ALPine Mountain Hay MEadows MAnagement: Best practices to maintain their Favorable Conservation Status against underuse under different property right regimes inside and outside protected areas

• Applicant: Professorin Dr. Claudia Bieling
• Subject Area: Ecology and Biodiversity of Plants and Ecosystems ; Agricultural Economics, Agricultural Policy, Agricultural Sociology ; Physical Geography
• Term: since 2023
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 511899245

Mountain hay meadows constitute a habitat type protected under the EU Habitats Directive (Natura 2000 code 6520) and host a wide array of endangered plant and animal species also protected under the EU-Habitats- as well as Birds Directives. The favorable conservation status of these meadows as well of those species inside protected areas (“Natura 2000 sites”) and outside therefrom is often threatened by farmland abandonment or reduced human activities (“underuse”). The shortcoming of many policies addressing these threats might rest with the fact that compared to established governance practices mainly focusing on overexploitation, underuse is poorly addressed. An ongoing negative qualitative and quantitative conservation trend for mountain hay meadows and an ongoing formal infringement procedure at EU-level alleging Germany of insufficient conservation action on behalf of such meadows indicate the socio-political urgency to maintain the remaining sites of such meadows with existing favorable conservation status and also to learn from best management practices implemented there and elsewhere. The overall aim of ALPMEMA is to identify best practices to maintain such a favorable conservation status despite the threat of underuse and to explain the influence of different ownership regimes as well as of the location of mountain hay meadows inside of protected areas on these best practices. In a transnational meta-analysis and in Swedish, Austrian, German and Armenian study sites inside and outside of protected areas, an interdisciplinary research team in close cooperation with local stakeholders will comparatively a) identify, based on established knowledge in case studies, current transnational, interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary approaches related to the maintenance of hay meadows in a favorable conservation status (“best practice”) b) identify additional innovative management tools, actor-coalitions and other novel practices suitable to address the threat of underuse on mountain hay meadows currently in favorable conservation status to even extend their size, c) explain the influence of different ownership regimes and of the inclusion of mountain hay meadows into protected areas on such best practices, d) reveal the states of the use intensity of such meadows through remote sensing and ground validation techniques, as well as outline the main actual & potential spatial effects of underuse on mountain hay meadows currently in favorable conservation status through Geographical Information Systems and e) co-develop scenarios for mountain hay meadows management in 2030 & 2050 through playful approaches. ALPMEMA is designed to disentangling the socio-ecological win-win potential of best practices of mountain hay meadow management within and outside of protected areas as well as under different ownership regimes to protect these habitat types, the related species and biocultural diversity in Europe and beyond against the threat of underuse.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• International Connection: Austria, Denmark, Sweden
• Partner Organisation: Fonds zur Förderung der wissenschaftlichen Forschung (FWF); Innovation Fund Denmark; The Swedish Research Council for Environment, Agricultural Sciences and Spatial Planning (FORMAS)
• Cooperation Partners: Privatdozentin Dr. Katharina Gugerell; Professor Dr. Volker Mauerhofer; Professor Dr. Alexander Prishchepov; Christian Tøttrup