Pastoral practices and bird communities in Gran Paradiso National Park: management implications in the Alps

Abstract

Alpine meadows are examples of semi-natural habitats largely created and maintained through grazing ofdomestic livestock.  Deterioration of these habitats is widespread in the Alps, due mainly to depopulation of highelevation rural areas and reduction of stocking levels followed by a continue intensification of agricultural practicesin valley bottoms. In order to determine the best management practices in terms of bird diversity maintenance andbird species conservation, we examined the effects of pastoral abandonment on the breeding avifauna of GranParadiso National Park (nort-western Italian Alps). We tested for differences in mean species diversity and overallbird abundance per sampling area among four levels of increasing grazing impact, and  examined the associationsamong 32 bird species and local habitat structure, landscape, grazing pressure and elevation. In general terms, theabandonment of pastures seems to determine a prompt increase of bird diversity and density per plot. However, whilepastoral disuse leads to an overall increase in local avian diversity and density, most of woodland species that increasethe diversity of abandoned habitats are quite ubiquitous and with a secure conservation status. conversely, severalgrassland species that here seem to be dependent upon grazing, have an unfavourable conservation status in Europe.It must be stressed that at landscape scale, grazing increases habitat diversity and, in turn, bird diversity. In conclusion,in order to preserve threatened bird species and to maintain a complex habitat mosaic and an high speciesdiversityat large environmental scale, extensive grazing should be maintained in the Alps.