Drivers of LEDD in grazing land: Spain and Central Pyrenees

Editor's note 14Jun2012: Text source D211, section 3.2.4

One of the most important direct drivers of LEDD in grazing land in the Central Pyrenees is the change in traditional land use. The traditional land-uses practiced for centuries have disappeared to a large extent, just as in many other European mountain areas (Taillefumier and Piégay 2003; Lasanta et al. 2005). One of the consequences is the loss of productivity and biodiversity caused by shrub encroachment in abandoned grasslands. The impact of shrub encroachment on these landscapes is an important issue for land managers and land policy makers, but the rate and dynamics of shrub encroachment occurring in semi-natural grasslands are not well known in terms of land-use changes and climate change (Bartolomé et al. 2005). Consequently, a better understanding of the land-use change and its consequences is essential for the comprehension of mountain landscape dynamics and maintenance of biodiversity, the cultural heritage, and agricultural and pastoral production (Lasanta et al. 2006; Mottet et al. 2006).

Multiple factors (indirect drivers) are responsible for these land use changes resulting in changes in demography and socio-economic conditions (García-Ruiz and Lasanta 1990). The main indirect drivers leading to these socio-economic changes are: the movement of people to cities and industrial regions; agricultural mechanisation (less accessible areas were abandoned); and the development of synthetic fibres which reduced the value of wool and wool products. Extensive grazing is expensive in terms of production because it is labour-intensive. Every day, shepherds must look after their flocks. This limits the labour force and reduces the availability of experienced shepherds. The ovine is replaced by bovine because cattle production requires less in terms of human resources and cattle are better adapted to indoor production systems. As a result, some areas moved to intensive production of fodder for cows, and the more remote, less productive areas were abandoned (Lasanta 1989). The loss of agricultural soil due to tourist infrastructure is another of the causes of less forage being available for livestock, reducing the capacity of the area to feed animals during winter.

Other important indirect drivers are demographic changes, mainly characterised by an aging and decreasing population, resulting in smaller families with weaker social bonds who are unable to maintain the labour requirements for extensive practices such as transhumance, which in turn has caused the disappearance of transhumance and prompted a crisis in the sheep sector, leading to shrub encroachment (García-Ruiz et al. 1996). Alternatively, tourist development also acts as indirect drivers, affecting traditional land use.

There has been significant development of tourist infrastructures in the Central Pyrenees associated with the construction of five alpine ski resorts, between 1965 and 1976. Comparisons between municipalities with ski resorts and those without revealed a population increase of 60.4 percent between 1970 and 2008 for those municipalities with ski resorts, while the municipalities without ski resorts have lost 26.6 percent of their population in the same period (Lasanta 2010). The number of farms has declined 48 percent in municipalities with ski resorts and 22 percent in municipalities without ski resorts in the same period (1970-2008) (Lasanta 2010). A loss of 43 percent of livestock was also reported for the same period in municipalities with ski resorts, as opposed to an increase in livestock of 31.8 percent in municipalities without ski resorts. Competition between stockbreeding and tourist development has been reported in the Pyrenees in the High Esera Valley (Laguna & Lasanta 2003), where movement of workers from the primary sector into tourism was observed. The number of UGM (large livestock unit) declined in the High Esera Valley from 5335 in 1970 to 3758 in 1999, in parallel with the reduction in the number of farms from 312 in 1965 to 127 in 2000. Conversely, the number of tourist beds in hotels, auberges and camp sites increased from 344 in 1960 to 17073 in 1999.

Direct and indirect drivers interact. In Spain three important events have shaped socio-economic developments and influenced the landscape in the last 500 years (Puigdefábregas and Mendizabal 1998; Alados et al. 2011), acting as direct and indirect drivers of LEDD:

• The first occurred between the 16th and 17th centuries coinciding with the establishment of Christian rule, which favoured the expansion of rain-fed agriculture; and the colonisation of America, which increased the demand for products to meet population demand.
• The growth of the population led to the second period in the 18th century (Dupre Ollivier 1990), which resulted in the overpopulation of rural areas until the first half of 20th century; the encroachment of agriculture onto rangelands and increases in livestock numbers.
• The third phase occurred in the 1960s with the industrialization of towns and the migration of rural people into cities.

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