Services écosystémiques rendus par les prairies dans une commune de moyenne montagne d'Auvergne : évaluation et déterminants

Evaluating ecosystem services provided by pastures in the Auvergne highlands

The mountainous regions of Auvergne tend to be thought of as protected areas. However, they are also zones of agricultural production. We explored the trade-off between agricultural production and environmental quality in a municipality, Condat-lès-Montboissier, located in the Livradois-Forez Regional Natural Park. We did so by evaluating the ecosystem services provided by pastures, which were described using a classification system. In this system, pastures were assigned to one of four categories depending on the nature of the trade-off they exhibited between agricultural services and ecosystem regulating services. These categories were often associated with certain environmental contraints and land management practices. However, pastures that render both agricultural and regulating services are found in all types of systems; such pastures fall in the "approaching effective ecological intensification" category. Describing farms based on this trade-off also revealed that a farm's ability to use both types of services was tied to the proportion of permanent pastures making up its main fodder area.