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The 10th European Heathland Workshop
Environmental change is a recurring theme for most ecosystems on earth – and the coastal heathlands of North-west Europe is no exception. These valuable seminatural habitats are exposed to changes in climate, in productivity as a result of human-induced nitrogen deposition, and in land-use. Which of these environmental changes pose the most serious threats to European heathlands today? How do we manage and conserve this seminatural habitat when ‘everything’ is changing?
At the 10th European Heathland Workshop, these questions will be explored against a backdrop of the northernmost outposts of the European Coastal Heathlands in central to northern Norway.
We start the workshop in Trondheim Sunday the 24th of June and end it the 1st of July in Bodø.
Workshop Themes: Threats, Management and Conservation
Management
All over Europe traditional heathland management has been based upon systems of grazing and controlled burning. Today, most heathland management is related to conservation purposes, and this includes a variety of actions to cope with the many challenges to heathland conservation in different regions of Europe. In addition, different kinds of restoration management in order to re-establish heathlands in areas where this type of habitat already has disappeared, is becoming more and more usual.
Where in Europe do we find examples of successful management and what can we learn form this? To what extent are practical management techniques transferable from one region to the next?
Threats
In spite of its widespread distribution, the heathlands are one of the most threatened types of habitats in Europe today. More than 80% has disappeared over the last 100 years. This is mainly due to the rapid decrease in low intensity farming all over Europe, leaving the heathlands to change into forests or cultivated fields. In addition to land use changes come problems related to nitrogen deposition, climatic changes, uncontrolled burning and decreasing income possibilities to finance necessary management.
What are the major threats to heathlands in the different regions? What time scales are we looking at?
Conservation
Heathlands are dynamic cultural landscapes and therefore difficult to protect and conserve when traditional farming disappear. They cannot be preserved in the same manner as many other natural habitats because of their need of management. Today, different models are tried out in different parts of Europe. Many places, heathlands are included in national parks or nature reserves, they are defined as Nature2000-sites or the conservation is based on voluntary agreements with the farmers owning the land.
How do we face the specific needs of cultural landscapes in a conservation frame work?
Contact
If you have any questions, please contact
Liv Nilsen
Liv.Nilsen@DIRNAT.NO
Directorate for Nature Management
Tel. no. + 47 73 58 08 18
These pages will be continuously updated!
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