In peripheral areas, extensive land uses shape the landscape over a large area. Particularly important are the traditional extensive pastures in low mountain ranges and the Alps. They vary in importance from region to region, both as a direct source of income and indirectly through the preservation of the landscape and biodiversity. From a conservation perspective, outstanding biodiversity is linked to extensive pastures. In the course of agricultural intensification, the interest of agriculture in using such areas as production sites declined. However, the preservation of landscape aesthetic and nature conservation qualities requires at least an agricultural maintenance use, which requires an embedding in the socio-economic context and the agricultural policy support landscape. Linking this problem area with scenarios that take into account both economic and ecological dynamics is rare and then, due to the effort involved, usually locally specific. The focus on adaptation responses in peripheral regions and there on extensive pastures and their ecological as well as socio-economic dynamics is a research aspect that has not been sufficiently addressed in agricultural policy modeling.
The aim of this PhD project is therefore to link vegetation dynamics computer simulations for extensive grazing areas with socio-economic and agricultural policy modeling.
