Shaped by humans but increasingly threatened: pathways for the conservation of Palaearctic grasslands

Palaearctic grasslands are among the most species-rich ecosystems of the Northern Hemisphere, but their conservation depends on continued management that must be reconciled with agricultural production, rural livelihoods and other socio-economic demands. Introducing a special issue that brings together 18 contributions from across Eurasia, we synthesize the interacting pressures shaping these grasslands and identify pathways towards their effective conservation. The studies show that intensification, abandonment and land conversion remain dominant threats, while hydrological change, climate warming, biological invasions and institutional shortcomings create additional, often interacting pressures. Biodiversity decline takes multiple forms: long-term records reveal declines among common as well as rare plants and animals, and substantial shifts in community composition may occur before losses of species richness become apparent. At the same time, the contributions also highlight promising avenues for tackling these conservation issues. Shifting from intensive to extensive management can rapidly benefit plants, butterflies and birds in multiple grassland types. Protected areas can slow biodiversity loss but only when combined with appropriate management. Passive protection alone is rarely sufficient: grassland biodiversity depends on active, context-specific stewardship that maintains suitable disturbance regimes through grazing, mowing, shrub removal or prescribed burning. We argue that grassland conservation must therefore treat these ecosystems as socio-ecological systems by safeguarding old and continuous grasslands, supporting viable low-intensity farming and pastoralism, integrating traditional and scientific knowledge, and replacing rigid action-based subsidies with flexible, result-oriented support. Long-term monitoring, interdisciplinary research and stronger evaluation of policy implementation are essential for translating ecological knowledge into durable conservation outcomes.