The Euro-Alpine Forum on Pastoralism was organised on 8 October 2020 in Grenoble, France by SUACI Montagn’Alpes with the support of EUSALP.
During this event, stakeholders shared different initiatives on various topics including food sovereignty and valorisation of pastoral products, resilience to climate change, confrontation of pastoral areas with the uses coming from cities and communication to better root pastoralism in the face of society’s expectations.
Marie Clotteau, Director of Euromontana, presented the results of the LIFE OREKA MENDIAN project’s study on permanent mountain grasslands. Indeed, permanent pastures represent the third largest ecosystem in Europe with almost 15.9% of the surface area of the EU-28. Nevertheless, it is an endangered ecosystem with 75% of the grassland surface in the EU-28 having an unfavourable conservation status. It is a very special ecosystem because the absence of human intervention does not necessarily lead to an improvement of its conservation status, quite the contrary. Human intervention, in particular through pastoralism, is necessary to achieve a favourable conservation status.
Moreover, the Director gave an overview of examples of environmental, social and economic oriented policies and good practices from all over Europe that have had positive results on the management of these grasslands.
For more information, you can discover Marie Clotteau’s presentation in the event’s video (her speech starts at 5h16).
22 October 2020
