Silvopastoralism in Gorbeia SAC (Basque Country): spatial and temporal selection of woodlands

Abstract

Extensive grazing in mountain areas of the Basque Country happens in a mosaic of mainly open pastureland, woodland, plantations and scrubland. For these grazing areas’ conservation, it is elemental to understand livestock’s behaviour in those habitats. In this study, criteria for such practices are to be defined based on landscape analysis and livestock behaviour. The sampling was realized in Gorbeia Special Area of Conservation during the 2021 campaign. Livestock behaviour’s spatial and temporal analysis was realized in different buffer ranges around open pasturelands, to patch level (vegetation type and slope-range) and for each month, by calculating Global Positioning System (GPS) fix density. Thus, Pyrenean oak woods were seen as the type of woodland that livestock preferred, especially in November, and followed by Corsican pine and Scottish pine woods. At the same time, there was a gradient from a higher to a lower fix density as distance from pasturelands’ borders augmented in which woodland type, tree canopy cover fraction and livestock type had an effect. These results highlight the necessity to design silvopastoral management based on the potentiality of each grazing area and animal species, being necessary to open woodland areas for its promotion.