Grazing in carnivore forests for sustainable production of food, timber and biodiversity

Informations

Funding country

Norway

Acronym

-

URL

-

Start date

1/1/2020

End date

12/31/2024

Budget

1,171,861 EUR

Fundings

Abstract

Livestock grazing in the outfields has been a cornerstone of Norwegian food production for centuries, partly because the Nordic climate limits the availability of cultivated land. To reduce livestock depredation, the native large carnivores brown bear, wolf, lynx and wolverine were persecuted and partly or totally extirpated hundred years ago. However, conservation measures resulted in a recent recovery of large carnivore populations in parts of their original distribution range. Policy-makers have decided to sustain both outfield grazing and large carnivores, but in geographically separated areas. The fact that carnivores roam over large areas challenges this form of zoning management. Our project "Grazing in carnivore forests" studies the potential of using carnivore-exposed forests in south eastern Norway for livestock grazing in combination with forestry and large game hunting, while taking into account biodiversity of plants and pollinators. Our first work package focuses on free-ranging cattle in carnivore-exposed, forested areas. We evaluate this practice with regard to depredation statistics and user experience. We also study cattle-carnivore interactions and animal welfare with the help of GPS-collars on sympatric cattle, wolves and bears, and biosensors in cows to assess animal welfare. Work package 2 evaluates the use of large sheep enclosures in commercial forests based on depredation statistics, stakeholder interviews, and distribution of game species. In work package 3, we measure the abundance and diversity of plants and pollinators, and forest regeneration in areas with and without grazing. Finally, we complement the results of the first three work packages with cost-benefit analyses in work package 4 and build a spatial suitability model for sustainable, carnivore-compatible livestock production. We will initiate workshops to discuss innovation and subsidy policies. For work package 1 on cattle and carnivores, we have during the past year been given access to statistics on livestock depredation, the Norwegian livestock registry, and subsidy statistics for cattle farming in outlying fields. We now combine these datasets to map cattle densities and depredation hotspots. We have also prepared a big questionnaire survey in collaboration with the management, stakeholder interest groups and farmers. It is scheduled to be posted by end of October 2021 to close to 5000 farmers in Viken county in the south to Trøndelag county in the north. The objective is to map farmers' experiences with free-ranging cattle farming. There is a lot of knowledge, experiences and statistics on livestock-carnivore interactions in other countries of the world. As part of work package 1, we have collected data on cattle density, carnivore abundance and cattle losses to carnivores in many European and North-American regions and interviewed land use managers. The results are compiled in a master thesis, and we now work to publish them. We collaborate with seven farmers for cattle monitoring. We bought 70 collars produced by the Norwegian company Nofence and helped two farmers to receive funds for extra 60 collars. We could therefore map the movement of 130 free-ranging suckling cows at five-minute intervals during summer 2021. We also accessed activity data from the accelerometers in the collars of selected cows during several days. These animals were filmed simultaneously, and we have now classified their behaviour from the videos. Ten of these cows had biosensors to measure heart rate and body temperature continuously. The combination of all these datasets will later be used to map the animals? behaviour and energy use. In collaboration with the Interreg project Grensevilt we monitored two cattle herds within the wolf territory of a GPS-collared wolf. In the years to come, we aim at collaring more wolves and bears to map their movements in relation to cattle grazing areas and to study the response of cows to the proximity of carnivores. For work package 3 on the effects of forest grazing on biodiversity and forestry, we established 72 sample plots on young forest stands inside and outside grazing areas. Half of them are fenced to keep large herbivores out. Unfenced plots are monitored with wildlife cameras. On the plots, we registered sward height, damages on trees, and dung from large herbivores in the start and end of the grazing season. Throughout July, we mapped flowering plants and their visiting insects. We now classify them at species or genus level, to describe the diversity of pollinators. The project generates an enormous amount of data, and we have therefore recruited a Postdoc and two additional PhD-students through Inland Norway University of Applied Sciences and Nottingham Trent University. We currently supervise a master and two bachelor students. Several internship students from outside Norway have joined the project to help with data collection.