January 11, 2012 - Announcement from
Further information on our website at:
http://bd.eionet.europa.eu/pdfs/Internship.pdf
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December 2, 2011 - Announcement from John Rodwell (Secretary of the EVS): European Grasslands Questionnaire
Dear Colleague
Thank you to the many who have already
responded to my request about European grasslands and the kinds
of management interventions needed to sustain them. I now
have responses from many parts of
However, there are still some important gaps
and I would like to repeat my request to those of you who have
not yet responded. The questions are simple and the
questionnaire should not take too long to complete.
Below, I have repeated the text of the original letter with the
submission date changed. Many thanks.
A recent report by the European Forum on
Nature Conservation and Pastoralism and the UK Grasslands Trust
(accessible on http://efncp.org)
showed that the definition of grasslands within the frame of EU
Agri-environment policy is very inadequate. Because of
this, large-scale intensification and abandonment of
semi-natural grasslands continues to take place in many parts
of
A recent paper aimed to identify Annex I
habitats dependent on low-intensity agricultural management (Halada,
L., Evans, D., Romão C. & Petersen J-E (2011) ‘Which habitats
of European importance depend on agricultural practices?’ in
Biodiversity & Conservation, published online
by Springer and outlined in the July 2011 Newsletter
of the European Topic Centre on Biological Diversity).
However, we have no clear European overview of the
relationships between the wide diversity of different
grasslands and various kinds of agricultural practice.
This is the kind of information which many
members of the European Vegetation Survey might be able to
provide. The attached questionnaire (European Grasslands
Questionnaire 1 of 2) asks simple questions about the
interventions/treatments which sustain grasslands and related
vegetation types and about their extent and degree of threat.
The framework of alliances used (European Grasslands
Questionnaire 2 of 2) is that in The Diversity of
European Vegetation (Rodwell, J., Schaminée, J.H.J.,
Mucina, L., Pignatti, S., Dring, J. & Moss, D. 2002). We
know that this is a first approximation with many deficiencies
but it is the only overview we have at the moment. Also,
it is the framework used by the EU to interpret the meaning of
the EUNIS Habitat types that lie behind the Annex I Priority
Habitats.
Even if you have disagreements with this
overview, I would ask you to consider making some response to
the questionnaire for the country/region for which you have
knowledge. If you are familiar with more than one
country/region, please submit separate questionnaires for each.
This information will make a real difference to our
understanding of and ability to defend grasslands which are
declining in extent and under threat in many places.
I will collate the answers on behalf of all
respondents from the EVS and produce a summary report as
soon as possible. I will offer an outline of the results
for the next Workshop in
Please email completed questionnaires to me
at
johnrodwell@tiscali.co.uk before the end of December 2011.
With my thanks,
John Rodwell
Secretary of the European Vegetation Survey