D2C - Meadows - common topic in Dare to Connect's Pilot Region 1

15-05-2020

A theme of meadows is a common topic of all parts of Pilot Region 1 in all three of its countries - Germany, Austria and Czechia. They create significant part of the area thus are important phenonema of the project. At the Czech side, detail history of management in three meadow enclaves (Kepelské Zhůří, Vinice and Nové Údolí) in SAC Šumava was analyzed including the connectivity of meadows in border region. Threats and opportunities for meadows were assessed. They are endangered by several factors: abandonment, land intake, intensive agriculture.

To illustrate the first problem of abandonment, there is an example of Kepelské Zhůří meadow enclave. It has undergone a significant transformation from the originally completely forest-free, agriculturally exploited area (probably up to WWII), through the agriculturally unused (military training area) to the extensively used grassland area with many plots of spontaneous succession of woody plants.

The problem of large landowners and consequent homogeneous management is quite general in Czech side of Pilot region 1.
The management of meadows was probably much more complex in the past – barren mountain soils were fertilized by irrigation systems and also forest grazing. Renewing them would improve the condition of meadows and increase biodiversity.

Large part of the landscape is outside protected areas and is influenced mainly by agriculture. Today, agriculture is considered a major problem for ecosystems and communities. The state of soil erosion, ecosystem services provided by biota, whether by edaphone, insect predators or pollinators, is fundamentally jeopardized by management of the fields and meadows.
Setting new agro-environmental schemes is essential for improving the state of meadows.

Programme co-funded by European Union funds (ERDF, IPA, ENI)