“It was fascinating to see how stark the differences between meadows could be even on the same altitude,” Widmer says about his experience in the field. “Much is also dependent on different farmers cultivating their grassland differently, from those farming very intensively to those who are interested in ecology, who know the species and try to support diversity.”
Since the early 2000s, Swiss meadows have seen a slight increase in plant diversity. “These recent developments did not come out of nowhere,” says Dengler. “They are the result of major agricultural interventions.” Farmers are rewarded for mowing late, extensive rather than intensive grazing, and the presence of target species. This leads to lower yields but is compensated by generous subsidies.
And there is some reassurance about nature’s resilience, as an additional part of the research project shows: when they could not find the old species in their 30 by 30cm plots, the scientists increased their search radius by 500 metres. There they rediscovered all of the old species, often in areas that were either protected or used for biodiversity promotion – an indication that political measures to preserve nature are working.