Long-term impacts of grazing management on land degradation in a rural community of Southern Italy: Depopulation matters

Depopulation and economic marginalization of rural districts have induced a progressive land abandonment in agricultural and pastoral districts. In Europe, areas at higher risk of farmland abandonment are characterized by low-intensity pasture systems whose fate is strongly dependent on state incentives or subsidies to rural development promoting more sustainable land-use trajectories. Especially in Southern Europe, undergrazing is the main driver of pasture degradation. In such a context, a land management preserving pasture resilience requires a wider knowledge about the impact of practices on the ecological characteristics of pastures and an improved understanding of complex socio-environmental interactions underlying the adoption of such practices. Based on these premises, this study investigates the extent to which the past land management reflects the current state of agro-pastoral systems in a local community of Southern Apennine (Basilicata, Italy). Based on a multi-scale analysis integrating multiple sources of data and exploratory techniques, three land-use trajectories with different implications for land degradation were identified: (a) areas completely abandoned, (b) areas with a decrease in grazing where the management system is remained unchanged, and (c) areas characterized by a decrease in grazing with changes in the management system. Results outline the importance of landscape history shaping (optimal and sub-optimal) land management and the influence of landscape structure on livestock performances within different farm management types.