Regional seed mixtures as an effective tool for protecting the diversity of grassland habitats

About this project

<p><span style="font-size: 11pt"><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif">The project focuses on the restoration of damaged meadows and the establishment of new species-rich lawns using two innovative methods. The support for the use of regional seed mixtures across the Czech Republic will contribute to increase or maintain the diversity of localities of conservation value but also of agricultural and anthropogenic habitats, thus improving the state of the Czech landscape. The development of the Database of donor grassland sites will facilitate the planning of seed harvesting by machines. It will also help the development of the green hay transfer method which has more complex logistics (demanding timing of biomass transfer). Moreover, it will lead to the deeper cooperation between universities in the Czech Republic and abroad (project partners), the non-profit sector, professional companies, farmers and state institutions.</span></span></p>

Bilateral cooperation results

The Norwegian partner, Western Norway University of Applied Sciences (HVL), has been researching degraded areas and their restoration for many years, as have the project partners from the Czech Republic. As part of the project, the HVL team evaluated a long-term experiment - the condition of a meadow established with various methods including regional seed mixture after 20 years. In addition, thanks to HVL's involvement, we had the opportunity to visit Norway as part of an expert seminar they organised. Here we had the opportunity to meet other organisations working on the same topic, visit areas restored in different ways and exchange experiences. At the same time, the Norwegian partner also presented their activities at the expert seminar in the White Carpathians, where it was again possible to establish wider cooperation with other organisations. The main result of the bilateral cooperation was a closer acquaintance with the partner organisation, an exchange of experience and knowledge and a comparison of how the situation in nature conservation and grassland restoration differs between Norway and the Czech Republic and how they are similar. The visit to Norway, the partner and other organisations was an inspiration for the future direction of the meadow restoration programme in the Czech Republic. HVL is a university, so they are more focused on research than practical applications. The project partners of JCU and MUNI, which are also universities, will continue to work with them on joint projects. As far as CSOP is concerned, if there is an opportunity to reconnect our activities in the future, we will be happy to take it. However, at the moment there is no concrete plan on how to continue the cooperation. Nevertheless, during our visit to Norway, the HVL team put us in contact with other organisations whose activities are closer to those of CSOP and with whom we are starting to cooperate.

Project partners

• Western Norway University of Applied Sciences Donor project partner· Norway
• Agrostis Trávníky, s.r.o Project partner· Czechia
• Basic organization ČSOP Vlašim Project partner· Czechia
• Basic organization ČSOP White Carpathians Project partner· Czechia
• Masaryk University in Brno Project partner· Czechia
• University of South Bohemia in České Budějovice Project partner· Czechia
• BROZ Project partner· Slovakia