Methodological studies in the field of Agro-Environmental Indicators Lot 2. Grassland areas, production and use Gerard Velthof

Grasslands Grasslands types, areas, productivity, and nutrient balances needed for targeting, monitoring and evaluation of Common Agricultural Policy Environmental policies Climate mitigation targets High Nature Value farmland Habitats Directive Nitrates Directive

General objective of the project To bring clarity into the issue of defining, classifying, collecting and disseminating data on European grassland areas, use and production. October 2012 – December 2013

Specific objectives Create an overview of the different types of grasslands existing in Europe Create possible ways of classifying the grasslands in coherent manners, allowing different types of analyses to be made Create a set of recommendations on how to collect data on grasslands, in ways allowing the creation of coherent European datasets.

Six tasks Task 1 Defining and classifying grasslands Task 2 Currently used methodologies to estimate grassland production and biological fixation Task 3 Grassland definition and classification Task 4 Existing grassland survey Task 5 Methods for data collection Task 6 Expert/ statistician workshop

Task 1 Defining and classifying grasslands To make a literature review of existing definitions and classifications of grasslands that are used in diverse domains, both statistical, administrative, scientific and other.

Task 2 Currently used methodologies to estimate grassland production and biological fixation To make a literature review on existing methodologies to estimate grassland production and to estimate biological fixation in grasslands

Task 3 Grassland definition and classification To make recommendations for potential definitions of grasslands and classification schemes on grassland analysis of the strengths and weaknesses, the ease the classifications can be set up, the link to FAO and other international organisations, the impact on data use

Task 4 Existing grassland survey To collect and analyse data about grassland production in the EU Member States, Norway and Switzerland (questionnaire). Analysis and synthesis of the results: weaknesses and strengths of existing surveys recommendations for collection of consistent data about grasslands

Task 5 Methods for data collection To analyse the characteristics of grasslands which need to be collected To identify different methods of collecting these characteristics in different surveying methods To propose several data collection scenarios on how to bring together the various possible strategies on data collection into holistic approaches.

Task 6 Expert/ statistician workshop To organise a workshop for grassland experts Aim: to discuss the results with from the agri- environmental, grassland community and statistics communities

Involvement of AEI working group Discussion session, based on the short questionnaire A detailed questionnaire will be sent in March/April Suggestions for topics and questions? Please, provide names of experts or contact persons

Contact Gerard Velthof Alterra, Wageningen UR P.O. Box 47, 6700 AA Wageningen tel +31317 486503 gerard.velthof@wur.nl

This afternoon further discussion