Society's attitudes to and preferences for land and landscape

The relationship between society, land and landscape is deeply complex. Attitudes are reflected in behaviour, notably patterns of consumption through recreational activity, as well as in expressed preferences. Society attaches great importance to land. A large proportion of the population engages directly with it, through gardening and involvement in the management of allotments, community gardens and other public spaces. There is increasing evidence of the benefits of such engagement for individuals and communities. Society's attitudes and preferences have traditionally been dominated by expert or professional views, which have evolved over time and now place emphasis on everyday as well as special landscapes, and on urban greenspace and green infrastructure as much as on rural landscapes. The general public also seems to value the countryside as well as parks and green spaces nearer to home. Public attitudes are shaped by a number of different factors. Age, social and economic status, ethnic origin, familiarity, place of upbringing and residence, particularly whether urban or rural, are especially significant. Perhaps most important are environmental value orientations. At present, society seems to be polarised. At one extreme are older, more affluent, better educated, more environmentally aware people, often in social grades AB, who are often the most active users of the countryside and greenspaces. At the other extreme are younger age groups, ethnic minorities, and those who are in the DE social grades, who are often much less engaged. These groups have very different values and attitudes. But most people need to access and enjoy different types of landscape at different times and for different purposes, accessing what has been called a ‘portfolio of places’ that is particular to each person. It is by no means clear how the various factors that influence people's attitudes and preferences will play out in the future. Society may continue to become more detached from nature and landscape, and less caring about its future. Or there could be a rekindling of society's need to engage with the land and an increased desire to ensure that all sectors of society can benefit from green spaces and rural landscapes. This is likely to require interventions through education and campaigns to change attitudes and behaviour. Whether such initiatives can be effective in the face of competing drivers of attitudinal and behavioural change and over what timescale, may well determine how society's relationships with land and landscape evolve over the next 50 years.     

Nussbaum’s capability approach and African environmental ethics: is the African voice heard?

ABSTRACT

Martha Nussbaum’s capability approach (CA) offers a framework for a universal conception of human development. This paper interrogates Nussbaum’s approach using African environmental ethics (AEE) to see if it captures African ways of valuing nature. It looks at two ways in which Nussbaum’s approach considers the value of the natural environment: a) by applying her list of capabilities to non-human animals and b) by including, what is here termed, an environmental capability in Nussbaum's list of ten central capabilities she deems necessary for a person to flourish. The author argues that, despite limitations and need for further exploration, the second way of ‘environment capability’ aligns well with how nature is valued in AEE. The author also shows that both Nussbaum and AEE value nature in a way that, while not necessarily intrinsic, goes beyond material instrumentality and opens avenues for further discussion of the capabilities approach in traditional value systems     

Operationalising the capability approach: developing culturally relevant indicators of indigenous wellbeing – an Australian example

The tension that exists between the worldviews of Indigenous peoples and government reporting frameworks is what Taylor has termed ‘the recognition or translation space’. The meaningful operation of the ‘recognition space’ hinges on four key points – firstly, why measure wellbeing, secondly, how wellbeing is conceptualised, thirdly, by what process the wellbeing measures are decided, and finally, who makes those decisions. Sen’s capability approach is concerned with development as a process of expanding people’s freedoms to live the life they have reason to value. It is in this spirit of freedom that Sen has not prescribed a fixed list of functioning and capabilities. The open-ended nature of this approach, in letting the identification of important capabilities be dependent on specific contexts and people’s own values, aligns with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous peoples which asserts that Indigenous people must be agents of their own development. This paper contributes to the understanding of what a good life means by augmenting the capability approach to incorporate Indigenous worldviews. Through participatory research methodologies we define and select indicators of wellbeing which are grounded in the lived experiences of the Yawuru people in Broome, Western Australia.     

Coproduction of ecosystem services as human–nature interactions—An analytical framework

There seems to be widespread consensus in the ecosystem services literature that benefits from ecosystems are not produced by ecosystems independently of humans, but arise because of people’s interactions with an ecosystem. Yet, these interactions are hardly ever explicitly investigated in a way that directly contributes to the ecosystem services debate. Here, we empirically examine the role of humans in the generation of ecosystem services, and the factors that might help us to understand diversity in these processes.We analyzed 47 qualitative interviews with people using a mixed woodland–farmland–upland ecosystem in Fife, Scotland, for a variety of activities. Interviewees mentioned a wide range of ecosystem services, especially provisioning and cultural services, which were closely connected to human activities in the place. We term the interactions between people and place that lead to ecosystem services here ‘co-production’, and distinguish between: (a) the co-production of ecosystem structures; (b) the co-production of the services proper and (c) the attribution, i.e., construction, of meaning to these structures and services. All three processes could be carried out by individuals or jointly, by groups of people, and the social nature of the interaction often added meaning and value to the co-production process. Two sets of factors, clustered under the headings of ‘identities’ and ‘capabilities’, shaped these interactions, and helped us to understand variation in people’s engagement with the ecosystem as well as their views on ecosystem disservices.While further research is needed to explore the usefulness of our analytical framework in other contexts, our findings suggest that identities and capabilities of people have to be considered much more strongly than is currently the case in standard ecosystem services assessments, as these influence which ecosystem structures are eventually turned into benefits, and give important insights into the environmental justice related to the distribution of ecosystem benefits.     

Compulsory purchase for biodiversity conservation in the Netherlands

Policy instruments are the building blocks of land use policies. Instrumentation of policies relates to values. Compulsory purchase is a direct government instrument that may be an effective way to implement policies of biodiversity conservation and the allocation of land for recreational use. It is, however, in many contexts, politically controversial. The Netherlands’ Government has endorsed policies that involve compulsory purchase in up to 10% of land purchases. This paper reviews if this 10%-ceiling can structure relationships between landowners and government agencies in such a way that it relieves constraints imposed by land availability for biodiversity conservation and the provision of recreational areas. The analysis consists of (1) the background of this 10%-ceiling, (2) the actual procedures of compulsory purchase, by analysis of Royal Decrees, (3) the actual compulsory purchases, and (4) the indirect instrumental effects of the use of this instrument. The paper concludes that the 10%-ceiling does not lift the constraints of land availability, but does influence the relationship between stakeholders, the implementation of biodiversity objectives, and land policy strategies. Nevertheless, compulsory purchase may provide possibilities to acquire land necessary for a consolidated natural area.     

Farmer Gone Fish'n? Swidden Decline and the Rise of Grouper Fishing on Palawan Island,the Philippines

Considerable research has focused on understanding how upland farmers adjust land‐based livelihoods to the influences of agrarian change in Southeast Asia. In the process, an ‘upland bias’ has emerged where researchers focus narrowly on the uplands as localities with distinct, coherent features, neglecting how families engage place, social relations and ethnicity as they access opportunities in proximate spaces. This paper considers how the Tagbanua – long considered an upland swidden people – have ‘stepped back’ from swidden agriculture due to declining yields and debt to harvest the lucrative grouper (e.g. Plectropomus leopardus). We show how Tagbanua families on Palawan Island have adjusted swidden as they negotiate social relations, ethnic cleavages and economic barriers to effectively engage the grouper industry. Rather than cast such farmers and fishers as ideal types in place, we argue that how they negotiate social relations creates new livelihood opportunities in varied environments, reinforcing the dynamic, recursive context of agrarian change.     

Crop biodiversity repercussions of subsidized organic farming

This paper analyses the impact that the CAP financial support on selected organic crops has on agrobiodiversity under production uncertainty. A stochastic production function is employed and estimated to assess whether risk-averse farmers hedge risk by diversifying their portfolio of crops. The model is applied to farm-level data of organic crop farms in Greece. Organic farming financial support, in the form of agricultural subsidies for the cultivation of organic crops, poses a double-edged sword: on one side, organic farming is considered an agrobiodiversity enhancing cultivation method; on the other side, financial support may reduce agrobiodiversity if farmers decide it is optimal to cultivate only the few, supported crops. The study shows that risk aversion leads to agrobiodiversity conservation. However, the existence of CAP financial support on selected crops decreases the relationship between revenue risk management and agrobiodiversity, indirectly leading to agrobiodiversity loss.     

From Causes to Reasons: The Human Dimension of Agricultural Sustainability

The point of departure of this paper is the familiar instrumental perspective that focuses on causes and effects and on actions to do something about them. This perspective is appealing and familiar and exemplified here by the Pressure, State, Response (PSR) Model used by the OECD to analyse environmental issues. After presenting the details of this approach, the paper then presents the other side of the coin: an approach based not on causes but on human reasons. In trying to explain sustainability, it does not look for causes and effects in the physical world, but for human reasons in terms of people's ‘gets’, ‘wants’, ‘knowing’ and ‘doing’. This translates as an exercise in interpreting the perfectly valid instrumental discourse about agricultural sustainability into a totally different discourse based on cognition and learning. This translation seems to add something that is worth taking into account. The ‘pressure’ in OECD's PSR model takes on a new appearance. After providing examples on how the new perspective can be applied, the paper draws implications for the combination of the domains of knowledge we need to look at agricultural sustainability. It concludes with an example based on research of a social learning approach in a Dutch water catchment.     

How to achieve fairness in payments for ecosystem services? Insights from agrobiodiversity conservation auctions

This paper provides insights into the multiple dimensions of fairness in payments for ecosystem services (PES) using the results of pilot agrobiodiversity conservation auctions. In two sites in the Bolivian and Peruvian Andes farming groups bid for payments for the conservation of traditional crop varieties. We assess different payment rules relating to how to allocate payments among groups subject to a fixed conservation budget. The discriminatory, uniform and conditional payment rules tested in these case studies incorporate alternative principles of fairness, while resulting in varying conservation and distributional outcomes. The latter are measured in terms of the distributional equality of payments among farmers and groups, and the distributional effects of payments on different types of groups. Findings indicate that conservation and distributional outcomes are highly sensitive to the payment rule chosen and vary across study sites. There may be contexts where cost-effectiveness does not need to be traded-off against fairness. Yet given the number of competing fairness considerations, achieving PES outcomes that are perceived as fair is very challenging.     

Sharing the unearned increment: Divergent Outcomes in Toronto and São Paulo

Land value capture (LVC) refers to the public sector’s recovery of part or all of the land value increments (‘unearned’ income) generated by actions other than the landowner’s direct investment, including public investments in infrastructure or administrative changes in land use norms and regulations. LVC is increasingly used around the world as a tool to raise funds for urban development. This paper analyzes two LVC tools, one used in Toronto and the other in São Paulo, to show how different approaches produce divergent outcomes in practice. Expert interviews and an analysis of secondary quantitative data show that São Paulo’s formula-led approach is bureaucratized, compared with Toronto’s politicized process and that benefits from Toronto’s Section 37 are primarily located in the central wealthier neighbourhoods, while in São Paulo benefits are more dispersed. The comparison between the two cases highlights different approaches that reflect divergent values, rationales, socio-economic realities and political cultures which ultimately produce varied outcomes. The contrasting tools’ distributional and equity outcomes in Toronto and São Paulo raise questions about how cities can best share the benefits of urbanization to ensure equity and justice for all city residents.     

Factors influencing adoption of land-enhancing technology in the Sahel: lessons from a case study in Niger

Technical change, through the introduction of land-enhancing conservation technologies, is essential to economic growth in the Sahel. Tobit analysis was used to identify factors that motivate level and intensity of adoption of specific soil and water management technologies. The results show that higher percentage of degraded farmland, extension education, lower risk aversion, and the availability of short-term profits are important for increasing the adoption and intensity of use of improved ‘tassa’ and half-crescent shaped earthen mounds. Age and attitudes to differential gains between farm and non-farm income showed no influence on adoption. Three main policy implications emerge from these findings. First, technologies should be targeted to locations that have large percentages ol degraded farmlands. The probability of adoption and intensity of use are likely to be high at such locations. Second, there is the need to provide extension education that demonstrates risk reduction capacities of conservation techniques. I his will make available information capable of stimulating adoption of land-enhancing technologies. Finally, policy-makers should not seek to target innovations to younger farmers because age has no relationship to adoption of the improved ‘tassa’ and half-crescent shaped earthen mounds. Lessons from the case study have broad relevance to cropped areas in the Sahel.     

Governing the transformation towards ‘nature-inclusive’ agriculture: insights from the Netherlands

It is becoming increasingly difficult to combine nature conservation by farmers with intensive and large-scale farming. The Dutch government recently adopted the new policy concept of ‘nature-inclusive’ farming, which aims at promoting more sustainable agricultural practices that minimizes negative ecological impacts, maximizes positive ones and at the same time benefits from natural processes. A transformation towards ‘nature-inclusive’ farming faces three key governance challenges that are elaborated upon in this paper. First, agri-environment schemes and other conservation arrangements need to become more effective. At the same time, nature conservation should be mainstreamed in agricultural policies and in agri-food chains. Second, we need shared meanings about nature-inclusive farming. Third, other forms of knowledge production for nature-inclusive farming are required that focus more on farmers’ knowledge needs.     

Values and Markets: an Analysis of Organic Farming Initiatives in Andalusia

This article sets out the overlapping political and cultural roots of an innovative farming co‐operative in Andalusia, one composed of both ex‐labourers and small farmers. One strand of values involves the realization of a food chain in which no capitalist enterprise can extract profit from their labours: this, together with various conceptions of personal and local autonomy, shapes much of their practice of organic farming. Nevertheless, their labour has to generate an acceptable livelihood through selling food in an environment dominated by large‐scale commercial agriculture in both the ‘conventional’ and ‘organic’ sectors. The article explains how they achieve this by building ties with consumers around a variety of shared values. This focus on the particularities of a radical food movement sheds light on many larger issues, both the nature of markets and competition in the dominant economy, and the debates about organic certification and ‘conventionalization’.     

UTILITARIAN AND RIGHTS-BASED ALTERNATIVES FOR PROTECTING SITES OF SPECIAL SCIENTIFIC INTEREST

Current legislation in Great Britain has set up a class of protected land under the designation Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI). However, what values are to be protected, and how, are questions largely left unanswered. Areas which are designated as worthy of protection can still be threatened by gradual erosion due to rural development. The designation of a site as being of conservation value requires an agency which enforces protection from development. We highlight the conflicts which have arisen between landowners and conservationists over SSSI management and analyse the role of a conservation agency under alternative environmental philosophies. We show how the values underlying the motive for conservation will affect the environmental management process chosen. This provides contrasting views as to the future for countryside management, and focuses concern on the current trend towards the free market in which trade-offs based upon the anthropocentric usefulness of nature are fundamental.     

Agrobiodiversity conservation under an imperfect seed system:the role of Community Seed Banking schemes

The study is an empirical investigation of agrobiodiversity conservation decisions of small farmers in the central highlands of Ethiopia. The primary objective is to measure the effectiveness of Community Seed Banking (CSB) in enhancing diversity while providing productivity incentives. Our results indicate a significant impact of participation in CSB on farm‐level agrobiodiversity. However, the level of biodiversity conservation was not found to have the expected reinforcing impact on participation, indicating no support for simultaneity. CSB participation also led to an increase in productivity, consistent with a need for such incentives in order to enhance diversity at a farm level. Our assessment of the performance of the GLS estimator yielded a significant discrepancy between the GLS and bootstrap estimates. This led to the conclusion that bootstrapping asymptotic estimations might be required for appropriate inference.     

建设社会主义文化强国的中国式道路

提升我国文化软实力,必须增强社会主义先进文化对人民群众的吸引力、感召力和中华文化的国际影响力。建设社会主义文化强国必须保障社会主义政治文化、优秀民族传统文化、社会价值观念等方面不受侵害和腐蚀。落实文化强民是文化强国的最终目的,这是由党和国家的性质决定的。人民群众只有具有了高度的文化自觉才会参与到文化建设中,只有具有高度的文化自信才会找到文化建设的方向。文化强民不仅要完善文化工程的渠道建设,而且要坚持文化"走转改"的内容建设。     

Public evaluation of landscape content and change: Several examples from Europe

This paper considers rural land use by analysing stakeholder values and perceptions concerning various landscape components. The purpose is to show that landscape content and land cover interactions with societal connections should be a base for land use development. The practical goal is to deliberate research tools to quantify public opinions and attitudes, which could form bases for developing of decision support tools. The main research objectives are: (1) to assess existing opinions concerning land use changes and provide a clearer insight into public attitudes to the role of woodlands for an integrated development of the countryside; (2) to place ecological and socio-economic values on inanimate natural components of landscapes; and (3) to assess values and preferences held by land use policy and management experts regarding multiple landscape components and features to assist in decision-making. Through the different levels of importance (values) accorded by the respondents to the integration of nature components in rural landscapes public priorities were identified. The paper develops an understanding of why certain aspects of land use changes are unfavourably viewed by some people and favourably received by others. It suggests some innovative perspectives on the areas of consensus and conflict between people, providing initial information for the selection and evaluation of land use management decisions.     

What role for cooperation in conservation tenders? Paying farmer groups in the High Andes

This paper sheds light on the potential of group-level tenders to enhance conservation where it depends on cooperation of small-scale farmers. We analyze data from two pilot payment for ecosystem service (PES) schemes focused on the conservation of agricultural biodiversity in the Bolivian and Peruvian Andes. Contracts were assigned to farming groups who could choose between different types of in-kind payments with varying degrees of divisibility between group members. Our main results indicate that: (1) stronger general patterns of collective action are positively related to the level of cooperation in group-bid making; (2) where collective action is robust, collective payments seem to provide stronger conservation incentives than individual payments; (3) collective payments could mitigate some potential rent-seeking behavior; (4) selecting bid offers based on both a ‘cooperation’ criterion and conservation land area offered does not overly compromise the cost-effectiveness of PES; and (5) group-level contracts may create strong incentives for contract compliance. Hence, combining farmer group-level contracts with collective in-kind payments can enhance the cost-effectiveness of conservation tenders, while generating co-benefits in terms of increased interaction and social capital among group members.     

Grassroots innovations in the informal economy: insights from value theory

ABSTRACT

The scholarship on innovation hitherto has prioritized exchange value, scalability and large scale commercialization, overlooking the other significant human centric values discussed in 'value theory'. Consequently, innovations in the informal economy are often undermined due to their inability to generate exchange values. This paper identifies and examines the suitability of the nuanced set of values discussed in value theory for informal sector grassroots innovations. Based on ten years of ethnographic research in different parts of Jammu and Kashmir in India, we find that these innovations generate a diverse set of values, ranging from use value to socially embedded reciprocal exchange value to different forms of relational and non-relational intrinsic values. At a juncture when strengthening alternative innovation approaches occupies a priority, these findings have important bearing on innovation policy scholarship.     

Motivations and experiences in managing rare semi-natural biotopes: A case from Finland

Traditional rural biotopes (TRBs) are semi-natural farmland habitats of high nature value formed through traditional agricultural activities, such as grazing and fodder collection. The aims of this study were to 1) understand manager motivations for managing TRBs and their attitudes toward TRB conservation and 2) determine whether TRB managers differ in attitude, motivation for management, experiences or area under management depending on whether their managed TRBs are integrated or separate from their farming systems. Farmers and landowners (N = 27) managing TRBs in coastal Finland were interviewed. In addition to quantitative analysis, responses were mapped with DebateGraph for inductive analysis to discern patterns amongst the two groups and to explore a series of questions related to motivations. Although area under management and farming strategy varied amongst managers, they all had a positive view toward the existential value of TRBs. A small group of “TRB entrepreneurs”, whose farming strategy was based on grazing primarily rented TRBs was identified. Their farming income was dependent upon direct sale of meat and participation in agri-environmental scheme for TRB management. Desire for open landscape was the primary motivation for managing TRBs and strongly outweighed extrinsic values such as fodder production and AES. Higher TRB: farm ratio was associated with more positive attitude toward TRBs and TRB conservation. No difference was found in motivation for management between the two farmer groups. Although motivations were similar, improved and tailored extension services for TRB managers could promote their conservation management.