For over 10 years, the Pfyn-Finges Nature Park has ensured extensive grazing of the valuable inner-Alpine rocky steppes around the Feschel Gorge near Leuk in the canton of Valais. From a faunistic and floristic point of view, this area, partly protected dry meadows and pastures TWW, is unique. From 2020, the Pfyn-Finges Nature Park also took on the task of keeping part of the open areas in the Pfynwald special forest reserve open by means of grazing, thereby promoting the 'light forest' objective. When coordinating, monitoring and supporting the grazing projects, the main aim is always to preserve and enhance the unique, valuable natural and cultural landscape. The Pfyn-Finges Nature Park works closely with local managers and partners. The establishment of a best-practice format is intended to record the experience and contacts already gained.

The Pfyn-Finges Nature Park has clear tasks and objectives: It preserves and maintains the valuable cultural and natural landscapes, sensitizes locals and visitors alike to the ecological, cultural, historical and economic characteristics of the region and thus promotes its development in a way that is suitable for grandchildren.

In 2013, the twelve park municipalities between Sierre and Gampel were therefore awarded the title of "Regional Nature Park of National Importance". The Pfyn-Finges Nature Park office is the ideal instrument for the park municipalities to implement long-term projects that are suitable for our grandchildren.

Structure and organization of the grazing projects

The Nature Park office is currently coordinating and supporting two grazing projects: the inner-Alpine rocky steppe around the Feschel Gorge and the special forest reserve areas in the Pfyn Forest in the Illbachkegel sector (Fig. 2).

In order to preserve the diverse areas in the long term and promote biodiversity, various conflicts between the different users of this landscape had to be resolved sustainably in the early years. For example, use was coordinated with farmers, hunters, forestry operations, landowners and dog training, the requirements of the grazing animals were integrated into the grazing concept and the area objectives were monitored.

In both grazing projects, the Pfyn-Finges Nature Park works with various local institutions and individuals as well as different livestock (various breeds of sheep and goats, Galloways, donkeys and ponies; Fig. 3). Each livestock breed has its strengths and weaknesses. In order to optimally achieve the grazing objectives, the grazing areas are therefore redefined each year and allocated to the farmers.

An initial area inspection is carried out before grazing begins. The condition of each individual paddock is documented annually using defined photo locations. While the livestock are in the areas, the status of the grazing is observed, monitored and coordinated in accordance with the area objectives through repeated field inspections. To this end, the nature park staff are in constant contact with the farmers. The challenges are very different in the two areas, although the main objective is the same, namely to keep the landscape open. The areas within the Pfynwald forest - situated on the northern exposure in the shadow of the Illhorn - are experiencing a much greater annual increase in vegetation than the inner Alpine rocky steppes on the southern exposure. Thanks to financial support from the Swiss Ornithological Institute, the nature park has already been able to equip some of the paddocks with fixed native wooden posts as part of its new, long-term project "Boosting bird life". This makes fencing much easier for the farmers.

In order to maintain the respective area targets, experience shows that a constant interplay of adapted grazing (grazing duration, grazing pressure, animal species) and supplementary maintenance of the areas through manual interventions is optimal. Depending on the habitat and duration of the grazing project, these are stronger or weaker. On well-growing sites, regular supplementary scrub clearance measures are essential (Fig. 4). On very slow-growing sites, such as rocky steppes, the intervals between interventions can be significantly longer. The respective work and observations are documented on an ongoing basis.

Monitoring

The Swiss Ornithological Institute has supported the technical project management since the first grazing trials and will survey the breeding birds in the rocky steppe area again in 2023. By comparing this with previous surveys (2013, 2015), it hopes to uncover the positive effects of grazing on priority species such as the woodlark. In the Pfynwald - Bois de Finges forest reserve, monitoring has been carried out since 2008, even before the first interventions to promote biodiversity, in order to document the qualitative and quantitative changes based on the initial state. In 2021, vegetation mapping, grasshopper and butterfly monitoring were carried out again according to the specified methodology. Unfortunately, there have been no survey points/transects on the grazing areas to date, so no statement can be made about their development. An adjustment of the survey locations is therefore to be examined by the relevant department of the Canton of Valais.

Best practice format

The aim of the best-practice format is to summarize the experiences from the two grazing projects Rock Steppe and Light Forest. The knowledge acquired can thus be recorded and passed on. At the same time, it should provide the impetus to supplement the existing know-how with experiences from other grazing projects and thus optimize one's own grazing project.

In this respect, an exchange of experts and an "Open Pasture Day" will also take place. The latter was developed by shepherds from Germany to raise public awareness of their work. The public will be shown what an important contribution grazing animals make to biodiversity. In the highly frequented local recreation area of Pfynwald, this variant also offers a good complement to existing measures to inform and raise awareness among locals and visitors.

Financing

As the project areas are not located in agricultural zones, no grazing subsidies can be obtained from the cantonal department of agriculture. Other donors are needed to maintain and promote the ecologically extremely valuable areas. Currently, the Pfyn-Finges Nature Park's grazing projects are financed by the federal government, the canton of Valais, the Swiss Ornithological Institute and the Canton of Zurich's charitable fund.

This article was published in N+L Inside 3/22.