Defining restoration goals in a humanized landscape: the case of National Park of Peneda-Geres

Mountain landscapes in Southwestern Europe and other parts of the world are undergoing major changes. After millenia of agro-pastoralism practices, landscapes are now being abandoned and ecological succession is taking place. The debate on what are the consequences for biodiversity of this agricultural abandonment has been growing. Here we present the case of the National Park of Peneda-Geres in Northern Portugal. Peneda-Geres was declared a National Park in 1971 and has been since undergoing population loss, at an approximate rate of 10% per decade with now less than 10 000 people in c. 700 Km². A new management plan for the park is being implemented and choices are being made on what type of agro-environmental schemes funded by the European Union should be implemented. Two basic questions arose during the development of the new management plan. First, what kind of lanscape should we target as a management goal? Second, what is the role of pastoral activities and herbivore pressure in this process. Here we explain why a target of substantial expansion of the native forest was chosen, in detriment of conserving a rural landscape. Socio-ecological aspects of these choice are presented, as well as the challenges imposed by the fire regime and global warming. Despite this choice, many biodiversity rich habitats depend on pastoral activities, and we discuss the roled of these activities in biodiversity conservation and what kind of incentives are being implemented to maintain those activities and associated lifestyles. Finally, we discuss the need to incorporate ecosystem services concepts in land planning and illustrate how this was done in the land zoning of the National Park.