The Contribution of Environmental and Cultural Aspects of Pastoralism in the Provision of Ecosystem Services: The Case of the Silesian Beskid Mts (Southern Poland)

Abstract

Grazing has proven to be a successful management tool in terms of the maintenance and restoration of biodiversity. Sheep and pastoralism can provide a various set of ecosystem services, i.e., benefits for humans from the environment. The Silesian Beskids, the westernmost part of the Carpathian Mountains, is an area with a long tradition of pastoralism. Since the 13th century, sheep have grazed clearings located in forests and in large areas of grasslands in mountains. In this study, we tried to identify all possible aspects of provisional, regulating and cultural services provided by sheep and the pasturage tradition bearing in mind the specificity of this region. The biodiversity maintenance and habitat creation due to grazing and the cultural values of pastoralism was illustrated using a literature review of data concerning cultural heritage, tourism and education and using our own phytosociological field studies performed in nine vegetation types within grazing sites. In order to examine the impact of grazing, an observation of sheep’s daily grazing activity during the vegetation season using tractive GPS locators was conducted. The results showed that grazing has a positive impact on the maintenance of vegetation including EU-protected habitats. In addition, the pastoral activity introduced to the Beskids by the Vlachs contributed to the development of a specific highlander culture that continues to this day. Not all potential ecosystem services associated with the use of sheep are realized in the study area. Amongst the provisional services, sheep bones are not used while dairy is the most popular followed by meat. In turn, the cultural heritage of pastoralism is one of the most important drivers for the touristic attraction of Silesian Beskid.

1. Introduction

Rangeland, i.e., managed grazing, occupies more than 25% of the global land surface, making it the single most extensive form of land use on Earth and the most common type of anthrome, i.e., anthropogenic biome [1,2,3]. Pasture lands provide humans with a wide set of ecosystem services including provisioning, supporting and cultural services. Among various rangelands, sheep are used in 35% of them. The other types of animals are goats (23%), cattle and water buffalo (16%) [4]. In general, ecosystem services associated with rangelands are provision of food, fibre and genetic resources, regulation of water and air quality and supporting for primary production, water and nutrient cycling and cultural services: recreation and religious sites [5,6]. The specificity of ecosystem services can change regionally and dependently on the type of grazing animals [7,8,9]. In arid and semi-arid habitats, rangeland degradation can contribute to desertification, whereas in temperate climate regions cessation of traditional land use including maintenance of grasslands, pastures can be the cause of habitat loss. Grazing has proven to be a successful management tool in terms of the maintenance and restoration of biodiversity [10,11].

In the countries where forests are a climax type of vegetation, there are no conditions for the development of natural grassland habitats. The abandonment of traditional agriculture can lead to the creation of fallows and waste land. For instance, due to harsh climatic conditions, a short vegetation period, steep slopes prone to water erosion and a lack of fertile agricultural land, the only option except for afforestation is pastoralism [12].

An example of a region with harsh conditions for agriculture is the Beskid Mts. It is a region located in southern Poland that was uninhabited for a long time. The first inhabitants from the lowlands appeared in the region only in the 13th century. The newcomers settled in the Beskid valleys and cultivated easy-to-grow crops such as rye, barley, flax and peas [12]. The first grazing animals were cattle but after the arrival of Wallachian settlers, sheep and goat grazing became a tradition of this region [13,14].

The Wallachian people not only transformed the agricultural land use but also enriched the cultural heritage of the Beskid Mts. In this study, we chose the Silesian Beskid Mts which are a part of the Beskid Mts where traditional pastoralism mainly uses sheep.

The general purpose of this research is to identify potential ecosystem services related to pastoralism (pastoralism), with particular emphasis on the specificity of pastoralism, which is the Wallachian heritage. In particular, we wanted to focus on provisioning and regulating services provided by sheep and the cultural services of pastoralism. In detail, we wanted to estimate the condition and maintenance of biodiversity especially in fresh meadows (NATURA 2000 habitats code 6510, 6520) and Nardus grasslands (code 6230) due to sheep grazing. We wanted to indicate which sheep, in terms of age, breed and size, revealed higher grazing activity.

We also wanted to gather data of all potential cultural services that are representative for the region and are connected with the heritage of pastoralism.

2. Materials and Methods

2.1. Study Area

The Silesian Beskid is a separate mesoregion, which belongs to the province of Western Carpathians [15,16]. This land occupies an area of about 700 km² and creates a compact mountain group. The climate has features that are characteristic of the climate of medium-sized mountains [17,18]. This region is divided into three climatic levels: moderately warm (>6 °C), moderately cool and cool (<4 °C), and three precipitation levels: moist, highly moist and extremely moist. The average temperate for the entire region is between 6 and 8 °C and is mainly caused by altitude, exposure and the inclination of slopes. The mean long-term precipitation sum in the lower subalpine level of Silesian Beskid is 1300 mm, and it is one of the highest in Poland [16,19]. The shapes of mountains result mainly from the geological structure, which is dominated by the Carpathian flysch, i.e., alternately arranged layers of sandstone, conglomerates and slate [12]. The region is typified by a large rate of forestation. The natural vegetation consists of fir-beech and fir-spruce forests. Fragments of natural forest are found only on hard-to-reach slopes and in the highest parts of the mountains, with the exception of areas surrounding mountain pastures [20].

2.2. Field Studies

The analysis of the location of sheep grazing sites—the top of the Ochodzita Mt, “Koczy zamek” in Koniaków village and “Lotnisko” in Kamesznica village—was carried out in the vegetation period of 2021 (Figure 1). The observation of sheep’s daily grazing activity during the vegetation season was conducted using tractive GPS locators on collars applied on 40 sheep individuals of different breeds. These were Polish mountain sheep with white long wool (10 individuals), Polish mountain sheep with white short wool (6), black Polish mountain sheep (9), Romanian sheep (8) and mixed hybrid (7) [21]. The age and mass of sheep individuals were both recorded. The observation of grazing activity was carried out in the summer in pastures placed between Ochodzita Mt and Kamesznica village (Figure 2).

The field phytosociological studies were performed using the commonly applied Braun-Blanquet approach [22]. In total, 48 phytosociological relevés were taken in the plot sizes of 5 m × 5 m. The sites comprised all available types of vegetation. These were the following phytocoenoses: Nardus grasslands (NATURA 2000 code 6230), Hieracio vulgati-Nardetum, Carlino-Dianthetum deltoidis; the phytocoenoses from the Molinio-Arrhenatheretea class, i.e., grassland species-rich fresh meadows: (code 6510, 6520) Arrenatheretum elatioris, Gladiolo-Agrostietum capillaris, Filipendulo ulmariae-Menthetum longifoliae, Scirpetum sylvatici and Anthoxantho-Agrostietum and rowan-sycamore scrub community Sorbo aucuparie-Aceretum pseudoplatani (code 9180). In each plot, species richness (S), Shannon–Wiener index (H) and Shannon–Wiener evenness (E) were calculated.

2.3. Cultural Studies

On the basis of literature data and our own obtained data during research in the Silesian Beskids in 2018–2020 [23,24] and in 2021, cultural services were described. The ethnographic research (qualitative research) included unstructured interviews with Beskids’ shepherds, members of shepherd families and sheep owners, as well as tourists and participants of cultural and educational events devoted to pastoralism. The research also included observational studies during visits to museum exhibitions and workshops concerning wool processing and sheep’s milk cheese production.

The important part of the research was the analysis of texts being a part of the contemporary public discourse related to the construction of cultural memory (press articles, internet reports and comments from internet users, statements of local authorities and social actors). International and local government programmes supporting the revitalization of the pastoral economy in the Silesian Beskids were also analysed (The Carpathian Convention—convention on the protection and sustainable development of the Carpathians; The Sheep Plus Programme—the Voivodship programme for economic activation and protection of cultural heritage of the Beskids and Kraków-Częstochowa Upland until 2020). Cultural services were divided into spiritual values, inspirational values, ethnographic values, touristic and recreational values and educational values.

2.4. Data Analysis

A Spearman rank correlation test was done to study the influence of age and mass on sheep’s mean daily activity. The linear mixed effect model LMM (ANOVA) was conducted to test the significance of differences among breeds in their daily activity in grazing sites where individual sheep weere treated as random effect. In order to examine species diversity and species composition in grazing sites, non-metrical multidimensional scaling (NMDS) was performed with the Bray–Curtis distance. Prior to the analysis, species data were log-transformed. The stress value was rather low, i.e., 0.17. To estimate the impact of the grazing regime and to check whether species diversity indices explain variation in species composition, vector fitting was run with 999 permutations onto ordination by means of R package “vegan”. All statistical analyses were done in R language and environment [25].

3. Results and Discussion

3.1. Provisional Services

The potential sources provided by sheep and which can be exploited by men are: meat (sausage), milk products (regional cheese: oscypek, bundz, bryndza), wool (clothes, blankets, carpets, fertilizers) and bones (

Table 1. The provisional, regulating and supporting services of pastoralism in the Silesian Beskid Mts. (Southern Poland).

Type of Ecosystem Services	Detailed Description
Provisional services	- Meat (sausage) - Dairy (regional cheese: oscypek, bundz, bryndza) - Wool (clothes, blankets, carpets, fertilizers) - Bones
Regulating services	- Grazing and nutrient cycling; - Soil carbon restoration; - Mitigating climate change
Supporting services	- Habitat provision (maintenance of grasslands, preventing from forest succession) - Supporting biodiversity (grazing enhance development of grassland species)

).

An example of well-managed activity based on pastoralism is the Centre of Regional Product in the village of Koniakow. There, all the aforementioned products are provided. The centre grazes a big flock, by Polish standards, which counts ca. 1200 sheep (data for 2020). The sheep milk is used to produce traditional cheeses which are manufactured in a traditional way in the village. During one season, from April until September, 50,000 L of milk is obtained. The vast majority is used for the production of regional cheeses, and the remaining part for sour cream or sour milk. Meat is usually used in the form of sausages. The sheep meat, both lamb and mutton, is light pink and has a soft, elastic and pliable texture. It is delicate and succulent, and its aroma is similar to venison. This meat is considered less fatty and healthier when sheep graze on natural pastures that are unfertilized and rich in herbs [12]. Wool has been used or can be used for clothes, in civil engineering as an addition to geotextiles, in agriculture and horticulture as fertilizers, as insulation and in packaging as an alternative to plastic [21]. Bones in turn can be applicable in agriculture and tests in medicine [26,27,28].

3.2. Regulating and Supporting Services

The initial analyses demonstrated that sheep spend most of their time in grasslands Arrenatheretum elatioris (AA) and rarely graze in water-logged fens Scirpetum sylvatici (SS). The initial analysis showed that the mean distance covered by sheep within a grazing site and the season, subjected to analysis, amounted to 4.32 ± 1.18 km per day. Taking into account “a sheep effect”, i.e., the distance in km covered by a single individual, it ranged from 0.2 to 16.3 km per day. The lowest mean distance in the season was 3.17 km and the highest mean distance amounted to 7.24 km, while the mean distance among sheep was 4.34 ± 1.18 km. There are no significant differences among breed types (Wald statistics = 1.592, df = 4. p-value = 0.8102). The initial analyses demonstrated that sheep spend most of their time in grasslands Arrenatheretum elatioris and rarely graze water-logged fens. The sites of Nardus grasslands are also more rarely grazed which could be a result of the fragmentary location of the patches of this vegetation type.

The breed, year and mass of sheep had no influence on the mean distance covered by sheep per day (Figure 3). There is no significant relationship between the age of sheep and the mean distance covered for grazing (Spearman rank correlation test, rho = 0.01, p-value = 0.9531 (NS)); likewise, there is no significant relationship between the mass of sheep and distance covered (rho = 0.24, p-value = 0.153 (NS)).

The vegetation wherein grazing sites are located is rather diverse according to non-metrical multidimensional scaling and according to the vector fitting method (Figure 4). Both vegetation type and grazing intensity explained the significant differences in the species composition of vegetation (Figure 4). Based on vegetation studies, the total vascular flora was estimated at 176 species. The phytocoenosis that occupies the highest area in grazing sites is fresh meadow Arrenatheretum elatioris. It was revealed that the most common species are: Agrostis capillaris, Achillea millefolium, Dactylis glomerata, Hypericum maculatum, Rumex acetosa, Anthoxanthum odoratum and Veronica chamaedrys. Some species are legally protected in Poland: orchid Listera ovata and Carlina acaulis.

The biodiversity indices (S, H, E) did not significantly explain species composition based on the vector fitting method.

The highest species-rich grasslands were Gladiolo-Agrostietum capillaris community followed by Arrenatheretum elatioris, where the mean number of plant species per plot (S) was (24.75 ± 4.12 species) and (20 ± 5), while woodland community Sorbo aucuparie-Aceretum pseudoplatani was also relatively high in species (mean 20 ± 1.4 species per plot).

The lowest mean number of species was in grassland community Anthoxantho-Agrostietum (11.5 ± 1.29). Taking into account other biodiversity indices, the more species-diverse in terms of the Shannon–Wiener index (H) was also Gladiolo-Agrostietum capillaris (2.29 ± 0.17) and Sorbo aucuparie-Aceretum pseudoplatani (2.25 ± 0.07); in turn, Anthoxantho-Agrostietum also was characterized as having the lowest value—1.09 ± 0.48. The woodland Sorbo aucuparie-Aceretum pseudoplatani characterized by the highest evenness E (0.75 ± 0.01) and Gladiolo-Agrostietum capillaris (0.71 ± 0.06).

3.3. Cultural Services

The cultural services of the ecosystem in the Silesian Beskids are currently strictly related to shepherding (

Table 2. The cultural services of pastoralism in the Silesian Beskid Mts. (Southern Poland).

Type of Cultural Service in the Ecosystem	Detailed Description
Spiritual values	- Creating emotional bonds between the ancestors (the Vlachs) and contemporary shepherds, the Vlach heritage; - The shepherding ethos; - A head shepherd (baca) as a mediator between the tradition and modern times; - References to Christian symbolism, e.g., starting and finishing the grazing period on the days of patron saints, sprinkling the herd with holy water before going out to pastures, lighting fires with sticks blessed at the Marian Sanctuary in Ludźmierz.
Inspirational values	- Folk literature (songs, narrations); - Folk instruments; - Ethno design.
Ethnographic values	- Type of shepherding economy: communal herding (the head shepherd—baca—grazes a herd on the pastures belonging to other landowners), sheep do not belong to the head shepherd but to sheep owners called gazdas, cheese production and sale straight from shelters or wholesale to sale agents, care for animals’ wellbeing and for relations with business partners; - Organization of annual and family life in compliance with the natural rhythm; - Language phrases related to shepherding; - Shepherding equipment; - Knowledge and skills related to wool processing; elements of the folk costume made of wool.
Touristic and recreational values	- Landscape-related merits; - Shelters (bacówki/kolyby) as protection places available to people on mountain trails; - Spring and autumn redyk as a tourist attraction enriched with performances of highlanders’ bands and folklore groups, as well as with the events that popularize local products, cheese made from sheep milk, folk handicrafts.
Educational values	- Cultural routes; - Workshops offered by private and state educational centres; - Educational paths and exhibitions concerning traditional sheep grazing.

). However, they are not a constant value, but a diversified one, due to the group of beneficiaries (shepherds—local community—tourists). These services constitute a changeable dominant due to their dependence on non-cultural factors (e.g., legislation in the field of indicating developmental strategies for mountain areas, the priorities in granting subsidies for the development of culture and tourism, and the cherishing and maintaining of traditions). Today, shepherding in the Silesian Beskids is experiencing a renaissance, associated not only with an increased number of sheep herds grazing on mountain pastures, but also with the integration of the local community around the values related to the shepherding culture and memory of the past. At the same time, shepherding traditions are popularized owing to mass media, the promotion of tourist routes or the organization of events that are thematically related to shepherding [23].

The Vlach heritage.

The revival of the shepherding economy in the 21st century has simultaneously caused a rebirth of remembrance associated with the shepherding heritage. As a result of the socio-political processes from the mid-19th to the first decade of the 21st century, the cultural heritage of shepherds fell into general oblivion and ceased to function as a factor that shapes the collective identity [29].

The foundation for the contemporary construction of the shepherd’s identity is “the Vlach heritage”. This is a very strong self-identification factor for members of the local community. The Vlachs in their wandering (since the 14th century or even earlier) from South-Eastern Europe to other Carpathian regions, brought to the Silesian Beskids both their specific law (based on mountain sheltering and shepherding economy) and some artefacts and spoken phrases associated with shepherding [30,31,32,33]. The Vlach economy was based on the so-called sałasze, which originally meant forest pastures after grubbing up, but in the broader sense meant shepherding partnerships. The herds of several sheep owners were merged into one, under the care of a baca (head shepherd), in order to provide proper grazing to sheep and to proportionally share the obtained benefits, such as cheese or wool.

Until today, the basic principles of the mountain sheltering economy have been preserved:

• Communal sheep herding takes place on pastures belonging to many landowners;
• Sheep do not belong to the head shepherd, but to gazdas (sheep owners) who gave their sheep into the head shepherd’s care for the summer;
• A head shepherd, while sheltering, conducts milk processing, produces various types of cheese, e.g., bundz, oscypki, redykołki, bryndza, Vlach cheese, and sells these products;
• The head shepherd is responsible for the herd, the wellbeing of sheep and their milking, as well as for the accounting and negotiations with sheep owners and pasture owners.

The head shepherd’s young assistants (called juhases or honielniks) are subordinated to him, as he is the most important person while sheep herding. Therefore, he must be a widely respected person—an experienced man whose authority has been built for generations.

The shepherding economy is compliant with the natural rhythm and can be divided into the spring-summer part (when sheep are herded on pastures and milk processing and cheese production are conducted) and the autumn-winter part (when shepherds stay at home and sheep are in farms, because lamb births often take place then) [34,35].

The Vlach heritage is not only a way of farming and organizing social life, but also a set of spiritual and symbolic values. Those mountain people’s traits comprise, e.g., life in harmony with the nature and human unity with the Earth; enormous mutual trust, resulting from belonging to a group; diligence and ability to endure the toils of hard work; the skill of recognizing dangers and anticipating events in the natural environment. What should be mentioned as well is the Vlachs’ responsibility, awareness of impermanence, their agreeing with fate and their love of the “on the road” lifestyle. Manual skills and artistic sensitivity make highlanders the masters of artistic crafts, who gain materials from the surroundings, know plants and animals, are self-sufficient and full of respect for the region and wildlife. These people care for their cultural distinctiveness, the preservation of their dialect, traditional religiousness, customs, music, art and architecture. The above-mentioned qualities constitute the ethos of the shepherding community—the positively valued distinctive features of the group, which are (or at least should be) shared by all its members. The defining of the shepherds’ ethos enables the unification of the group’s image, which is mostly shaped along with the memory of the Vlachs—the mythical ancestors who passed down the above indicated values and behaviour patterns to the next generations [36].

The values that inspire shepherding in the folklore of the Silesian Beskids are strictly associated with the highlanders’ way of life, their dependence on nature and on what cattle and sheep can offer—milk and wool. The language itself of the local community (Cieszyn dialects) has kept a lot of vocabulary associated with shepherding, which was borrowed in the period of the Vlach colonization (starting in the 15th century). Shepherds make many original instruments from the materials available in pastures and neighbouring woods. The first lip aerophones were leaves of ribwort plantain (Plantago lanceolata), pear tree or blades of grass. Apart from simple instruments, such as pipes with or without finger holes, shepherds have also used shepherd horns made of the trunk of a young spruce wrapped in cherry bark. The instrument most often associated with shepherding is a bucium (a type of alphorn)—a wind instrument reaching a length of 4 m, made of young spruce wood that is lengthwise cut into halves, hollowed out and then glued with resin and wrapped in cherry phloem [37,38].

The knowledge and skills concerning wool manufacturing, one of the main products of sheep herding, constitute the non-material cultural heritage. Wool used to be the material out of which all the necessary elements of traditional clothes were produced. Today, wool of the sheep grazed in the Beskids is not a valuable or attractive material due to the access to other materials—cheaper, easier to process and produce on a wider scale. Therefore, various efforts are undertaken to find new uses of wool. It can serve as the filling of pillows, quilts, mascots, as well as a material for handiwork, for making carpets and chair seats. The 21st century revitalization of traditional sheep grazing has become a source of new ideas for using wool in contemporary design, especially ethno design. Among the designed products, there have been: lanolin soap, a series of lamps and fabrics for interior decoration, a new kind of material made of woollen fibres, bags, carpets, caps, seats, vases, baskets, a soundproof screen and a rocker for children. All the prototypes have been aimed at showing the potentialities of the local natural resources and of the traditional knowledge and skills of the local residents [39].

4. Final Remarks

Amongst the provisional services, only sheep bones are not used, while dairy is the most popular followed by meat. Wool seems to be another product that has a future due to its numerous applications as well as its ecological and environmentally friendly properties [40]. As regulating and supporting services are concerned, the obtained results of phytosociological research are in the line with the similar studies shown in the literature [41,42]. Wilczek et al. [42], in complex phytosociological research, indicate 43 non-forest plant associations and 8 forest plant associations according to the Braun-Blanquet system, as well as 21 non-forest communities, and 3 forest communities. Taking into account protected habitats, 13 habitats of European importance were identified within the Ochodzita Massif, including 4 priority habitats. Within the grazing sites, we found two priority habitat sites: one type 6230 but two communities Hieracio-Nardetum and Carlino-Dianthetum deltoidis and Sorbo aucupariae-Aceretum pseudoplatani were found. The state of biodiversity and presence of diagnostic plant species, i.e., characteristic and distinguishing species for given syntaxa showed that grazing has a positive impact on the maintenance of vegetation. The most valuable from a conservation point of view, i.e., Hieracio-Nardetum association has become one of the rarest vegetation types in Silesian Voivodship [41]. It was shown that one of the main factors shaping the phytocoenosis is extensive pastoral use, without mowing the animals [43]. In the present study, this plant community was not intensively grazed; however, plant communities that occupied larger areas were grazed and trampled by sheep with higher intensity. In the study area, patches of Hieracio-Nardetum are rather small; therefore, the time of sheep activity was rather low in this type of habitat. Ensuring the favourable condition of natural habitats is currently one of the most important tasks for environmental protection in Poland, resulting from the EU directive on habitats. Extensive grazing of animals including sheep results in restoring environmentally valuable areas and deteriorated landscapes to their original condition [11]. Therefore, one should look with cautious optimism at the slowdown in the decline in the sheep population in the last decade [21]. There has been a significant decrease since the 1980s, when the population of sheep was estimated to be ca. 5 million, down to 0.21 million in 2011 [44,45,46].

As regards tourism, ecosystem services provided by sheep grazing and pastoralism culture definitely lead to an increase in the touristic attractiveness of the Silesian Beskid region. This is an attractive region due to its picturesque landscapes, gentle hills and not really difficult mountain trails. Restoring sheep breeding on pastures along with clearing the grazing areas of bushes and trees have additionally revealed many panoramas of mountain landscapes and open pastures with grazing sheep. Owing to this, tourist trails and bicycle lanes have become even more attractive as regards wildlife and views. Apart from the economic function, shepherding shelters (bacówka, kolyba), often redecorated or rebuilt in compliance with the local style of shepherding architecture, are also a tourist attraction. An unquestioned tourist attraction in the Silesian Beskids are the annually reproduced customs and rituals associated with sheep breeding, especially with taking them to grazing pastures in spring and their return to farms in autumn (the so-called redyk). These autumn returns are enriched with performances of highlander bands and folklore groups, lectures, shows of sheep cheese production, tasting regional dishes, handicraft workshops associated with the Vlach’s culture (e.g., weaving, wood carving, carpentry, herbal medicine workshops) and musical competitions involving traditional shepherding instruments. In holiday time, some events are organized which popularize local products and folk crafts. They often involve cheese production shows, handmade sheep shearing, wool processing, handicraft workshops and performances of regional bands and groups [47].

Educational benefits can be seen in many places in the Beskids, in which private and state educational centres are active and offer, e.g., workshops, shows, exhibitions, lectures and meetings pertaining to traditional shepherding. Shepherds and members of their families frequently emphasize in various interviews that they combine what is traditional with what is new in their lives. They describe shepherding as a “living culture” and themselves as an ethnic minority with some distinctive cultural features common to the whole Carpathian Arch. The shepherds try to keep a balance between their own authentic lifestyle and them being a “tourist attraction” for visitors. Educational and tourist activity is their additional source of income, but it is the shepherding ethos which gives them the sense of dignity and freedom [48]. The next step should be the assessment of ecosystem services on the basis of direct users of local ecosystems (local people, land managers, authorities, tourists), how they perceive the potentials of those ecosystems to provide services, and how their personal evaluation is influenced by socio-demographic factors, which was shown in other studies [49].