The aim of the study was to collect the first complete statistics on pastures and grazing of cattle in Finland. The data was collected in connection with an investigation of wood utilization in 1937-1938. Overall trend in grazing is that forest pastures are being replaced with restricted forest pastures and those further with hay meadows. This development is proceeding in the whole country, and it is almost completed in Western Finland. Grazing will probably be transferred completely to cultivated lands in the coming decades. This is important question also for the forestry, because of the damage grazing causes for forest.

Forest pastures are, however, still very important in animal husbandry. They produce over 500 million forage units. It would require 400,000 ha of hay meadows to produce corresponding amount of fodder. To sustain the present number of cattle, a third of all arable land in Finland should be hay meadows. The main goal for development of pastural agriculture is improving the effectivity of grazing and productivity of the pastures.

The PDF includes a summary in German.

Jäntti, E-mail: aj@mm.unknown

Category : Research article

article id 1153, category Research article

Anu Akujärvi, Ville Hallikainen, Mikko Hyppönen, Eero Mattila, Kari Mikkola, Pasi Rautio. (2014). Effects of reindeer grazing and forestry on ground lichens in Finnish Lapland. Silva Fennica vol. 48 no. 3 article id 1153. https://doi.org/10.14214/sf.1153

Keywords: forest management; timber harvesting; reindeer herding; pastures; lichen cover; lichen biomass

Highlights: Both reindeer grazing and forestry affect the cover and biomass of reindeer lichens; Reindeer grazing has bigger impact than forestry; The lichen cover was about five-fold and the biomass about fifteen-fold in the ungrazed (fenced) sites than in the grazed ones; The decrease of not only the biomass, but also the cover of lichens, is alarming.

Abstract | Full text in HTML | Full text in PDF | Author Info

Reindeer husbandry and forestry are practiced in the same areas in northern Fennoscandia. Reindeer pastures have largely deteriorated. We aimed to quantify the separate and combined effects of reindeer grazing and forestry on the amount of ground lichens. To do this, we mapped and inventoried all larger enclosures (49) in Finnish Lapland where forest management practices were similar in both sides of the fence. The average time since fencing was 43 years. We recorded the cover and estimated dry biomass of ground lichens, as well as parameters describing forest stand characteristics. The effect of reindeer grazing on both the cover and estimated dry biomass of lichens was clear: in the ungrazed (fenced) sites, the lichen cover (35.8%) was on average 5.3-fold and the dry biomass (1929 kg ha^–1) 14.8-fold compared with the corresponding estimates in the grazed sites (6.8% and 130 kg ha^–1). The effect of forestry on lichens was smaller. In the grazed stands the cover and biomass of lichens were higher in the mature stands compared to the younger stand development classes, whereas in the ungrazed stands there were no significant differences between the development classes. Both reindeer grazing and forestry affect the cover and biomass of ground lichens. The influence of reindeer grazing is, however, much heavier than that of forestry. The decrease of not only the biomass, but also the lichen cover, is alarming. The decrease of lichen cover may hinder the recovery of reindeer pastures, which in the long run endangers the sustainability of reindeer husbandry.

Akujärvi, Finnish Environment Institute, Helsinki, Finland E-mail: anu.akujarvi@ymparisto.fi
Hallikainen, Finnish Forest Research Institute, Northern Unit, P.O. Box 16, FI-96301 Rovaniemi, Finland E-mail: ville.hallikainen@metla.fi
Hyppönen, Finnish Forest Research Institute, Northern Unit, P.O. Box 16, FI-96301 Rovaniemi, Finland E-mail: mikko.hypponen@metla.fi
Mattila, Finnish Forest Research Institute, Northern Unit, P.O. Box 16, FI-96301 Rovaniemi, Finland E-mail: eero.mattila@metla.fi
Mikkola, Finnish Forest Research Institute, Northern Unit, P.O. Box 16, FI-96301 Rovaniemi, Finland E-mail: kari.mikkola@metla.fi
Rautio, Finnish Forest Research Institute, Northern Unit, P.O. Box 16, FI-96301 Rovaniemi, Finland E-mail: pasi.rautio@metla.fi

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