Initiative for Biological Heritage in European Landscapes

Bioheritage is an initiative from the Swedish Biodiversity Centre (CBM) to promote conservation of Biological Heritage, that is habitats where the biodiversity to a large extent has been shaped by human activities, both in Sweden and other parts of Europe . These habitats have biological and cultural values that need management rooted in traditional management systems to maintain in the future.

In the last decades, most European countries have seen a dramatic decrease in the number of farms with grazing animals, leading to decreasing areas of well-managed semi-natural grasslands. This is a serious threat to the rural economy, to biodiversity conservation, to natural and cultural heritage, and to a sustainable rural development.

Our vision is that the European countries will take a joint responsibility for our semi-natural grasslands. One important task is to secure the vast areas of well-manages grasslands still present in the new and accession EU countries. To solve this it is necessary to work across national borders with both exchange of knowledge and new research.