Typology of European livestock production areas

Abstract

This typology of European livestock production areas was made during the collective scientific assessment of the 'Role, impacts and services provided by European livestock production' that was carried out by INRA at the request of the French ministries responsible for Agriculture and the Environment, in cooperation with the French Environment and Energy Management Agency (ADEME). Based on Eurostat data for 2010 processed at the NUTS3 level (or NUTS2 level for Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands), each area was characterised by its livestock density (in livestock units (LU) per hectare of UAA) and by the proportion of permanent grassland (sensu largo i.e., including rangelands) within the UAA. This led us to distinguish six types of livestock production areas, and to represent areas where UAA is less than 20% of total area (Hercule et al., 2017 INRA Prod. Anim. 30, 285-302; Dumont et al., 2019 Animal, accepted). Serbia, Macedonia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Albania were not considered in Eurostat 2010 and were therefore excluded from the analysis. French West Indies, Guiana, Madeira, and Canary Islands were also not considered.