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B I O D I V E R S I T Y : D E L I V E R I N G R E S U LT S I N E U R O P E A N D T H E C I S
1.6 Mountains The region’s mountain ranges include the Balkans, the Carpathians, the Rhodope, the Pontic Mountains along Turkey’s Black Sea coast, the Urals, the mountains of the far east of Russia, the Altai-Sayan, the Tien Shan, the Gissar and the Caucasus. This diverse assemblage encompasses both mountains with distinct altitudinal vegetation belts, which have high rates of endemism, as well as more uniform non-forested mountains. In all mountain ecosystems of the region, the foothills have traditionally been used for grazing, for arable farming (wheat, potatoes, tobacco) and for orchards. Temperate mountainous semi-natural grasslands are some of the most valuable ecosystems in the agricultural landscapes of the Balkan and Carpathian countries and in Turkey. Centuries of stable management through grazing and haymaking have led to the evolution of semi-natural grassland ecosystems, rich in species and characteristic of their biogeographical region. Declines in the viability of traditional management practices are now threatening these unique grasslands.
Maçin Mountains National Park in Romania. PHOTO: MICHAEL R APPLETON
The collapse of large scale livestock enterprises in many countries of the former Soviet Union, most notably in Central Asia, has resulted in the dispersal of livestock across numerous smallholdings and family farms, which tend to keep their livestock within a 3 km to 5 km radius around settlements and watering places25. Within this radius particularly, over-stocking and inappropriate choices of livestock species are changing vegetation composition, reducing available herbage, and accelerating land degradation. By the early 2000s, the degradation of most mountain foothills in the region had led to declines in native wild flora and fauna species. The abandonment of the more distant rangelands has resulted in overgrowth by unpalatable weeds, decreased productivity of fodder and reduced areas of irrigated pastures. Climate change is exacerbating these problems, affecting the composition, extent and distribution of mountainous and sub-mountainous pastures. Mountain meadow in the Russian Altai-Sayan. PHOTO: ADRIANA DINU
25 This is particularly relevant for Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Azerbaijan, and the Caucasus 26 Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources of the Republic of Azerbaijan (2010). Second national communication to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change of the Republic of Azerbaijan. Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources, Baku. Accessed on-line: http://unfccc.int/resource/docs/natc/azenc2.pdf