Conservation of pasture woodlands in the Jura mountains: climate change and agro-political challenges

Wooded pastures of the Jura mountains are mainly used for fodder and timber production, but they provide also other goods and services such as biodiversity, leisure areas as well as attractive landscapes. These ecosystems are sensitive to climate and land-use changes. In this paper we report on a transplantation experiment and model simulations to show the impact of climate change on the grass production as well as the consequences of the upcoming new agriculture policy (AP 14–17) on landscape dynamics. Results indicate that wooded pastures could better resist to climate warming and concomitant summer droughts than open pastures, and thus provide more stable fodder yields along the season. Simulations of vegetation evolution indicate that the global utilization rate of fodder in treeless intensive used pastures would be beyond a sustainable threshold. The AP 14–17 will lower the intensity of pasturing which will lead to more closed landscapes in the long run. The new policy should allow, by means of incentives in favour of landscape quality, to take targeted measures for the conservation of wooded pastures.