Grassland for agriculture and nature conservation: production, quality and multi-functionality.

European grasslands encompass a wide range of habitats that vary greatly in terms of their management, agricultural productivity, socio-economic value and nature conservation status, reflecting local differences in physical environment and economy, the effects of traditional practices and impacts of recent management. Widespread loss of biodiversity, as well as other environmental problems, have resulted from agricultural intensification or abandonment. Policies that have contributed to this have been progressively revised, initially by agri-environment schemes, and subsequently through changes in farm support payments and stricter regulatory frameworks, though many threats remain. We consider the agricultural implications of grassland biodiversity in terms of impacts on herbage production, feed intake and forage quality. Grassland biodiversity is both an externality of particular environments and farming systems and also contributes to objectives of multi-functional land-use systems. In addition to meeting species conservation and habitat protection, grassland biodiversity can contribute to enhanced value of agricultural products of regional, nutritional or gastronomic value, and to non-commodity outputs: agro-tourism, ecosystem functions linked to soil and water quality, and resilience to environmental perturbation. Needs and to conserve and improve the biodiversity potential of agricultural grasslands of typical moderate/high-input management, and for marginal, including communally managed large scale grazing systems, are considered using examples from contrasting areas of Europe. These include reindeer grazing in northern Fennoscandia, winter grazing in the Burren, Ireland, and cereal-fallow sheep grazing system of La Mancha, Spain.