Relationships between livestock production systems and landscape changes in the Belluno province, Eastern Italian Alps

Natural forest expansion following abandonment of farming is believed to have originated major changes in the landscape of Italian Alps. This study was conducted in the Belluno province (3676 km2, 1323 m a.s.l. mean elevation, SD=610 m), to determine the magnitude of landscape (forest to open areas) changes from 1980 to 2000 and to investigate on the relationships between characteristics of livestock production systems, socio-economic indicators (data from official censuses; 69 municipalities, 1444 ruminant farms) and landscape changes. Forest boundaries from regional maps (published in 1983; 1:10000 scale) were recorded by digitizing polygon features across the project area, and compared with a land-use theme created from aerial photographs (2001). Change of land use over time was obtained, for each municipality, by overlaying the 1983 and 2001 themes. From 1980 to 2000, forest areas increased by 22% and the forest/open area ratio increased from 2.5 to 6.3. The municipalities were grouped in clusters on the base of descriptors of landscape, socio-economic indicators and livestock production systems. A variance analysis showed that landscape changes differed between clusters and were less pronounced where traditional ruminant production systems had been less abandoned; socio-economic indicators were less related to landscape changes.