Silvopasture policy promotion in European Mediterranean areas

Silvopasture is the deliberate integration of a woody component with grazed pastures as understorey. It is one of the most extended agroforestry practices all over the world. Silvopasture use is key to increase the sustainability of livestock farming systems as silvopasture reduces the use of concentrates since the woody component provides feed for animals. However, it is not an extensively used practice in Europe. This paper aims at evaluating, from Eurostat, LUCAS database and the 118 rural development programs, the current situation of permanent grasslands in the Mediterranean area of Europe as well as the rural development programmes fostering silvopasture to better understand how sustainable land use systems are promoted and provide insights to foster silvopasture across Europe. The results of this study show that most of the policy measures related to silvopasture are adapted to the local necessity. The already existing agroforestry managed land (dehesas/montado) are related to measures supporting regeneration and maintenance while in those areas where agroforestry does not exist the measures are related to forest fire preventionMRML was supported by the European Commission through the AFINET (grant agreement no 727872) and the Go-Grass projects (grant agreement no 862674) from the European Union´s H2020 Research and Innovation Programme (https://ec.europa.eu/programmes/horizon2020/en) and the Open2preserve project (SOE2/P5/E0804) from the Interreg Sudoe Programme (https://interreg-sudoe.eu/gbr/home). ARR was supported by the Xunta de Galicia, Consellería de Educación, Universidade e Formación Profesional (https://www.edu.xunta.gal/portal/es) through the Consolidation funds 2019–2022. NFD was also supported by the Xunta de Galicia, Consellería de Educación, Universidade e Formación Profesional (https://www.edu.xunta.gal/portal/es) (Programa de axudas á etapa posdoutoral modalide B DOG n° 213, 08/11/2019 p.48018, exp: ED481D 2019/009)S