ABSTRACT
For centuries, agriculture has played an important role in sustaining Europe's rural environment and its biodiversity through the management of landscapes and habitats (Beaufoy et al, 1994; McCracken et al, 1995). The often harsh environmental conditions and the long history of farming in the uplands have resulted in an anthropogenically maintained dynamic equilibrium between various vegetation types, creating landscapes that are both ‘open’ and structurally diverse (Huber et al, 2005). As a result of significant recent agricultural adjustment, however, processes of agricultural contraction, decline or even abandonment are now widespread in the mountains of Europe (Baldock et al, 1997; MacDonald et al, 2000), with potentially major impacts on landscapes and mountain biodiversity. Deleterious impacts include landscape closure and increasing forest dominance (Debussche et al, 1996; Gordon et al, 1981; Naveh and Lieberman, 1984; Nelson, 1990), and the loss of locally adapted open-habitat species (Suarez-Seoane et al, 2002).
