Open sessions > S.6 – Intangible Benefits of Agricultural Landscapes

S.6 – Intangible Benefits of Agricultural Landscapes

Chair – Bezak Peter, Slovak Academy of Sciences (ILESAS, Landscape Europe). Rapporteur: Wenche Dramstad (NIBIO, Landscape Europe)

Abstract: While agriculture’s main aim is to provide food and fibre, it has long been recognised as a source of multiple benefits to the quality of human life. This is especially apparent in its influence in water retention, biodiversity, recreation and cultural identity. Although agriculture’s multi-functional role has always been appreciated, recent EU agricultural trends have led to increased farm and field sizes, more arable farming, less mixed farms and ultimately to farming homogenisation. Farm management is strongly influenced by global policies, and local needs are less prioritised. There is therefore an unsolved imbalance between economic purpose and social and ecological consequences. Is this due to a lack of documentation, stakeholder engagement and simply linking benefits to the land, or just another variety of the “tragedy of the commons”? Exactly what are the most valued intangible benefits of the agricultural landscape and what are the most suitable instruments to measure and monitor the many various functions of agricultural landscapes and their link to our quality of life? Finally, do the UN’s “Sustainable Development Goals” help to better define the main objectives of future farming and outline the main challenges in a future where food production will remain as important as ever?

Pre-session activity: This session is initiated and organised by members of the Landscape Europe network. The network plans to organise a common meeting for its members and invite other approved contributors to this session prior to the PECSRL2018 conference. This event will therefore promote early discussion on intended contributions at PESCRL2018 to ensure that they are straightforward in answering defined questions and raised issues from the session proposals and to enable rapid progress towards common publication.

Organising the session:

1. Oral presentations will come first with a short time for spontaneous audience questions. This will be organised by the chair of the session
2. After all predetermined presentations, presenters will be invited to set up the session panel and they will be questioned by the chair and audience. Here, the chair will concentrate on asking generic questions to compare experiences from different studies and different regions, and formulate the key messages of the session

Programme

• Tuesday, 14:00-16:00

Chair: Bezak Peter, Slovak Academy of Sciences (ILESAS, Landscape Europe) and Wenche Dramstad (NIBIO, Landscape Europe)

1. The silver lining? On the potential of agricultural landscapes to contribute to climate adaptation in nearby urban conglomerations. Jeroen De Waegemaeker, Eva Kerselaers, Maarten Van Acker, Elke Rogge
2. Assessment of grassland ecosystem services for rural spatial planning: VivaGrass tool. Ivo Vinogradovs, Oļģerts Nikodemus, Anda Ruskule
3. Extensive agricultural land in Slovakia in socio-ecological context. Peter Bezak, Magdaléna Bezáková

• Tuesday, 16:0030-18:30 

Chair: Bezak Peter, Slovak Academy of Sciences (ILESAS, Landscape Europe) and Wenche Dramstad (NIBIO, Landscape Europe)

1. The perceived benefits of small-scale agriculture in the Alentejo, Southern Portugal. Diana Surova, María Méndez, Paola Hernández, Carla Azeda, Teresa Pinto-Correia
2. Cultural heritage in agricultural landscapes. A comparison between Milan and London experiences. Raffaella Laviscio
3. People’s preferences for grain field landscapes in NorwayGrete Stokstad, Wenche Dramstad & Svein Olav Krøgli
4. The rural landscape as a development factor. Jørgen Primdahl