Evaluation projects

During the period 1997-2006 mapping projects of semi-natural and natural grasslands were initiated by the Royal Dutch Society for Nature Conservation (KNNV) in close collaboration with colleague-organisations in Central and Eastern Europe. The projects were financially supported by the Dutch government in the framework of the BBI-MATRA Programme (and predecessors).

The following projects were executed with mentioning the countries, the partners and the period of project execution:
- Estonia: Estonian Fund for Nature and Estonian Seminatural Community Conservation Association: period 1998-2001
- Latvia: Latvian Fund for Nature: period 1999-2003
- Lithuania: Lithuanian Fund for Nature and Institute of Botany: period 2002-2005
- Slovakia: Daphne, Institute of applied ecology: period 1998-2002
- Hungary: Ministry of Environment, National Authority for Nature Conservation, Institute of Botany: period 1997-2001
- Romania: University of Bucharest, Association of Botanical Gardens, Danube Delta Institute: period 2000-2004
- Bulgaria: Institute of Botany, Wilderness Fund, Bulgarian Society for the Protection of Birds: period 2001-2004
- Slovenia: Slovenian Natural History Society, Institute of Botany, University of Maribor and of Ljubljana: period 1998-2003.

In Poland a separate project had been organised in the early nineties by Dorschkamp Institute in the Netherlands. In the Czech Republic a habitat mapping project was organised by the government and institutions. Recently, for Turkey a grassland review project has been executed in close co-operation with WWF-Turkey and this project resulted in a description of grassland history and an extensive bibliography about steppic vegetations and management of steppes. In Belarus a grassland project is running by the Belarus Botanical Society. These four countries are not included in this report.

Grassland inventory projects are highly standardized following the recommendations of the European Workshop on National Grassland Inventory, which was organised in 1999 in Bratislava by KNNV in co-operation with Daphne, Institute for applied ecology.

The so called 6-steps approach was agreed by the participants of this workshop:
By means of satellite image and/or aerial photo processing the permanent grassland complexes will be identified as well as the boundaries of the complexes;
In the screening phase all the potential sites are globally screened by grassland specialists on actual agricultural use and other relevant issues like land abandonment. Also the field research areas have to be defined in this phase taking into account the position of the grasslands in the national bio-geographical zones and variation in abiotic conditions like climatic factors and soil types.
Preparation for the mapping phase, the list of national grassland vegetation mapping units in order to reach comparative outputs in the project by the different researchers. The vegetation units are described by means of a set of so called indicator species which can give an indication of the development of the vegetation at a local site. The selection of the indicator species is based on existing knowledge concerning threatened and endangered species, endemic species and species which reflect the environmental conditions of the grasslands, for instance for nutrient input, continuity in management, water management and others.
In the mapping phase, on the selected areas the semi-natural grassland units are mapped in the field by mapping the different vegetation units, listing the species and drawing the boundaries of homogeneous vegetations or vegetation mosaics and listing the species. For this purpose, the national project co-ordinators develop a manual for field mapping activities in which is included the system of identification of vegetation units to be mapped and of indicator species and other requirements like information regarding management of the sites and soil type.
On the base of all the outputs of the previous phases, the GIS database can be build up, including also information for land management, land use, history of land use, specific threats like land abandonment. The boundaries of the mapped vegetation units have been digitized and stored in GIS database. For reaching compatibility which other geographical information systems on the national level, national digital maps/satellite images are used as a background layer in the database.
Based on this information the project output exists of a flexible database which is available for policy makers and other specialists. The results of the project are interpreted and recommendations for protection and management are described. The results of the project will be disseminated by organizing workshops and other activities.

Autumn 2006 was a good moment to evaluate the outcome of these grasslands projects. Six countries became already a member of EU from May 2004 and Bulgaria and Romania have entered EU by January 2007. The questionnaire was designed to give a review on following items:
- to test the catalyzing function of the projects
- how are the project results implemented (especially for Agri-Environmental Schemes and Natura 2000)
- which position had the local lead-organisation in this implementation process
- level of satisfaction about the reached results of this implementation process
- a number of specific questions like state of conservation knowledge and co-operation experiences with other partners in the process.

All the countries which were involved in grassland projects responded on the questionnaire. This means that the outcome of the questionnaire results is highly representative for all implementation processes in these New EU Member state Countries.

In this report we follow the structure of the questionnaire. After every question the full answers are given.

As a final conclusion of this evaluation can be drawn that grassland project results are used for identification of Natura 2000 Network sites and for preparation of Agri-Environmental Schemes (AES) in the New EU Memberstate Countries. It has become a flexible tool which meets the requirements of these countries in the process of meeting the standards of the EU.

Evaluation report grassland projects.PDF

Veen Ecology Ltd, 31 January 2010