Methodological studies in the field of Agro-Environmental IndicatorsLot 2. Grassland areas, production and use

Gerard Velthof

Grasslands

Grasslands types, areas, productivity, and nutrient balances needed for targeting, monitoring and evaluation of

Common Agricultural Policy

Environmental policies ●Climate mitigation targets ●High Nature Value farmland ●Habitats Directive ●Nitrates Directive

General objective of the project

To bring clarity into the issue of defining, classifying, collecting and disseminating data on European grassland areas, use and production.

October 2012 – December 2013

Specific objectives

Create an overview of the different types of grasslands existing in Europe

Create possible ways of classifying the grasslands in coherent manners, allowing different types of analyses to be made

Create a set of recommendations on how to collect data on grasslands, in ways allowing the creation of coherent European datasets.

Six tasks Task 1 Defining and classifying grasslands Task 2 Currently used methodologies to estimate

grassland production and biological fixation Task 3 Grassland definition and classification Task 4 Existing grassland survey Task 5 Methods for data collection Task 6 Expert/ statistician workshop

Task 1 Defining and classifying grasslands

To make a literature review of existing definitions and classifications of grasslands that are used in diverse domains, both statistical, administrative, scientific and other.

Task 2 Currently used methodologies to estimate grassland production and biological fixation

To make a literature review on existing methodologies to estimate grassland production and to estimate biological fixation in grasslands

Task 3 Grassland definition and classification

To make recommendations for potential definitions of grasslands and classification schemes on grassland

●analysis of the strengths and weaknesses, ●the ease the classifications can be set up, ●the link to FAO and other international

organisations, ●the impact on data use

Task 4 Existing grassland survey

To collect and analyse data about grassland production in the EU Member States, Norway and Switzerland (questionnaire).

Analysis and synthesis of the results:●weaknesses and strengths of existing surveys ●recommendations for collection of consistent data

about grasslands

Task 5 Methods for data collection

To analyse the characteristics of grasslands which need to be collected

To identify different methods of collecting these characteristics in different surveying methods

To propose several data collection scenarios on how to bring together the various possible strategies on data collection into holistic approaches.

Task 6 Expert/ statistician workshop

To organise a workshop for grassland experts

Aim: to discuss the results with from the agri-environmental, grassland community and statistics communities

Involvement of AEI working group

Discussion session, based on the short questionnaire

A detailed questionnaire will be sent in March/April●Suggestions for topics and questions?

Please, provide names of experts or contact persons

Contact

Gerard VelthofAlterra, Wageningen URP.O. Box 47, 6700 AA Wageningentel +31317 486503gerard.velthof@wur.nl

This afternoonfurther discussion