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After centuries as a flagship economic activity, pastoralism in Spain is today in danger of collapse due to the simultaneous processes of abandonment and industrialisation. With a consensus on the need to revert this decline, a characterisation of pastoralism is needed in the design of an efficient framework for action. Through a participatory process with experts, we carried out this characterisation of Spanish pastoralism, identifying the most representative systems and communities. We studied the causes and consequences of pastoral evolution over the last 250 years, explained by biophysical, technological, governance and social parameters. We achieved a harmonised classification of eleven pastoral systems, classified into four groups with mobility parameters (large migratory systems, short-distance transterminance, daily mobile grazing and semi-wilderness). Large mobility systems were subdivided into ten pastoral communities, characterised by strong sociocultural ties beneath farm management. The consideration of pastoral systems and communities in policy can orient effective rural development, while optimising the allocation of resources for environmental conservation and climate neutrality.

After centuries as a flagship economic activity, pastoralism in Spain is today in danger of collapse due to the simultaneous processes of abandonment and industrialisation. With a consensus on the need to revert this decline, a characterisation of pastoralism is needed in the design of an efficient framework for action. Through a participatory process with experts, we carried out this characterisation of Spanish pastoralism, identifying the most representative systems and communities. We studied the causes and consequences of pastoral evolution over the last 250 years, explained by biophysical, technological, governance and social parameters. We achieved a harmonised classification of eleven pastoral systems, classified into four groups with mobility parameters (large migratory systems, short-distance transterminance, daily mobile grazing and semi-wilderness). Large mobility systems were subdivided into ten pastoral communities, characterised by strong sociocultural ties beneath farm management. The consideration of pastoral systems and communities in policy can orient effective rural development, while optimising the allocation of resources for environmental conservation and climate neutrality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mountain areas are sensitive to changes in precipitation and temperature, which significantly impact traditional pastoralist communities, their economy, and their lifestyle. Alarming climate change scenarios justify the investigation of the ecological and socioeconomic vulnerabilities that characterize Portugal's mountain regions. This work explores how the traditional production systems of small ruminants—sheep and goats—could adapt in the Montesinho mountain range as it changes over the next 2 decades. Land use–land cover maps from 1995 and 2018 show how the pastoral landscape has changed and indicate trends for a future scenario. Documented landscape grazing patterns are used to determine sheep and goat landscape preferences under different climatic conditions. Finally, we identify the near-future constraints on traditional sheep and goat systems, contrasting landscape changes with sheep and goat preferences. Over coming decades, the balance between rangelands and cultivated lands will persist in the Montesinho mountain landscape, despite some trade-offs between both. Woodlands could emerge from scrublands colonizing rangelands, and permanent crops could significantly replace arable lands in agricultural areas. Therefore, it is likely that the agricultural areas preferred for sheep, and rangelands preferred for goats, may not be affected by the forecast landscape changes, but rather be favored by the expansion of permanent crops. However, pasture areas must expand, as they are key to pastoral landscape function in a warming climate scenario. Landscape decision makers and managers should implement a landscape-monitoring system to inform policies and strategies aimed at protecting and safeguarding mountain pastoralism and its vital ecosystem services.

Dehesas are high value agroecosystems that benefit from the effect tree cover has on pastures. Such effect occurs when tree cover is incomplete and homogeneous. Tree cover may be characterized from field data or through visual interpretation of remote sensing data, both time-consuming tasks. An alternative is the extraction of tree cover from aerial imagery using automated methods, on spectral derivate products (i.e. NDVI) or LiDAR point clouds. This study focuses on assessing and comparing methods for tree cover estimation from high resolution orthophotos and airborne laser scanning (ALS). RGB image processing based on thresholding of the ‘Excess Green minus Excess Red’ index with the Otsu method produced acceptable results (80%), lower than that obtained by thresholding the digital canopy model obtained from the ALS data (87%) or when combining RGB and LiDAR data (87.5%). The RGB information was found to be useful for tree delineation, although very vulnerable to confusion with the grass or shrubs. The ALS based extraction suffered for less confusion as it differentiated between trees and the remaining vegetation using the height. These results show that analysis of historical orthophotographs may be successfully used to evaluate the effects of management changes while LiDAR data may provide a substantial increase in the accuracy for the latter period. Combining RGB and Lidar data did not result in significant improvements over using LIDAR data alone.

There is an increasing interest in assessing livestock breed contributions to ecosystem services (ES) and including this knowledge in decision making. However, this task has been limited due to the complexity of the multidimensional relationship between livestock diversity and ecosystem services. In this work, we elaborate on the livestock breed characteristics central to developing a comprehensive approach to livestock breed inclusion in the ecosystem services framework. Thus, we explore the multidimensional nature of livestock breeds, i.e., as eco-cultural entities, biodiversity components, and drivers of livestock system heterogeneity and functioning. First, anthropogenic and natural factors have acted jointly to develop breeds as eco-cultural entities. This fact represents an opportunity to move toward farming system sustainability by Nature-Based Solutions and Nature’s Contribution to People paradigms. Second, livestock breeds are components of biodiversity, and as such, can be framed as goods, as final ecosystem services, and as regulators of ecosystem processes. Third, livestock breeds contribute to livestock system heterogeneity and resilience. By integrating these aspects, we might better understand how livestock breeds provide and modulate ecosystem service provision and, therefore, how to improve breed conservation and livestock policies toward farming system sustainability.

In the coastal zones, varied uses converge, some of them of priority interest. In this study, an integrated method for the planning and management of the territory is proposed, which includes the evaluation of sustainability. A total of 15 different land-use classes were estimated in 80 sampling units distributed regularly along the Pacific coastline of Nicaragua and classified to determine land management sectors. For each of the identified sectors, the ecological, economic, social, and productive dimensions were evaluated independently, handling a total of 53 variables from different databases, by means of ordination multivariate factor analysis. Subsequently, the four dimensions were integrated into a model and the results were evaluated based on their similarity with theoretical development scenarios, assessed by discriminant analysis. Among these, the scenarios considered as a goal for sustainability in the studied area were present. On the Pacific coast of Nicaragua, productive and economic activities are currently prioritized, without having an integrated planning scheme for the entire territory, which includes nature conservation. The main contribution has been to provide a method for evaluating the land in an integrative and multidimensional way, while at the same time qualifying the different territorial sectors from a sustainable development. Even under a context of relative scarcity of information for some relevant aspects, the dimension-values assessment is largely solved by ordering the territorial sectors with a multivariate strategy, so that they are classified in relative and not absolute terms, which allows the strategy to be very useful for countries lacking some databases and cartography. This holistic and comprehensive vision of the entire territory facilitates social participation and contributes to decision-making aimed at advancing toward sustainability.

El trabajo constituye una aproximación conceptual y metodológica para el análisis de la integridad ecológica, como instrumento aplicable a la planificación del territorio y la conservación de la naturaleza a escala de paisaje. Con dicho fin se discuten las acepciones de integridad y conceptos próximos y se presenta un modelo de evaluación que considera la integridad del paisaje como resultado de la interacción de tres índices. El primero (integridad espacial) utiliza métricas de la ecología del paisaje (conectividad y cobertura de áreas naturales y áreas de uso humano) y evalúa la distribución de los fragmentos de los distintos tipos de ecosistemas existentes en el territorio. El segundo, un índice de integridad ecosistémica, se centra en los fragmentos con estructura más próxima a la madurez y valora su distancia numérica a ecosistemas de referencia. Por último, en el área sometida a usos agrícolas, se aplica un índice de coherencia ecológica de los usos del suelo que tiene en los elementos naturales con funciones de conservación. Estos índices son articulados mediante un modelo que facilita una visión simultánea de sus valores, así como su comparación con escenarios teóricos. El modelo permite manejar de forma simultánea variables relevantes que comúnmente se presentan como asociadas a aspectos diferentes de la calidad del entorno. Por sus características y escala intermedia de aplicación puede constituir una herramienta importante para enlazar conceptos y actuaciones, relevantes para la conservación de la naturaleza, pero que suelen manejarse por separado, en concreto la integridad ecosistémica y con la planificación del territorio.

La variabilidad del clima mediterráneo, unida a la complejidad del territorio y la historia de los usos del suelo, nos permite considerar los distintos tipos de paisajes como respuesta a las condiciones de un medio fluctuante, en ocasiones marcadamente impredecible. Una vez documentados los aspectos citados para la península ibérica, el trabajo analiza el flujo de servicios de los ecosistemas, considerándolo como dependiente de la correcta relación entre (1) el agroecosistema, evaluable por su integridad y salud, (2) el sistema de producción, según coherencia ecológica y sostenibilidad, y (3) el sistema económico, de acuerdo con su viabilidad. A partir de ejemplos de valoración multicriterio realizados para distintos tipos de paisajes españoles actuales, se discuten sus distintas funciones y los servicios que aportan. Su futuro se visualiza con la perspectiva de la Política Agrícola Comunitaria, en concreto a partir de la demanda de multifuncionalidad y la protección de paisajes culturales. Por ultimo se propone la necesidad incluir los agroecosistemas y paisajes valiosos en los planteamientos territoriales de conservación de la naturaleza.

Debido a la gran extensión ocupada por los ecosistemas de pastizal y a su relativamente elevado grado de naturalidad, la gestión de los pastizales tendrá importantes implicaciones en la conservación de numerosas especies silvestres de los distintos niveles tróficos. En este artículo sugerimos ideas básicas para que el aprovechamiento de los pastizales no comprometa su viabilidad futura. Para ello, repasamos el concepto de ecosistema de pastizal, describimos sus distintas configuraciones dependiendo de la intensidad del aprovechamiento, señalamos importantes componentes del pastizal que favorecen su estabilidad y que permitirán un manejo sostenible de los mismos y, finalmente, exponemos las características básicas que debe tener un plan de seguimiento y control de la explotación de los pastizales