By Inga Woolfram; Thomas Engels; Mattias Lindström; Karl Forssman
Graphics and Tables: The authors
Global biodiversity is declining at an unprecedented rate. With approximately 30% of known species having become endangered or extinct since the 1500s [1] the Earth is thought to have entered what is commonly referred to as the “sixth mass extinction” [2].
Integrating biodiversity considerations into how we use and manage land in order to halt additional biodiversity loss has become a critical objective in global and regional policy[1,3-6].
1. Introduction
In Europe alone, the equine sector holds a substantial area of land. Approximately six million equids graze about six million hectares of permanent grassland. Yet, historically, equine farms have been largely overlooked in agroecological and conservation initiatives, possibly because they exist at the junction between built-up and rural areas, often combining recreational, ecological, and economic land use [7,8]. Nevertheless, previous studies have demonstrated that equine farms show considerable “biodiversity potential” that, to date, remains underappreciated and largely untapped [9-12]. Even small additions of green or blue infrastructure can yield outsized ecological benefits. For example, introducing shrubby patches covering <0.5% of pasture area was shown to increase plant species richness by over 40%, alongside notable gains in lichens and insects [13]. By adding small landscape features such as tree rows, wild hedges, buffer strips, trees, and ponds, equine properties can provide habitat heterogeneity that boosts local biodiversity by offering a variety of different microhabitats [12,14].
In addition to these ecological benefits, integrating a diverse range of small landscape features might also enhance levels of equine welfare [15]. Animal welfare science provides a framework for understanding how landscape design can benefit horses themselves. The five domains model identifies physical environment and behavioral interactions as two of the five key domains that determine an animal's welfare state [16].
Beyond minimizing negatives (e.g., hunger, discomfort), animals should be provided with opportunities for positive experiences that fulfill their behavioral and psychological needs [16,17]. For grazing herd animals like horses, such positive welfare inputs include access to varied foraging, freedom of movement, social contact, and shelter, elements that a biodiverse environment with different types of landscape features arguably supplies.
The Dynamic Animal Welfare Concept (DAWCon) [18] underscores the importance of an animal’s ability to interact with and adapt to its environment as a component of good welfare. Under this dynamic view, an individual is likely in a positive welfare state when it has the ability and opportunity to respond appropriately to both pleasurable and adverse environmental stimuli, thereby coping with challenges and attaining situations it perceives as positive [18]. Both frameworks support the notion that providing horses with a complex, enriched environment that allows them to actively engage with a variety of stimuli may be central to their well-being.
The monitoring of fine-scale movement, habitat use, and even physiological status of horses in real time has been made possible by advancements in integrated sensor technology, including high-resolution GPS, accelerometers, and gyroscopes [19-21]. For example, a three-year GPS tracking study of semi-feral Konik horses on a Polish wetland reserve reported that nearly 68% of the horses’ recorded locations were in open habitat types [22]. That study also found that horses made use of multiple habitat types within the reserve, from mown fen meadows to drier mid-forest grassland dunes, with habitat use varying with humidity and weather conditions. This suggests that horses benefit from a mosaic of microhabitats, accessing different resources (e.g., dry ground, lush forage, shade, or shelter) as conditions change [22-24]...
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