Abstract Wetland grazing by livestock, once widespread throughout Europe, is increasingly used in conservation management. To avoid conflicts and enable cooperation between wetland users and conservationists, habitat quality indicators relevant to both stakeholder groups would be useful. We aimed to identify which indicators of grazed wetland habitat quality are important to the two groups, and which are the preferred trends for these indicators along a grazing intensity gradient. We conducted free listing interviews with 15 conservationists and 15 herders to identify the key indicators of well managed, extensively grazed wetland habitats. To check the practical ecological relevance of these indicators, vegetation surveys were performed along a gradient from ungrazed to heavily grazed stands (45 sites) in three countries: Hungary, Romania and Serbia. Positive trends for herders included increases in useful forage grasses and decreases in tall-growing marsh species; for conservationists, increases in wetland birds, protected and threatened plant species, habitat heterogeneity, and patches of open vegetation were all positive. Grazed marshes had lower vegetation cover and height, less litter cover and fewer shrubs. The proportion of open surfaces and the frequency of rare mud species and protected species increased along the grazing intensity gradient. As grazing intensified, 73% of the 15 vegetation attributes assigned to the indicators changed in a ‘positive’ direction, half of them significantly, showing the benefits of extensive but patchy heavy grazing. Despite differences in perceived benefits, there were no opposing preferred trends for any of the studied indicators, so patchy, occasionally and locally intense or heavy wetland grazing by livestock in these landscapes was beneficial for herding and conservation alike. In the situation of mosaic-like, carefully herded extensive grazing, there was no trade-off between conservation management and utilisation.

中文翻译：

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传统粗放湿地放牧的保护和放牧共同受益

摘要 曾经在整个欧洲普遍存在的牲畜放牧湿地越来越多地用于保护管理。为了避免冲突并促进湿地使用者和保护主义者之间的合作，与两个利益相关者群体相关的栖息地质量指标将是有用的。我们旨在确定哪些放牧湿地栖息地质量指标对这两个群体很重要，哪些是这些指标沿放牧强度梯度的首选趋势。我们对 15 名保护主义者和 15 名牧民进行了免费列表访谈，以确定管理良好、广泛放牧的湿地栖息地的关键指标。为了检查这些指标的实际生态相关性，在三个国家沿着从未放牧到严重放牧的林分（45 个地点）的梯度进行了植被调查：匈牙利、罗马尼亚和塞尔维亚。牧民的积极趋势包括有用草料的增加和高大沼泽物种的减少；对于保护主义者来说，湿地鸟类、受保护和受威胁的植物物种、栖息地异质性以及开放植被斑块的增加都是积极的。放牧的沼泽地植被覆盖率和高度较低，凋落物覆盖率较低，灌木较少。开放面的比例和稀有泥种和保护种的频率随着放牧强度梯度增加。随着放牧的加剧，分配给指标的 15 种植被属性中有 73% 向“正”方向变化，其中一半显着，显示了广泛但不完整的重度放牧的好处。尽管感知收益存在差异，但任何研究指标都没有相反的偏好趋势，在这些景观中，牲畜放牧的斑驳、偶尔和局部密集或重度湿地有利于放牧和保护。在马赛克状的、精心放牧的大面积放牧的情况下，保护管理和利用之间没有权衡。