Monitoring of Natura 2000 grassland habitats in SAC Šumava

The Bohemian Forest grasslands have emerged gradually over centuries, with political turbulence in the second half of the 20th century strongly affecting the region, including its meadows. Today, there are cultural and partly degraded meadows as well as fragments of highly valuable semi-natural mountain meadows, important biodiversity localities in the mostly wooded Bohemian Forest landscape. Their conservation value began to be taken into account in 1991, when the Šumava NP was established, and re-emphasized in 2004, when certain grasslands were recognized as Natura 2000 habitats. Maintaining favorable conditions of meadow habitats is a hard task even in strictly protected areas and the most common difficulties are listed in this paper. More attention has been paid to the management of grasslands in the region during the last decade. The Šumava NP Authority provides the necessary management of the most valued localities and has organized simple monitoring in some managed sites. This paper presents the results of the first five years of monitoring of 16 sites. Results are discussed, along with field experiences, and more effective management strategies are proposed. Appropriate and carefully executed management is recognized as a necessary tool for ensuring proper care of conservationally valuable habitats, including grasslands of European importance protected under the Natura 2000 network. Monitoring is an essential tool to observe management quality. Results of this preliminary study deliver a substantial set of experiences that can be used to improve the management and monitoring of Natura 2000 habitats, as well as other species rich meadows occurring in the Šumava NP.