Livestock Farming in the Stelvio National Park
Management of the rural landscape
Traditional Alpine farming in the mountain regions of South Tyrol is often unprofitable and thus in a state of decline. Yet the management of the Alpine pastures is crucial to the preservation of the landscape and environmental diversity, and not least for landscape conservation.
Mountain farming is still widely practiced in the Stelvio National Park with mountain farmers and Alpine dairies receiving fair prices in exchange for their high-grade products. Thanks to direct marketing, conventional food distribution channels are circumvented.
Thus, mountain farming continues to make a significant contribution to the economy of the Stelvio National Park region. On the high mountain pastures, there are still numerous Alpine dairies and livestock farms with cows, sheep, goats, horses and some rare pig species grazing freely on the green pastures.