In the Master's thesis we have analysed the karst grasslands (Scorzoneretalia villosae) within the Municipality of Komen in south-western Slovenia, close tothe border with Italy. The aim of the study was to analyse which land use had conserved these grasslands through to the present, with which land use canwe conserve them in the future and where the possibilities of realising ournature conservation goals lie when considering the current social and spatial conditions. Special attention is given to the qualifying species of butterflies and birds included in the EU ecological network Natura 2000 that are linked to the karst grasslands. In our study we surveyed the land use, estimated the presence of the karst grasslands, surveyed the birds and butterflies and made a historical comparison of land use within three researchplots. We found that within our plots the karst grasslands are still present and that the diversity of birds and butterflies is still high. However, the results from these surveys indicate that the point of optimal habitat diversity has already been passed. The trend in vegetational succession towards the forest is proceeding rapidly and agriculture is no longer maintaining the cultural landscape effectively. At the scale of the Municipality we recommend some areas and some practices of sustainable agricultural use which we believe could, at least partly, preserve appropriatehabitats for the considered species.
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