Institutional Settings in Co-operative Pastoral Systems in Europe: First Results from the LACOPE Research Project

Abstract

"European biodiversity significantly depends on livestock systems. In most countries grazing is/was organised in permanent or seasonal co-operations (land-owner/land-user agents) and covered different landscape such as forests, pastures, mires or even arable land. The reason of such cooperatively resource organisation was to provide management unit to communities of landless farmers making the systems closely linked to specific property rights. Those co-operation forms are characterised by larger surfaces as areas of individual management. The commitment of biodiversity conservation of the EU-member states embraces to a large extent the care of landscape and regional development (e.g. AGENDA 2000, NATURA 2000). Large scale grazing systems maintain ecosystems and permit the creation of open habitats for species which are core targets of the European NATURA 2000 system.

"As the traditional systems became unproductive in terms of modern economics, landscapes and habitats formed by continuous grazing diminished. Instead, agricultural intensification and private land management caused a segregation of the landscape, a separation of forest and pastures as well as abandonment of marginal sites. Thus, many of the species depending on open or semi-open landscapes are actually extremely endangered. This goes parallel with a regional segregation of Europe, resulting in intensively used, even overexploited regions on the one hand and marginal ones on the other. The large scale grazing systems have to be adapted to modern societies and economically organised.

"The LACOPE project aims to stress in more detail the 'co-operative corridor' in large scale grazing systems. This means the particular advantages of co-operative organisation forms to realise large scale grazing (LACOPE, 2000). The main objective of the proposed research project is the improvement of the ecological and economic effectiveness of co-operative livestock systems which contribute to biodiversity conservation. Since large sector efforts of nature conservation have not stopped biodiversity losses in EuropeÃ?ÂŽs open and semi-open landscapes, management methods have to be improved.

"Research teams of seven countries (Norway, Poland, Switzerland, Spain, Germany, Portugal and Ireland) co-operate to analyse regions with complex pastured ecosystems and typical forms of CLS. The study is carried out regarding two inter-dependant aspects: ecological (flora and Fauna) and economical (socio-economy, resource economy and institutional economy) (LACOPE, 2000)."