Alpine pasture farming plays a central role in the preservation of the traditional Austrian cultural landscape and, when used sustainably, provides important ecosystem services such as nature conservation, tourism and disaster protection. Despite these functions, alpine pastures are often neglected in discussions on agriculture, land use and land abandonment. While the abandonment of arable land is increasingly considered, the topic of alpine pastures often remains underrepresented, even though alpine areas have a particularly high risk of land abandonment. Between 2000 and 2023, the number of managed alpine pastures in Austria fell by 12% (Green Report, 2024), which highlights the challenges: climate change, the decline in traditional agricultural practices, low economic profitability, demographic changes and complex ownership structures are making the use and preservation of alpine pastures increasingly difficult. Initial findings from interviews with 10 alpine farmers, which were conducted in summer 2024 as part of the COST Action MAR-GISTAR, underpin the need for research and action on land management in alpine farming.
Objective
The research project builds on the existing statistical data on the decline of alpine pastures. In order to place changes in land use and land cover on managed and abandoned alpine pastures in a broad socio-economic and ecological context, a combination of qualitative and quantitative approaches (mixed methods) will be used to create a sound basis and develop regionally adapted recommendations for policy and practice.
In work package 1 (WP1), the focus is on the spatial and temporal development of land use and land cover of alpine pastures, based on earth observation and agricultural statistics data. The INVEKOS data serve as a basis for statistically analysing the development of alpine pastures, with a particular focus on identifying abandoned alpine pastures. With the help of remote sensing data and established processing methods, the land use and land cover development before and after the abandonment of alpine pastures is analysed in order to identify patterns that indicate a trend towards the abandonment of these areas. One advantage of remote sensing is the objective and area-wide evaluation, which should lead to representative results for Austria. For this purpose, a workflow is being developed on the BAB Big Data Processing infrastructure. Remote sensing analyses of alpine pasture areas are already being developed or carried out by the AMA, but these focus on determining the areas of alpine pasture that are actually eligible for funding.
Work package 2 (WP2) uses qualitative research methods to analyse the socio-economic factors that influence the changes on alpine pastures. The focus is on the causes, motivations and reactions of alpine farmers in connection with the management or abandonment of alpine pastures in Austria. The interest lies in particular in the regionally different conditions, approaches and development options, which are reflected in complex ownership structures, availability of skilled labour, cooperation with the tourism industry or the importance of protected areas.
Work package 3 (WP3) summarises the results from WP1 and WP2 in order to gain a comprehensive picture of the current and future challenges in alpine pasture management. The aim is to develop regionally harmonised recommendations for policy and practice that sustainably strengthen the alpine pasture economy and prepare it for socio-economic changes. The project results will be summarised and published in a project report.
Planned process and implementation
WP1 | Analysis of land use and land cover development | WP-Lead: Lena Mitterhuber
- Spatial and statistical analysis of INVEKOS data on alpine pastures
- Research and selection of suitable remote sensing methods
- Procurement and pre-processing of relevant remote sensing data
- Development of a process to implement the selected methods across Austria
- Testing and validation of the developed process
- Identification of patterns of land cover development on alpine pastures
- Preparation and provision of the results for the subsequent work packages
WP 2 | Socio-economic analysis | WP-Lead: Katrin Hofer
- Literature research on the importance, developments and challenges of mountain pasture management
- Conducting 20-30 expert interviews with regional and national stakeholders in alpine pasture management, preferably but not exclusively in federal states with a high proportion of alpine pastures
- Evaluation using qualitative data analysis (MAXQDA)
- Conducting a web-based survey with farmers throughout Austria, classified by farm type and alpine pasture utilisation, based on the results of the literature research and the interviews
- Statistical analysis of social, economic and ecological factors with a region-specific focus
- Evaluation and interpretation of the results, identification of typical regional developments
WP 3 | Synthesis | WP-Lead: Daria Ernst
- Synthesising the two work packages: Linking the region-specific and socio-cultural analysis with development patterns of alpine pasture land cover
- Formulation of development scenarios that take into account the specific social, economic and ecological characteristics
- Preparation of a final report and publication
Duration
Project start: 01/2025
Project end: 06/2027