<p>Wooded pastures are common in the agricultural landscape in Sweden, often rich in naturaland cultural values. It is not a well confined biotope but consist of a semi-open landscapewith a complex pattern and wide variation of tree and shrub coverage. The values in thewooded pastures have been created through a long history of management.One major threat to wooded pastures is ceasing management. Yearly and intensive grazinghas been demanded for several years in order to receive economical support. At the sametime trees and bushes have often been regarded as vegetal invasion. In 2007, during theEuropean commission’s revision of the direct payment, the Swedish definition of pasturesbecame questioned. Sweden was supporting pastures that should not be eligible to directpayment. The Swedish board of Agriculture changed the definition twice in two yearsbefore the European commission was satisfied. Today 60 trees per hectare are allowed inpastures with public values.One of the objectives of this study is to examine the effects of the latest definition ofpastures made in 2009 by the Swedish Board of Agriculture. The results show that morethan one third of the farmers have been affected and many have withdrawn parts of theirpastures from the applications for environmental support. Clearing of trees was also acommon effect and surprisingly many farmers chose to clear dying or dead trees. Apartfrom affecting the farmers the total area of the pastures in Sweden has shrunk. Conclusiondrawn from this study is that the new definition of pastures has had a rather large affect onthe Swedish farmersWooded pastures are common in the agricultural landscape in Sweden, often rich in naturaland cultural values. It is not a well confined biotope but consist of a semi-open landscapewith a complex pattern and wide variation of tree and shrub coverage. The values in thewooded pastures have been created through a long history of management.One major threat to wooded pastures is ceasing management. Yearly and intensive grazinghas been demanded for several years in order to receive economical support. At the sametime trees and bushes have often been regarded as vegetal invasion. In 2007, during theEuropean commission’s revision of the direct payment, the Swedish definition of pasturesbecame questioned. Sweden was supporting pastures that should not be eligible to directpayment. The Swedish board of Agriculture changed the definition twice in two yearsbefore the European commission was satisfied. Today 60 trees per hectare are allowed inpastures with public values.One of the objectives of this study is to examine the effects of the latest definition ofpastures made in 2009 by the Swedish Board of Agriculture. The results show that morethan one third of the farmers have been affected and many have withdrawn parts of theirpastures from the applications for environmental support. Clearing of trees was also acommon effect and surprisingly many farmers chose to clear dying or dead trees. Apartfrom affecting the farmers the total area of the pastures in Sweden has shrunk. Conclusiondrawn from this study is that the new definition of pastures has had a rather large affect on the Swedish farmers.</p>
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA/oai:DiVA.org:su-42322 |
| Date | January 2010 |
| Creators | Eriksson, Isabelle |
| Publisher | Stockholm University, Department of Physical Geography and Quaternary Geology (INK) |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | Swedish |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, text |
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