Economic impacts of conservation farming in a marginal environment: the case of ‘Landcare’ in the Philippines

In the marginal, upland regions of the Philippines, soil erosion and poverty are significant problems. The Landcare Programme has sought to address these twin problems. We assess the economic impacts of the Landcare Programme in the Province of Bohol. We first explore whether the adoption of Landcare practices, particularly those of contour farming and tree planting, in a highly degraded landscape has resulted in improved livelihood outcomes for upland farming families. Second, we analyse the potential for the piecemeal adoption of these measures to deliver tangible benefits at the watershed scale. Finally, using a benefit–cost approach, these outcomes are compared with the costs of research and extension projects that have helped achieve them. We conclude that the net economic impact of the Landcare Programme in Bohol is positive, with the primary beneficiaries being the individual households that adopt the Landcare practices. These benefits are largely generated by productive opportunities that arise once the hillsides have been stabilized. Although the downstream impacts of land-use changes associated with the Landcare Programme are positive, they are of marginal economic importance. Hence, the focus and primary justification of the Landcare Programme should be on improving the productivity and livelihoods of upland farming households.     

Comparing the spatial and temporal dynamics of urban expansion in Guangzhou and Shenzhen from 1975 to 2015: A case study of pioneer cities in China’s rapid urbanization

The distinct urbanization process of China has attracted worldwide attention because of its impressive speed, massive scale, and policy intervention. However, the interrelationship between urban expansion and government policies is still not well understood. The Pearl River Delta Urban Agglomeration of China is the first national pioneering urbanization area since the implementation of the policy “Reform and Opening-up” in the late 1970s. Here we compared the spatial and temporal patterns of urbanization in two leading cities of the Pearl River Delta (i.e., Guangzhou and Shenzhen, the provincial capital and the first Special Economic Zone of China, respectively) from 1975 to 2015, using Landsat data integrated with urban growth and landscape metrics analysis, and examined possible footprints of major economic and urbanization policies. Our results illustrated that urban land areas in both Guangzhou and Shenzhen have experienced magnificent annual growth rates at 8.1% and 11%, respectively between 1975 and 2015. On average, Shenzhen witnessed substantially higher urban growth rate than Guangzhou during the past four decades, particularly in the initial period (1978–1990) when the Reform and Opening-up policy was launched and Shenzhen was designated as the first Special Economic Zone in China in the late 1970s. However, the speed of urban expansion in Shenzhen became considerably lower than Guangzhou from 2005 to 2015, subject to physical conditions and a series of urban land use policies. Both cities showed a generally similar dynamics of urban growth forms with leapfrogging as the predominant type of urban growth at first and then edge-expansion while the contribution of infilling in Shenzhen was higher than that in Guangzhou, especially since 2005. The urbanization processes characterized by landscape and urban growth metrics revealed that a diffusion-coalescence-diffusion-coalescence process was identified for Guangzhou, while Shenzhen was generally consistent with the diffusion-coalescence urban growth hypothesis.     

A cellular automata-based land-use model as an integrated spatial decision support system for urban planning in developing cities: The case of the Bogotá region

Bogotá and the 17 neighboring municipalities make up one of the biggest metropolitan areas in Latin America. However, despite strong functional interactions within the area, there is no official government body at this level in charge of coordinating authorities and providing solutions to the wide variety of issues arising in the regional urban land system. Aiming at providing an insight on future land-use developments linked to new transport infrastructures and at offering a tool to support territorial decision-making, this paper presents a cellular automata-based (CA) model based in Metronamica® software, that allows testing different scenarios based on potential land-use policies, environmental suitability and transport alternatives.There has not been, so far, an urban planning tool that accounts for the complexities of this region. CA-based land-use simulations constitute a useful approach to understanding the impacts of urban planning policies and regulations. This tool can help to improve inter-territorial and inter-institutional coordination, which through planning and management policies seek a spatially integrated development, with a long-term perspective.The CA-based model proposed was calibrated to reproduce land-use changes between 2007 and 2016 using different methods and indicators. The model was used to simulate and analyze eight scenarios with different policy directions of transport infrastructure in the future of the region. The results of the simulations reflect the dynamics of territorial occupation. The calibration indices in the experiment indicate a high degree of suitability for the CA Bogotá model, proving its effectiveness and potential as a useful tool for decision-making. The results show that occupation scenarios with restricted developable zones within the city, tend to have the greater dispersion rate in the study area, compared to scenarios where land development plans are promoted in Bogotá, which representing a more compact development.     

Does organic farming (OF) work in favour of protecting the natural environment? A case study from Poland

Organic farming (OF) is a management system that is closely linked with the quality of the natural environment since it should, besides producing organic food, constitutes a protective factor for all components of that natural environment. Therefore, the objective of this paper was to answer the following question: Does organic farming (OF) protect the natural environment? In order to achieve this goal it was essential to determine what kinds of natural and non-environmental factors have the largest influence on the development of OF in Poland, and to assess the significance of these factors in the spatial diversification of the regional density of organic farms. The analysis was carried out on the basis of data from 2012 comprising 2074 communes, including both rural communes (1563) and urban-rural ones (511). The research results indicated the weaknesses of the organic farming policy (OFP) with respect to the functioning of OF in Poland in the years 2007–2013. The results also show that the development of OF in Poland mainly depends on the system of financial support, i.e. one that either encourages farmers to change the manner of production to a more environmentally friendly one, or one that has an impact on their decision to resign from production using ecological methods. Moreover, as our research has proved, OF is not always developed in places where it should be a priority because of the suitable conditions of the natural environment.     

Sustainability dimensions related to agricultural-based development: the experience of 50 years of intensive farming in Almería (Spain)

In the context of the current agri-food market, several factors have made it increasingly difficult to balance the components of sustainability in agricultural-based development. These factors include increasing internationalization, tighter control of distribution and frequent changes in agricultural policies. Indeed, in the framework of European rural policy there has been considerable debate in recent years concerning the role of the agricultural sector and how it should face the following challenges: productivity-competitiveness, environmental protection and socio-economic development. There is, therefore, a growing need for practical analyses that adopt a holistic approach. This paper analyses how this sector in the province of Almería (Spain), based on horticultural family farms, has risen to the above issues over recent decades. This case study provides some insights into the different trade-offs and synergies between sustainability dimensions. In particular, the integration of ecological, social and economic components may prove useful in helping other regions to adapt their agricultural systems, especially where these are characterized by small-scale farming.     

The rise of the ‘food charter’: A mechanism to increase urban agriculture

Urban agriculture (UA) is rapidly growing in popularity and significance across the Western hemisphere. For over two decades North Americans have embraced the concept, although in Europe the idea of UA has only recently gained attention from academics, practitioners and policy makers. Networks are beginning to form in the UK, sometimes bound by a ‘food charter’: a statement of aims which bring together businesses, practitioners and other bodies involved or interested in sustainable food systems. More recently, food charters have become popular tools for pursuing the UA agenda. In this paper we provide a view on this method of moving forward the local food agenda; primarily using a case study of Birmingham, we comment on its success and potential for the future.     

Parking futures: Curbside management in the era of ‘new mobility’ services in British and Australian cities

The curb is the critical site of interaction between people and vehicles, and between movement and place. Despite decades of debate about how to manage the allocation of space and time to different users, the curb remains a highly contested space which the state finds hard to govern effectively. New pressures on the curb are already apparent: recent changes to the mobility system have resulted in an intensification of use with growth in home delivery and servicing traffic and greater use by ridehailing services. Simultaneously there is a diversification of demands with requirements for bespoke access for new mobility services and innovations such as car and bike share and electric charge points. Looking ahead, a range of actors are developing visions of a shift from individual ownership of cars to shared but intensively used highly automated fleets. The balance of parking, pick up and drop off and movement could be radically different in future.Drawing on literature on the literature on boundary objects, this paper explores the way in which different user groups seek to ensure their own interests are represented at the curb. Through examination of the changing nature of streets in-use, the paper reveals the on-going processes of reallocating and appropriation of curb space. The formal and informal codification of curb use stimulated by interests operating at national and international scales marginalises some user groups and works against place-based planning approaches. The paper makes the case for public policy to reassert itself in the curb debate to avoid a significant decline in conditions and to seek to balance commercial and social interests.     

The problem of fair division of surplus development rights in redevelopment of urban areas: Can the Shapley value help?

Many more people are expected to live in urban areas in the coming decades, and much of the physical transformation will take place in the built-up areas of cities. Landownership is a key factor in urban regeneration, and the fair division of benefits is a major obstacle to redeveloping urban land in a cooperative context. This paper aims to show that the Shapley value, a fair division scheme developed within the cooperative game theory framework, can be used to achieve a fair division of the surplus development rights among landowners remolding smaller and irregular parcels into bigger and regular ones, resulting in higher aggregate development rights. The methodology is illustrated by a case study of three parcels selected from the Karabaglar district in Izmir, Turkey, where surplus development rights are available for landowners cooperating for land amalgamation. The findings show that the Shapley values for the landowners satisfy the core conditions of the game and landowners can benefit from the highest possible development rights and share the surplus fairly. However, the current institutional setting has to be restructured to apply such division schemes.     

Decision making for urban solid waste treatment in the context of territorial conflict: Can the Analytic Network Process help?

There are a number of factors that affect decisions concerning the so-called undesirable facilities such as waste treatment technologies or landfills. These include social opposition and the need for a huge number of social, economic and environmental data to be taken into account. In Italy (as in many other developed nations) any decision to draft a plan or to define the choice of location for an undesirable service requires an immense amount of discussion, negotiation and organization. This usually occurs in open public debates organized by the local Administration. Another obstacle to the government of the territory is transaction costs which are growing out of proportion. In a situation of high institutional and social fragmentation, the power of veto is in fact multiplied.This paper reflects on the potential of the MCDA to help Decision Makers with particular reference to the involvement of the stakeholders, which face and disclose all the elements stopping or affecting the choice. The case study presented concerns the current debate about the best choice for the treatment of municipal solid waste in the Aosta Valley region, a small independent region in the North-West Italy. The Analytic Network Process is applied in order to rank three alternative technologies for waste treatment (namely mechanical biological treatment, incineration – direct combustion – and gasification) and to identify the priority ranking between the elements under examination (namely environmental, social, economic and technological aspects).     

The “sowing of concrete”: Peri-urban smallholder perceptions of rural–urban land change in the Central Peruvian Andes

Policy makers concerned with the peri-urban interface find their greatest challenges in the rapid urban growth of developing mountain regions, since limitations caused by relief and altitude often lead to an increased competition between rural and urban land use at the valley floors. In this context, little attention has been paid to the affected agriculturalists’ perceptions of peri-urban growth—important information required for the realization of sustainable land use planning. How is the process of rural–urban land change perceived and assessed by peri-urban smallholder communities? Which are the major difficulties to be overcome? By what means are the affected people reacting and how are these adaptation strategies linked with the ongoing landscape transformations of the hinterland?By using the example of Huancayo Metropolitano, an emerging Peruvian mountain city, it is shown that rural–urban land change is intensively discussed within peri-urban smallholder groups. Although urbanization also leads to infrastructure investments by public institutions—an advantage perceived throughout the study area—the negative impacts of rural–urban land use change prevail. The perceptions’ analysis reveals that the decrease of fertile and irrigated agricultural land at the quechua valley floor is especially considered to threaten subsistence, food and income security. In order to compensate the loss of production capacities, many smallholders try to expand or intensify their land use at the suni altitudinal belt: an agro-ecological zone characterized by steep and nonirrigated slopes that can actually not be used for the year-round production of crops previously cultivated at the quechua zone.     

Farmers’ decisions to adapt to climate change under various property rights: A case study of maize farming in northern Benin (West Africa)

Making the assumption that property rights might determine whether farmers adopt particular strategies, this study aims at modelling farmers’ decisions to adapt to climate change by focusing on their property rights – declined as institutional arrangements on land and rights on land – as well as their socio-economic and demographic characteristics. The case study took place in northern Benin (West Africa). In this zone, 308 farmers producing maize and adapting to climate change were randomly sampled. The study was conducted by a survey method on respondents using structured interviews based on a questionnaire. A simultaneous modelling using a Multivariate Probit (MVP) model highlighted that socio-economic and demographic characteristics, institutional arrangements on land, and rights on land determine the farmers’ decisions to adapt to climate change. The land ownership has a positive effect on the decision to adopt any adaptation strategy. Subsequently, securing farmers’ property rights would help to enhance their capacity to adapt to climate change.     

Can we avoid overdevelopment of river floodplains by economic policies?: A case study of the Ouse catchment (Yorkshire) in the UK

River floodplains are significant environmental resources in that they provide multiple ecosystem services. However, river floodplains are/tend to be overdeveloped because indirect-use values linked with ecosystem services are overlooked by private landowners. In a case study of the Ouse catchment, it turns out that river floodplains tend to be overdeveloped in upstream areas because of a unidirectional spatial externality. We set a simple model that considers both direct- and indirect-use values to analyse the social optimisation. The essential point is that we must consider two types of environmental externalities related to the ecosystem services of river floodplains to make decisions on floodplain development. First, the development of river floodplains has opportunity costs in terms of lost ecosystem services. Second, the development of floodplains increases flood risks to people downstream (imposes a unidirectional spatial external costs). Theoretically, we can easily deal with the problem by zonal economic policies: zonal taxes or subsidies (price policies) and zonal marketable permits or transferable development rights (quantity policies). On the practical side, however, there are so many problems. Then, such approaches are too complex to use. First of all, we have to specify real complicated economic and physical systems which show non-linearity, irreversibility, site-specific relationships, and inter-dependency between systems and sites. Secondly such policies should be ‘zonal’, which might impose substantial transaction costs. In order to apply them to real situations, we have to determine the appropriate number of zones, their sizes and geographical shapes, and then set appropriate rates or amounts of permits in each zone. Furthermore, the determination of zones is difficult because of the trade-off between the internalisation of externalities and implementation costs of policies, which are also related to political frictions and market failure.     

An actor-oriented approach to understanding dairy farming in a liberalised regime: A case study of Ireland’s New Entrants’ Scheme

With the abolition of dairy quotas in 2015 major change in Europe’s dairy industry is anticipated at the level of individual farms, with consequences for how land is utilised and managed. Critical questions in this context are how farmers react to the myriad challenges coming forth from changed policy circumstances and, more specifically, the factors that influence their responses to these challenges at farm level. As part of a broader multi-disciplinary research project, this paper presents a narrative analysis of dairy farmers participating in Ireland’s New Entrants’ Scheme, an initiative that has facilitated the establishment of over two hundred new dairy farms. Salient with an increasing literature on Agriculture Knowledge and Innovation Systems (AKISs) within agriculture, the paper focuses specifically on the actors who influence the decisions of the New Entrants (NEs) at this critical juncture in the transformation of dairy policy. Led by Norman Long’s actor-oriented approach, we examine social interfaces involving NEs and different categories of actors. We found that interfaces conditioned by coercive behaviour on the part of actors had a narrow scope of influence on farmers’ decisions compared to interfaces characterised by relatively equal power relations. The latter interfaces had the capacity to be strongly influential on broad habitual production and management decisions. Interfaces involving family members, however, had ultimate influence on major strategic decision-making, including decisions to establish new enterprises. Overall, our analysis suggests that NEs are empowered decision-makers in their social interfaces with other AKIS actors and our biographical approach to the analysis indicates that quota deregulation itself has not led to radical changes in who influences NEs’ decision-making.     

Assessing the synergies and trade-offs between ecosystem services provided by urban floodplains: The case of the Warta River Valley in Poznań, Poland

While ecosystem services (ES) provided by green areas receive increased recognition, there is a shortage of knowledge on the role of blue spaces to contribute to the delivery of ES. The aim of this paper is to investigate ES provided by the urban floodplain of the Warta River in Poznań, Poland. To achieve this, we used a set of methods, including a field survey, spatial analysis, and analysis of source materials. The paper documents both the services of public interest, as well as ones that can be overlooked by the public due to their “hidden nature”. The results strengthen the idea that assessment of social and ecological benefits from urban floodplains should be conducted jointly to account for the different categories of ES. A complex exploration of the ES delivery may help to better weight the synergies and trade-offs between different management options and to tie the local needs with preservation the integrity and ecological stability of the whole river corridor.     

Examining the policy needs for implementing nature-based solutions in cities: Findings from city-wide transdisciplinary experiences in Glasgow (UK), Genk (Belgium) and Poznań (Poland)

To advance the science and practice of implementing nature-based solutions in cities, it is important to examine the obstacles and provide means to overcome them. This paper presents a conceptual framework of policy needs for analysing the science of nature-based solutions’ implementation and connect it to the practice of their implementation that advances the literature by connecting well-researched gaps to a more innovative action-oriented policy development approach that we argue is required for embedding scaled-up nature-based solutions. We conceptualise and ground the policy needs framework of skills, knowledge and partnerships theoretically in current literature of NBS policy and planning and empirically in three European case study cities: Genk in Belgium, Glasgow in UK and Poznan in Poland. The cross-case study analysis points to the knowledge needs of systems’ thinking and solutions-oriented thinking as paramount for implementing nature-based solutions. Our analysis further points to the skills’ needs of negotiation and collaboration for administrative silo bridging and for forging multi-sectoral partnerships essential for planning, and co-managing NBS. We conclude with three ways forward to addressing the policy needs for implementation: first, cities can invest in tailored and targeted capacity building programs, second, institutional spaces need to be established that allow for collaborative learning through and for partnerships and third, cities need to chart governance innovations that promote evidence-based policy for nature-based solutions’ design and implementation.     

A thing of the past? Household surveys in a rapidly evolving (agricultural) data landscape: Insights from the LSMS‐ISA

Household surveys, a pivotal component of every country's national statistical system, continue to be criticized and praised in equal manner. While recognizing their limitations, it is clear that certain types of data must continue to be collected through household surveys, preferably in an integrated manner with other data sources. This is particularly true in the agricultural space for which household and farm surveys will be critical both to collect primary data as well as to validate alternative data sources. Recent methodological gains and technological innovations offer a unique opportunity to address many of the shortcomings of agricultural data. In this article, we briefly describe select examples of such methodological and technological changes, drawing from the Living Standards Measurement Study‐Integrated Surveys on Agriculture, a survey program aimed at improving the availability, quality, and relevance of agricultural data in multitopic, multipurpose household surveys.     

On the reactive nature of forest fire-related legislation in Portugal: A comment on Mourão and Martinho (2016)

Portugal struggles with an abnormally high forest fire incidence in the context of southern Europe. In an earlier issue of the journal, Mourão and Martinho applied time-series analysis to official forest fire data (1980–2013) and legislation in Portugal and concluded that fire-related legislation is issued as a reaction to fire occurrence. In this viewpoint paper we show that Mourão and Martinho analysis is compromised because of poorly chosen fire variables that are inconsistent across time and do not depict fire damage. Identification of the pertinent legislation was subjective and incomplete, therefore biasing the results, and its relevance was equated to the volume of laws and regulations produced. Moreover, added production of legislation in the aftermath of catastrophic fires reflects a variety of responses, from ordinary adjustments to paradigm changes, including proactive elements therein. We ultimately argue that surges in fire legislation activity should not be simply interpreted or categorized as ‘reactive’ or ‘proactive’.     

Impact of the Fast Track Land Reform Programme (FTLRP) on agricultural production: A tobacco success story in Zimbabwe?

The study ascertained the impact of the Fast Track Land Reform Programme (FTLRP) in Zimbabwe on tobacco production. The Chow Test, Vector Error Correction Model (VECM) and the Vector Error Granger-Causality Test were applied. The results reveal that there was a structural break in tobacco sales in the year 2000. Furthermore, in the long-run, area under tobacco production had a positive impact whilst number of tobacco producers had a negative impact on tobacco sold pre-FTLRP. Post-FTLRP, area of tobacco and number of tobacco producers had negative impact. In addition, the FTLRP induced an 8.94 % increase in the speed of adjustment in correcting the long-run equilibrium in tobacco sales. In the short-run, the FTLRP caused a percentage increase in the area of tobacco production and number of tobacco producers to induce a 0.65 % and 0.76 % increase in the tobacco sales, respectively. Area of tobacco production and number of tobacco producers Granger-caused tobacco sales in the pre-FTLRP period. Post-FTLRP, the number of tobacco growers Granger-caused tobacco sales. It is concluded that the FTLRP had an impact on tobacco sales, mainly through the number of tobacco growers. The study recommends the specialisation and training of the new farmers to improve productivity.