Adequacy of stocking rates applied on protected pastures of Monti Sibillini (Central Apennines)

The management of permanent pastures aims at achieving a balance between stocking rate and their carrying capacity to prevent undesired vegetation dynamics and to maximize the provision of ecosystem services. Among all methods, pastoral value (PV) is considered a valuable option that provides preliminary evaluation of pastures productive potential exploiting data already available (i.e., phytosociological surveys and maps). The current paper aims to compare the actual stocking rate and the potential carrying capacity calculated by applying the PV method in several Natura 2000 sites (1000-2448 m a.s.l.) of Monti Sibillini (Marche region, Italy). Available vegetation data and maps were used to calculate PV of the pastures located in the grazing areas used by the monitored livestock farms. Geographic Information System (GIS) technologies were used to measure the grasslands surface and the site characteristics of the grazing areas to be used in the integrated measurements. PV of the grasslands varying between 1.7 and 28.2 was assessed and used to calculate carrying capacity ranging from 0.06 to 1.62 LU ha-1 per 120 grazing days. Actual Stocking Rate in the range of the study areas demonstrated to be in general adequate to the carrying capacity allowed by vegetation types and site characteristics of the grazing areas.