I'm often asked as a ‘Brit’ living in the USA to rationalize the European's love of their countryside with its apparent lack of any undisturbed habitat. I usually struggle to explain how we have a beautiful anthropogenic cultural landscape that retains high levels of biodiversity. So, I found this excellent book both interesting and informative because it explains where the diversity-rich grassland habitats in Europe are, why and how they came to be, and the extent to which they are now threatened. Of course, except in a few places, grassland is not really a natural vegetation type in Europe, but ancient agricultural practices following forest clearance allowed species-rich grasslands to develop. As pointed out in the first chapter by Küster and Keenleyside, these high nature value (HNV) grasslands are often referred to as ‘semi-natural’, but might be better termed ‘traditional grasslands’ or ‘less intensively managed grasslands’. Modern methods of intensification lead to species and habitat loss that needs to be better understood.

The book is organized into three sections: a general introduction (six chapters), national case studies (24 chapters), and policy outlook (one chapter). The general introduction sets the stage with chapters describing the history, development and origin, use, value as butterfly and bird habitat, climatic relationships and current distribution of HNV grasslands in Europe. These chapters are very good, especially the first two history chapters by Küster and Keenleyside, and Poschlod et al., as together, they summarize a wealth of information and opinion on HNV grassland origin and development. Veen and Metzger's chapter on lowland grassland and climate is valuable, but would have been better if it covered more than just five central European countries (Lithuania, Belarus, Slovakia, Romania and Bulgaria). The national case studies that make up the bulk of the book each describe the HNV grasslands of a particular geographic area or habitat within a specific country; for example the grasslands of the Burren in Western Ireland. Each case study is informative and provides a useful summary of a particular grassland, including, in most cases, detailed phytosociological information, as well as management and policy concerns. While generally well written, each case study has its own format making comparisons of one to another difficult. As noted, each includes phytosociological information derived from surveys conducted within each country. The final policy outlook section of the book is limited to a single, but well written and informative chapter describing a farmer-centred outlook to conservation of HNV grasslands in Europe.

The back cover states that the book is intended for ‘both specialists and the broader audience, including policy makers and land owners.’ I agree and would add that European conservation biologists, restoration ecologists, plant ecologists and botanists interested in grasslands will find the book valuable. Except in a comparative sense, the floristic and phytosociological detail will be of only limited interest to non-Europeans.

The book succeeds in summarizing current knowledge of HNV grasslands. Although the general introduction and policy outlook sections are presumably intended to ‘book end’ the main case studies, I would have liked to see a summary chapter that brought together the grassland communities from the case studies into a single European-wide scheme. For example, what have the Arrhenatherion alliance hay meadows of Slovakia and the mesic Arrhenatherion meadows of Poland got in common, and how are they related? The reader cannot tell how representative the case studies are of HNV grasslands in Europe, although from a map in the Forward it looks like the geographic spread is fairly good, with most European Union countries being represented (but not Italy or Austria). The level of detail and coverage varies tremendously among the different case studies with some being limited to the vegetation, others bringing in detailed historical data, or information on the associated fauna.

The book is beautifully produced with numerous high quality photographs of grassland scenery, plants and animals. There are clear well-drawn maps accompanying each case study that are all produced with the same colour coding to the legend. The writing is clear, well-edited without any typographic errors that I could find, and of a generally high grammatical standard, despite English being a second language for most of the authors. Each chapter has its own set of references that are well up to date, including many from 2009, the publication year of the book. There is a short, somewhat perfunctory index and glossary.

Overall, I recommend this book to European conservation biologists, managers, policy makers and grassland ecologists. The book is an up to date and timely summary of a complex topic. Grassland ecologists outside of Europe will find this a useful introduction to the range of high diversity grasslands of the region.