Summary

The Sønderup Å stream valley in Himmerland, Denmark, is a protected area and part of a Natura 2000 designated area. Due to lack of grazing the river valley is threatened by vegetation overgrowth. Previously, nature conservation was mainly coordinated by the North Jutland County. However, after the reform of municipalities and regions, coordination had been absent. To cover this gap, the farmers’ association ‘Agri Nord’ organised a project to enable coordination on nature conservation and promote different landscape management options to the landowners in the valley.

Results

The project helped raise awareness among farmers on how to optimize the grazing conditions, and how grazing can improve the conditions for flora and fauna in the valley.

As a result of this project 14 different landowners set up common fencing around their land within the valley. In some cases, the fencing was combined with clearing of the land and agreements between the owners of the land and the owners of animals on grazing arrangements.