Such important reorganisations of the rural areas have been accompanied by considerable
reductions in the size of the herds and flocks (Table 1). In the five decades
between 1961 and 2009, cattle numbers were reduced by more than one third. Sheep numbers increased initially due to immigration of shepherds from the island of Sardinia
and because this small ruminant is easier to manage than cattle; sheep numbers
later decreased to less than in the 1960s. Goat numbers were slightly reduced, while
asses and horses have always played a limited role in the countryside. These changes
allowed the re-introduction of trees in pastures, in cropped fields, and to the diffusion
of specialised tree plantations.
These figures hide the fact that livestock have mostly disappeared from pastures and
are being shifted to intensive rearing in stables. This has meant some abandonment of
certain grazing areas as well as of marginal cropped fields, the return of trees and
shrubs in pasturelands and in marginal farmlands, and the natural conversion of abandoned
areas to early stages of forest. Although pasture management is diversified from
north to south, under-grazing is a normal condition in the north and central-northern
regions, whilst under-grazing with patches of over-grazing is present in the centralsouthern
regions and in the south. Shrub encroachment has started gradually, due to
reduction in grazing, with biomass accumulation increasing the risk of fires