Mediterranean wooded pasture and meadow

These are open wooded landscapes created and maintained through traditional grazing, hay-making and woodland (tree) management. Variations in land use and disturbance regime as well as in their abiotic environment make wooded pastures and meadows very diverse and dynamic. Due to their semi-open and patchy character, as well as to their habitat continuity, they accommodate numerous species, many of which are rare and endangered. The species composition and   structure are strongly influenced by the conscious management by the owners/herders. Traditional wooded pastures and wooded meadows express part of the local social and economic history and are therefore of considerable cultural significance. These habitats have a high nature and cultural value and considered as high nature value farmland areas. These are threatened by various factors, most of them related to land-use change.

The Mediterranean wooded pastures and meadows are typical in Spain, Portugal, Greece, South-Italy and South-France, and some parts of the Balkan. These have separated into old-growth wooded pasture; scrub and coppice wooded pasture.  In the western Mediterranean the most extensive wooded pastures are the dehesas (Spain) and montados (Portugal), where scattered evergreen trees coexist with pastures and arable lands. These habitats are dominated by scattered evergreen oaks Quercus ilex, Q. rotundifolia, Q. suber, Q. coccifera, while in other mediterranean wooded pasture are featured by Q.cerris, Q,frainetto, Q. ithaburensis, Q. petraea and Q. pubescens, Castanea sativa, Olea europea, Carpinus orientalis, and Fraxinus ornus.

The shrub layer is characterized by evergreen sclerophyllous bush and scrub (maquis, garrigue, mattoral, phrygana sensu lato) as Retama sphaerocarpa, Cytisus multiflorus, Phillyrea angustifolia, Cistus ladanifer, Cistus creticus, Q. coccifera, Pistacia lentiscus, Lavandula stoechas ssp., Genista hirsuta, Daphne gnidium, Asparagus acutifolius, Fumana sp., Halimium sp., Helianthemum annua, Tuberaria sp.. The herbaceous layer is usually composed of native annual and perennial vegetation (grasses - Lolium, Bromus, Hordeum etc., legumes - clovers, medicagos, serradela [Ornitophus sp.] etc., crucifers) which are used for grazing. Sometimes cultivated cereals (oat, barley, wheat, rye) are grown. Based on the management of the wooded component wooded pastures can be separated into old-growth with or without pollarding or coppice wood and shrub wooded pasture. The old-growth includes Sclerophyllous pastoral woodland, including the dehesa type, of Quercetea ilicis landscapes in Mediterranean Europe and Deciduous pastoral woodland of Quercetea ilicis landscapes in the Mediterranean. Coppice wood and shrub wooded pastures are mainly located in Spain, France, Italy and the Balkans. These types are the following: Grazed macchia/matorral of Quercetea ilicis landscapes in the Mediterranean; Rangeland mosaic with sclerophyllous or mixed scrub of the pseudomacchia type in southern and south-eastern Europe; Low evergreen open scrub-pastures of the garrigue type in Quercetea ilicis landscapes, interspersed with scattered sclerophyllous, coniferous and deciduous shade-giving trees and small groves, in the Mediterranean lowlands and lower mountains; Rangeland mosaic of montane grassland with sclerophyllous broadleaved trees and/or conifers, frequently lopped or pollarded, in the Mediterranean mountains.

Indicators of quality: High presence and abundance of old-growth, veteran trees; Regeneration of tall broad-canopy tree; Regular and deliberate management along with high nature and cultural value farmland guidelines; Forest regrowth, shrub encroachment, wood succession decrease the quality through the loss of the typical physiognomy followed by a decrease in small-scale habitat diversity; No land-use intensification (removal of the structural elements to enlarge the grassland; use of fertilizer and artificial seeding; too high livestock densities); No spread of non-native trees from planted stock or naturally invasive sources.

Synthesis of Red List assessment

Confidence in the assessment

Pressures and threats