Corresponding author: Chiara Dragonetti ( chiara.dragonetti@uniroma1.it ) © Chiara Dragonetti, Giacomo Masiello, Federica Villa, Stefan Rodrigo Von Kempis, Mario Cipollone, Moreno Di Marco. This is an open access preprint distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Citation:
Dragonetti C, Masiello G, Villa F, Von Kempis SR, Cipollone M, Di Marco M (2025) Map of livestock density in Central Apennines: a standardised protocol. ARPHA Preprints. https://doi.org/10.3897/arphapreprints.e156617 |
Effective ecosystem management requires a deep understanding of how human activities, such as livestock farming, impact ecological dynamics. Livestock farming influences vegetation structure, nutrient cycling, and wildlife behaviour, yet there are limited standardised methods for estimating livestock grazing pressure on a local scale. Here we developed a standardised protocol for mapping livestock density at cadastral sheet resolution, and we tested it in a mid-mountain area of Central Apennines, Italy. The protocol combines municipal grazing data related to seasonal high-altitude pasture with interviews and geospatial mapping to create fine-scale livestock distribution maps. We focused on different livestock species and we produced a separate map for each: cattle, sheep, goats, and horses. Our protocol addressed a critical gap in conservation research by providing a robust framework for quantifying grazing pressure. These data are crucial for understanding livestock-wildlife interactions and informing ecosystem management strategies on local territory.