Paper short abstract:

This paper asks how lessons and data from the past can contribute to sustainable habitat conservation in Europe's uplands, particularly in areas protected under Natura 2000 legislation.

Paper long abstract:

This paper asks how lessons and data from the past can contribute to sustainable habitat conservation in Europe's uplands, particularly in areas protected under Natura 2000 legislation.

The paper uses a mountainous peninsula in Kerry, Ireland, as a case study, with reference to other uplands in Europe. It begins by highlighting the difficulties that conservation of bog, heath and grassland habitats is facing due to rural depopulation and over-grazing. It then brings landscape history, palaeoecology and archaeology together to assess the long-term feasibility of conserving or restoring these habitats under current EU and National Park policy. Pointing to the surprisingly recent disappearance of woodland due to grazing, charcoal production and logging, I show that pre-1950s land use was not as ‘traditional’ as conservation discourse holds it to be. Historical management of uplands by farmers could vary greatly depending on socio-political factors and economic trends.

This environmental history of change is crucial to understanding the relative failure of habitat conservation in many parts of Ireland and other parts of the EU today. I outline how ‘lessons from the past’ can help to make upland management more realistic, if all stakeholders accept that society and landscape have been constantly co-evolving. The paper finishes by providing concrete examples of how archaeologists and historians might act on what they have discovered about past land management. I suggest that engagement with local land-use partnerships and ecologists is a crucial first step, before ever we attempt to influence legislation at a national or supra-national level.