Beyond fences

The world’s grasslands have outstanding biodiversity and deliver a wide range of ecosystem services to human populations, yet they are undervalued, insufficiently protected, and often degraded. This chapter gives an overview on conservation challenges and solutions. Overall, grassland areas need more formal protection, especially when considering recent and ambitious global conservation goals and large regional conservation deficits in many biomes. However, formal protection of grassland is not sufficient for their conservation: in most cases, adequate management that promotes biodiversity and ecosystem services is necessary, as most grasslands depend on grazing and/or fire for maintenance of their typical features. As grasslands, through the provisioning of fodder for animals, also are an important element in global food production, management decisions usually involve trade-offs between different goals. Likely, growing demands and global climate change will increase pressures on the conservation of grasslands globally, requiring a better dissemination of their value and a better valuation in politics. Finally, grassland restoration is necessary to reach conservation goals.