Colorful meadows and pastures were not always a given. Their emergence was linked to the development of agriculture in the Neolithic period. People needed to create areas without forests for raising livestock and growing crops.
The great boom in meadow farming occurred during the Wallachian and Kopaničiar colonization in the Middle Ages and peaked in the 18th and 19th centuries, when the demand for feed for stabled farm animals increased. Regular mowing and grazing kept the flower-filled meadows full of life.
Nowadays, however, interest in traditional land management is declining. Society has changed, and colorful meadows and pastures are facing abandonment, overgrowth with invasive trees, and loss of species diversity. But that’s not the only problem facing these rare habitats—intensive farming, monoculture, large-scale mowing at one time, mulching, and sowing non-native seed mixtures (in this project, we’re working on producing our own original regional seed mixture!).
Centuries of slow land formation by farmers have been replaced by a period of rapid change, where maximum yield and economic profit have become the main measures of success.
One of the projects that aims to reverse this unfavorable development is LIFE DIVERSEED. It focuses on areas with so-called priority grassland habitats. The goal is to restore selected sites covering an area of at least 920 ha, restore wetlands and other small-scale habitats, plant several thousand of the 10 most endangered plant species, ensure long-term management of the areas with local farmers, and create unique regional seed mixtures that will be the first of their kind in Slovakia and Romania.
Regional meadow seed mixtures will be officially registered and designated for the restoration of grassland habitats in the Western Carpathians up to an altitude of 1,000 m. This will be a practical tool for restoring species diversity to the landscape – the mixtures will also be available to landowners, local authorities, and farmers who want to restore flowering meadows. All under the patronage of experts and scientists from renowned organizations.