Social-ecological perspective on European semi-natural grassland conservation and restoration: Key challenges and future pathways

Semi-natural grasslands result from traditional agriculture and are among the most species-rich ecosystems in Europe. These grasslands were once widespread across Europe, but due to changing agricultural practices, only small remnants have remained until present day. Large-scale efforts to preserve and restore these valuable ecosystems encompass the continuation or reintroduction of extensive instead of intensive farming practices. Based on empirical insights from three regions in Estonia, Germany and Spain, we aim to highlight Profitability, Landscape-scale Trade-off and Lock-in Effects, Policy Fit & Interplay, Changing Rural Societies and Climate Change as being five common key challenges making such efforts difficult. We suggest three general pathways to leverage changes: A) emphasize a social-ecological perspective at the landscape scale where both traditional and new framings of extensive farming practices are constructed in accordance with local contexts; B) work towards a wider ecosystem service perspective of semi-natural grasslands. This involves shifting the perspective on grasslands from being agricultural “wastelands” to not only acknowledge their biodiversity, but also their role as cornerstones of resilient agricultural landscapes; and C) embrace experimental learning and policy alignment at the regional scale to better embed extensive farming practices in European land use polices. Policies and administrative practices should be adjusted to account for vastly different conditions across and within regions, where extensive farming practices are sometimes integrated into large-scale agricultural enterprises, and sometimes carried out as a non-commercial side activity at a very small-scale.