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What science says about species-rich grassland management in Central and Eastern Europe and the importance of traditional knowledge
27. September 2022 @ 13:00 - 14:30
Human activities and biodiversity often don’t go well along. But the species-rich secondary grasslands of Central and Eastern Europe, formed as a side product of low-intensity farming, are an example of the positive impact of human activities on ecosystem biodiversity.
Maintaining them in the face of agricultural and socio-economic change is the primary goal of current grassland conservation. This webinar, given by three grassland scientists, will demonstrate:
- the importance of a deep knowledge of local history and traditions that led to the formation of each particular grassland;
- the risks associated with substituting traditional grassland management practices with their modern analogies;
- the irreplaceable role of domestic animals in grassland conservation.
It will highlight how collaborating with farmers and herders, who still use approaches inspired by their ancestors (based on traditional ecological knowledge), avoids conflict and brings new insights into animal grazing behaviour for better management of species-rich grassland.
The webinar speakers are.
- Zsolt Molnár, botanist, ethnoecologist, founder and head of the ”Traditional Ecological Knowledge” Research Group at the Centre for Ecological Research in Hungary. He has published extensively on grassland habitats and management and local ecological knowledge of herders and farmers in Hungary, Romania, Serbia, Mongolia and Iran. His presentation, which focuses on the concepts and practices of traditional grazing, herders’ ecological knowledge, and their relevance to conservation, will be given together with László Sáfián, shepherd.
- Monika Janišová is a Slovakian vegetation ecologist interested in biogeography and endemism, population biology and conservation of rare plants. Her current research focuses on grasslands in the Romanian part of the Carpathian mountains; their classification, biodiversity, succession, management and conservation. As well as traditional ecological knowledge, bio-cultural heritage and sustainable agriculture in the Carpathian region.
- Maja Arok is a researcher in the Centre for Biosystems within the BioSense Institute in Novi Sad (Serbia). Her research concerns biodiversity conservation of (semi)natural open grassland habitats, mainly in Serbia. In the webinar presentation, she will focus on the state of the vegetation of Serbian grasslands as a result of (non)grazing management practice.
Register here.