Temperate grasslands are one of the world’s great biomes – or so they used to be. Indigenous temperate grasslands are now considered the most altered ecosystem on the planet. The temperate grasslands biome occupies 9 million sq.km or ~ 8% of the earth’s terrestrial surface. Of this 8%, only 5% are currently protected within the global system of protected areas. After cradling the needs of humans for centuries, indigenous temperate grasslands are now the earth’s most endangered ecosystem.
Temperate grasslands used to be home to some of the greatest assemblages of wildlife the earth has ever witnessed. However temperate grasslands haven’t been visible on the global conservation agenda and as a result many of these grasslands exist today only as remnants. Potential for protection still remain especially in the Northern Great Plains of North America, the pampas and campos of South America, the Kazakh steppe and the Daurian steppe and Amur River Basin of eastern Mongolia, China and Russia.
Indigenous temperate grasslands occur on every continent except Antarctica and are now the most endangered ecosystem on most of them, especially in the Great Plains of North America, the pampas and campos of South America, the lowland grasslands of south-east Australia and the steppes of eastern Europe Many species of temperate grasses, including corn, wheat, rice and oats, continue to be a foundation of the world's food supply. From a conservation perspective this productivity has come at a significant cost. Grasslands in temperate latitudes have been modified by human activity to such a degree that little remains today in a natural state - and substantially less in some form of long-term protection. Only 5.5% of the world's temperate grasslands are currently protected within the global system of protected areas.
For most of the past century, temperate grasslands haven't been visible on the global conservation agenda. The opportunity to protect significant representative and ecologically viable examples of this biome has been largely overlooked. There has been a pervasive lack of recognition of this ecosystem as being one worthy of protection, essentially precluding its protection as a viable land use option.
As a response to this dilemma the WCPA created the Grasslands Protected Area Specialist Group in 1996 to work toward raising the level of protection for grassland ecosystems generally, but with a clear and immediate priority on indigenous temperate grasslands.
Since the creation of the Specialist Group, there has been a significant rise in the level of interest in the conservation and protection of grasslands. Numerous initiatives toward this end are evident throughout the biome, and the recorded level of protection for temperate grasslands has increased from 0.69% in 1996 to 5.5% in 2007. While this is considerable progress, nowhere in the world does the level of protection for temperate grasslands approximate what may be considered an acceptable level of protection by conventional standards.
