Monitoring High Nature Value Grassland in Transylvania, Romania Laura SUTCLIFFE 1 and Krystyna LARKHAM 2 1 Dept Vegetation Analysis, Univ. Göttingen, Untere Karspüle 2, 37073 Göttingen, Germany sutcliffe.laura@gmail.com 2 Imperial College London, South Kensington, London SW7 2AZ, UK KEYWORDS: HNV farming, Romania, grassland biodiversity, agri-environment schemes, plant indicator species, monitoring. ABSTRACT Semi-natural grassland has in the last 50 years become increasingly rare in much of Europe, however, low levels of intensification and small-scale farming have led to the preservation of substantial areas of this valuable habitat in Romania. Nevertheless, here too land management practices have in recent years begun to change, and there is increasing threat to Romanian grassland biodiversity from abandonment and intensification. One means of countering this threat is to offer financial support for ‘biodiversity-friendly’ farming through agri-environment scheme payments, such as the scheme initiated in Romania for High Nature Value grassland in 2007. One important aspect of agri-environment schemes is the monitoring of its efficacy in maintaining or improving the ecological quality of the farmland. Therefore, this investigation uses multivariate analysis of vegetation survey data to identify a list of plant indicator species that can be used to monitor the quality of lowland grassland under agri- environment scheme, based on the study region of Southern Transylvania. I NTRODUCTI ON Low-intensity agricultural habitats are one of the most valuable sources of biodiversity in Europe (Bignal & McCracken, 1996). This is particularly apparent in semi-natural grasslands, i.e. naturally occurring (not planted) vegetation that is regularly grazed or cut, resulting in a state that mimics natural habitats (Beaufoy, 2008), which can contain some of the highest plant densities in Europe, if not the world. Nevertheless, semi-natural grassland is under threat due to its low economic viability in modern agriculture. A dramatic decline in the surface area of semi-natural grassland has been seen in the last century, particularly in northern and western European countries such as the UK, where some 97% of semi-natural grassland has been lost since 1930 (Fuller, 1987). The major drivers of this loss have been intensification to increase yields of more fertile areas, and associated abandonment of more marginal land. In recognition of both the importance of areas of high agricultural biodiversity and the threat they face, the concept of High Nature Value (HNV) farmland was created to describe “those areas in Europe where agriculture is a major (usually the dominant) land use and where that agriculture supports or is associated with either a high species and habitat diversity, or the presence of species of European conservation concern, or both.” (Andersen et al., 2003). Eligible farmland is identified on the basis of 1) a high proportion of semi-natural vegetation; 2) the dominance of low-intensity agriculture or a mosaic of semi-natural and cultivated land and small-scale features; 3) the presence rare species or a high proportion of European or world populations. The conservation of HNV farmland is now an EU objective and measures such as agri- environment schemes (AES) to provide support for these areas have been built into the 2007- 2013 rural development plans of the Member States (EEA, 2004). As part of its accession to the EU in 2007, Romania now provides agri-environment payments for areas identified as HNV (34% of the utilisable agricultural area: Paracchini et al., 2008: see Figure 1).