Methodological studies in the field of Agro-Environmental Indicators

1. Methodological studies in the field of Agro-Environmental Indicators Lot 2. Grassland areas, production and use Gerard Velthof

2. Grasslands Grasslands types, areas, productivity, and nutrient balances needed for targeting, monitoring and evaluation of • Common Agricultural Policy • Environmental policies • Climate mitigation targets • High Nature Value farmland • Habitats Directive • Nitrates Directive

3. General objective of the project To bring clarity into the issue of defining, classifying, collecting and disseminating data on European grassland areas, use and production. October 2012 – December 2013

4. Specific objectives • Create an overview of the different types of grasslands existing in Europe • Create possible ways of classifying the grasslands in coherent manners, allowing different types of analyses to be made • Create a set of recommendations on how to collect data on grasslands, in ways allowing the creation of coherent European datasets.

5. Six tasks • Task 1 Defining and classifying grasslands • Task 2 Currently used methodologies to estimate grassland production and biological fixation • Task 3 Grassland definition and classification • Task 4 Existing grassland survey • Task 5 Methods for data collection • Task 6 Expert/ statistician workshop

6. Task 1 Defining and classifying grasslands To make a literature review of existing definitions and classifications of grasslands that are used in diverse domains, both statistical, administrative, scientific and other.

7. Task 2 Currently used methodologies to estimate grassland production and biological fixation To make a literature review on existing methodologies to estimate grassland production and to estimate biological fixation in grasslands

8. Task 3 Grassland definition and classification To make recommendations for • potential definitions of grasslands and • classification schemes on grassland • analysis of the strengths and weaknesses, • the ease the classifications can be set up, • the link to FAO and other international organisations, • the impact on data use

9. Task 4 Existing grassland survey • To collect and analyse data about grassland production in the EU Member States, Norway and Switzerland (questionnaire). • Analysis and synthesis of the results: • weaknesses and strengths of existing surveys • recommendations for collection of consistent data about grasslands

10. Task 5 Methods for data collection • To analyse the characteristics of grasslands which need to be collected • To identify different methods of collecting these characteristics in different surveying methods • To propose several data collection scenarios on how to bring together the various possible strategies on data collection into holistic approaches.

11. Task 6 Expert/ statistician workshop • To organise a workshop for grassland experts • Aim: to discuss the results with from the agri-environmental, grassland community and statistics communities

12. Involvement of AEI working group • Discussion session, based on the short questionnaire • A detailed questionnaire will be sent in March/April • Suggestions for topics and questions? • Please, provide names of experts or contact persons

13. Contact Gerard Velthof Alterra, Wageningen UR P.O. Box 47, 6700 AA Wageningen tel +31317 486503 gerard.velthof@wur.nl

14. This afternoonfurther discussion