for successful grassland restoration in Slovakia; and 3) propose a national strategy for state and non-governmental support regarding ecological restoration, conservation, and management of the identified grassland areas. We intend to reach such a comprehensive and practical understanding through a collaborative combination of the latest available earth observation data for the Carpathian region, analytical methods and tools, but also pioneering field research; all in parallel on behalf of the scientific fields of botany, ecology, geography, remote sensing and social anthropology. The planned outputs of the project – scientific studies and the proposal of a national strategy to support species-rich grasslands – can, in addition to direct use by contracted domestic recipient organisations (MoE SR and BROZ), also serve as a template for applied research focusing on ecological grassland restoration in Europe and beyond.
Biodiversa2021-532 (01.04.2023 – 31.03.2026)
G4B: Grasslands for biodiversity: supporting the protection of the biodiversity-rich grasslands and related management practices in the Alps and Carpathians
The aim of the proposed project is to (1) identify grassland ecosystems rich in biodiversity and their distribution in the Alps and Carpathians; (2) identify management practices for grassland ecosystems that support biodiversity and contribute to their resilience and persistence; (3) identify suitable areas for expanding the network of protected grassland ecosystems; and (4) propose new protected areas and their management in the Alps and Carpathians. In addressing these goals, we will collaborate with stakeholders to (i) identify effective methods for extrapolating vegetation samples across mountain ranges; (ii) identify drivers of grassland management and historical influences on grassland diversity; (iii) identify constraints and motivation for biodiversity-supporting management practices; and (iv) provide scientific evidence for expanding the network of protected areas in the Alps and Carpathians.
Project partners: Institute of Geography SAS (SK), Plant Science and Biodiversity Centre SAS (SK), Institute of Ethology and Social Anthropology SAS (SK), Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL (CH); Ukrainian Nature Conservation Group (UA); Jagiellonian University in Krakow (PL); European Academy of Bozen/Bolzano (IT); Laimburg Research Centre (IT); Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (DE); National Museum of the Romanian Peasant (RO); West University of Timisoara (RO); Eidgenössisches Departement fuer Wirtschaft, Bildung und Forschung (CH); Transilvania University of Brasov (RO).
VEGA 2/0065/23 (1.1.2023-31.12.2026)
Combined management as a tool for conservation and restoration of grassland habitats
Protection, enhancement, and potential extension of the biodiversity-rich areas is a top priority of policies within the states, continents or globally. The most recent EU Green Deal Call identified biodiversity and ecosystems as key areas capable of improving the quality of the landscape and mitigating the effects of climate change. Semi-natural habitats are those areas, where most of the action can be taken. Low-intensity traditional farming maintained in mountain regions of the Carpathians is an inspiration for diversification of modern agroecosystems. However, the mechanisms of enhancing grassland biodiversity by diversification and combination of farming practices is still insufficiently known. In our project we would like to investigate multiple aspects of the selected combinations of traditional management practices – mowing, grazing, and manuring – and establish a manipulative experiment to test their effects on biodiversity if used as a restoration intervention in modern agricultural landscapes.
VEGA 02/0095/19 (1.1.2019-31.12.2022)
Traditional ecological knowledge for grassland conservation and restoration
Recent crisis in biodiversity conservation of high nature value grasslands and failures of the Common Agriculture Policy of the EU ask for new effective solutions. In the project we focus on a detail analysis of grassland phytodiversity in close relation with its historical development and traditional land use. The regions of the Eastern and Central Europe with well-maintained traditional rural culture belong to the key study areas. Obtaining of high-value biological, ecological and ethnological data on the selected sites should guarantee the proper interpretation of the gathered traditional ecological knowledge. This can become a valuable scientific material for future adjustment of socio-political mechanisms in the realm of grassland conservation and restoration and sustainable land use.
NGS-288R-18 by National Geographic Society (1.4.2018-31.3.2019)
Carpathian grasslands – a genuine celebration of cultural and biological diversity
Carpathian grasslands have unique position among the world’s grassland ecosystems – they are extraordinarily species rich and many of them are still maintained by traditional rural communities, which is not the case in other regions of Europe. Our project searched for ways to preserve this diversity in grassland composition and grassland management as well as to support the sustainability of the local rural communities by filling critical knowledge gaps at the bio-ecological and ethnobotanical research interface. During 2018, we gathered valuable high-quality botanical and ethnobotanical data in 15 sites of the Western and Eastern Carpathians, most of them situated in Ukrainian and Romanian regions with well preserved traditional rural cultures. We hope that our multidisciplinary approach will finally help to identify possible ways out of the recent grassland conservation crisis, to stimulate people to perceive the beauty of traditional landscapes, to appreciate the value of diverse grassland habitats as well as high quality of rural agricultural products. We also expect that the approaches based on traditional ecological knowledge will be implemented in state nature conservation of included countries.