0000000001331020
AUTHOR
Tobias Kuemmerle
Harnessing the biodiversity value of Central and Eastern European farmland
A large proportion of European biodiversity today depends on habitat provided by low‐intensity farming practices, yet this resource is declining as European agriculture intensifies. Within the European Union, particularly the central and eastern new member states have retained relatively large areas of species‐rich farmland, but despite increased investment in nature conservation here in recent years, farmland biodiversity trends appear to be worsening. Although the high biodiversity value of Central and Eastern European farmland has long been reported, the amount of research in the international literature focused on farmland biodiversity in this region remains comparatively ti…
Transitions in European land-management regimes between 1800 and 2010
Land use is a cornerstone of human civilization, but also intrinsically linked to many global sustainability challenges—from climate change to food security to the ongoing biodiversity crisis. Understanding the underlying technological, institutional and economic drivers of land-use change, and how they play out in different environmental, socio-economic and cultural contexts, is therefore important for identifying effective policies to successfully address these challenges. In this regard, much can be learned from studying long-term land-use change. We examined the evolution of European land management over the past 200 years with the aim of identifying (1) key episodes of changes in land …
Identifying priority areas for restoring large mammal populations in the Caucasus Ecoregion
Large mammals play critical roles in ecosystems, yet their populations are across the globe as a result of habitat loss, overhunting, and human-wildlife conflicts. Some of these threats have lessened considerably in parts of Europe, particularly in mountain regions, and this offers unique opportunities for restoring large mammal populations to ecologically functional levels. However, many species require active conservation planning and management for achieving this goal. We focused on the Caucasus Ecoregion, a global biodiversity hotspot at the crossroads of Europe, Central Asia and the Middle East, with a variety of large carnivore and herbivore species. The collapse of the Soviet Union i…