Maintain wood pasture and parkland

Overall effectiveness category Unknown effectiveness (limited evidence)
Number of studies: 1
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How is the evidence assessed?

Effectiveness

40%
Certainty

10%
Harms

not assessed

Calculating overall effectiveness category

Background information and definitions

Wood pastures are open, low-intensity livestock-grazed woodlands with grassland, often of high conservation value. Due to abandonment or agricultural reversion, they have declined greatly in Europe. This intervention may involve restoring or maintaining wood pasture habitats.

See also ‘Restore or create wood pasture’ for studies on the restoration or establishment of wood pastures.

Study locations

Key messages

A randomized, replicated, controlled trial in Sweden found that annual mowing maintained the highest number of plant species on wood pasture.

About key messages

Key messages provide a descriptive index to studies we have found that test this intervention.

Studies are not directly comparable or of equal value. When making decisions based on this evidence, you should consider factors such as study size, study design, reported metrics and relevance of the study to your situation, rather than simply counting the number of studies that support a particular interpretation.

Supporting evidence from individual studies

A long-term randomized, replicated, controlled trial from 1972 to 1986 on a traditionally managed wood meadow in Sweden (Hansson & Fogelfors 2000) found that mowing or grazing were needed to preserve the characteristic flora, with annual mowing maintaining the greatest number of plant species. Seven management regimes were compared, including mowing, grazing, burning, removing woody vegetation and abandonment, with two replicates for each treatment. The number of plant species increased significantly on plots mown every year, and remained stable on grazed plots. Reducing the frequency of mowing to every third year did not significantly reduce species richness. Periodic mowing may therefore be a way to preserve wood meadow flora when management resources are limited. Other treatments reduced species richness over time and plots became either dominated by trees (under abandonment) or dominated by a few tall herbs and/or grasses. Treatments were applied in 5 x 20 m plots from 1972 to 1986 with two replicates. Percentage cover of plant species was assessed in five or six 1 m² subplots/plot in 1972, 1980 and 1986.
Study and other actions tested
Referenced paper
Hansson M. & Fogelfors H. (2000) Management of a semi-natural grassland; results from a 15-year-old experiment in southern Sweden. Journal of Vegetation Science, 11, 31-38.

Please cite as:

Dicks, L.V., Ashpole, J.E., Dänhardt, J., James, K., Jönsson, A., Randall, N., Showler, D.A., Smith, R.K., Turpie, S., Williams, D.R. & Sutherland, W.J. (2020) Farmland Conservation. Pages 283-321 in: W.J. Sutherland, L.V. Dicks, S.O. Petrovan & R.K. Smith (eds) What Works in Conservation 2020. Open Book Publishers, Cambridge, UK.

Where has this evidence come from?

List of journals searched by synopsis

All the journals searched for all synopses

This Action forms part of the Action Synopsis:

Farmland Conservation

Related Actions

Actions	Effectiveness	Studies	Category
Maintain species-rich, semi-natural grassland Action Link	Likely to be beneficial	22	Synopsis Link
Use traditional breeds of livestock Action Link	Unknown effectiveness (limited evidence)	5	Synopsis Link
Reduce grazing intensity on grassland (including seasonal removal of livestock) Action Link	Likely to be ineffective or harmful	30	Synopsis Link