Naturalistic grazing by large herbivores is an increasingly practiced way of  managing habitats with conservational value. It has the potential to restore and enhance biodiversity by creating large-scale self-sustainable environments vital for organisms requiring regular disturbances moderating and/or reversing successional changes. After the cessation of agricultural and/or military use, vast abandoned areas of Europe are subject to successional changes, including the dominance of dense species poor tallgrass, litter accumulation and bush encroachment. These successional changes result in (yet) reversible decrease of biodiversity. To facilitate biodiversity conservation by restoration of the abandoned open and semi-open habitats, European bison, (semi)wild horses (mostly Exmoor ponies), and semi-wild cattle (e.g. Tauros) are being introduced to former farmlands and military training areas throughout Europe. Although the naturalistic grazing by large herbivores obviously promotes biodiversity in economically sound way, scientific research on outputs of this increasingly widespread practice remains surprisingly scarce. The symposium provides summary of existing scientific evidence on methodological aspects and biological outputs of naturalistic grazing schemes in Central Europe. For the very first time, both botanical and zoological lines of scientific evidence, together with practical experience, confront critically the naturalistic grazing landscape management with challenges of our over-bureaucratic world facing unprecedented global changes. While biological, technical, and animal welfare requirements are clearly met by naturalistic grazing practice, the legislative frame of existing grazing reserves remains unsecure at best. Are we on our way to promote or doom this promising way of nature conservation and land use?

Presentations

Patterns of taxonomic, functional, and phylogenetic diversity in forest-grassland mosaics
- Khanh V. Ho (University of Szeged, Hungary)

Eurasian crane (Grus grus) as ecosystem engineer in grasslands ‒ conservation values, ecosystem services and disservices related to a large iconic bird
- Orsolya Valkó (Centre for Ecological Research, Hungary)

Introduction of large herbivores restored plant species richness in abandoned dry temperate grassland
- Ondřej Mudrák (Institute of Botany CAS, Czech Republic)

Effects of livestock grazing in temperate forests – historical knowledge enhancing present scientific understanding
- Kinga Öllerer (Centre for Ecological Research, Hungary)

The use of grazing for biodiversity and ecosystem management in marginal farmland areas
- Inês Ribeiro (Instituto Superior Técnico, Portugal)

Megaherbivores rewilding and functional diversity of affected communities: Plants and insects across refaunated sites in Czechia
- Martin Konvička (Czech Academy of Sciences, Czech Republic)

N = 2 (x5). An attempt to compare effects of feral horse refaunation on five checkerspot butterfly species inhabiting dry grasslands of Podyjí National Park
- Martin Konvička (Czech Academy of Sciences, Czech Republic)

Plant biodiversity is highly resistant to shrub encroachment in loess steppe fragments
- Péter Török (MTA-DE Lendület Functional and Restoration Ecology Research Group, Hungary)

Responses of large carnivores and their prey to landscape heterogeneity in Polesia(Ukraine): before the war started
- Svitlana Kudrenko (Frankfurt Zoological Society, Germany)

Former military training area Milovice (Czechia): changes of landscape and vegetation mosaic in the regional biodiversity hotspot 
- Daria Jirků (University of South Bohemia, Czech Republic)

Effects of ivermectin use on dung beetle communities: Lasting decrease in functionality and richness
- Miloslav Jirků (Czech Academy of Sciences, Czech Republic)

Effects of ivermectin use on dung beetle communities: Lasting decrease in functionality and richness
- Dalibor Dostál (Česká Krajina, Czech Republic)

Ecological insights gained in over 15 years of European bison grazing in the coastal dunes of Kraansvlak, the Netherlands
- Esther Rodriguez (PWN, The Netherlands)