Biocultural Heritage in Sicilian Olive Groves; The Importance of Heterogeneous Landscapes over the Long Term

Ferrara, Vincenza; Ekblom, Anneli; Wästfelt, Anders

doi:10.1016/b978-0-12-409548-9.12080-9

Cited by 7 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 33 publications

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“…French growers have begun to prepare for the future of their storied wines by working closely with climatologists, biologists, economists, sociologists, geographers, and geneticists to begin the process of adapting to anticipated climate change [77,78]. In Sicily, olive growers have embraced historical ecology to prepare for changing conditions [79]. A geological and archaeobotanical approach to land-use change is used to identify and protect High Nature Value (HNV) Sicilian farmlands for the future [32,80].…”

Section: Landscapes: Building Framework and Standardizing Practicementioning

confidence: 99%

Historical Ecology: A Robust Bridge between Archaeology and Ecology

Crumley

2021

Sustainability

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How can the disintegration of ecosystems, the foundation of life on Earth, be halted and these critical systems be rehabilitated? For scholars, the action list is long: increase the pool of expertise by engaging all relevant knowledge communities, collect rapidly disappearing data, analyze with both familiar and new methods, and apply the results of actionable science to policy and practice. This enormously complex and urgent activity requires an integrated research framework with the flexibility to accommodate the global diversity of places, peoples, and processes and to examine future options. Based on evidence of environmental change and human activity, the framework termed historical ecology assembles tools to construct an evidence-validated, open-ended narrative of the evolution and transformation of specific ecosystems and landscapes. Welcoming knowledge from scholars and communities of both heritage and practice, this comprehensive and systemic understanding offers insights, models, and ideas for the durable future of contemporary landscapes. The article evaluates how practitioners could adjust aspects of practice and improve access to policy makers, and the discussion applies to regions and localities everywhere.

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Section: Landscapes: Building Framework and Standardizing Practicementioning

confidence: 99%

Historical Ecology: A Robust Bridge between Archaeology and Ecology

Crumley

2021

Sustainability

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“…A long period of increased humidity during the last centuries of the Roman period (IV-VI century) favoured the agrarian economy in Sicily until the late Roman-Byzantine period [35]. A sudden climatic shift towards aridity, which took place in 750 AD, caused a change in the hydrological conditions with a consequent general socio-economic decline.…”

Section: The Valley Of the Temples Of Agrigento As A Case Studymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…As Ferrara describes, "with the arrival of the Arabs on the island, an authentic agrarian revolution began: introduction of new crops, innovative soil improvement techniques and hydraulic systems which contributed to a better use of water resources, a temporal and spatial differentiation of production and a more integrated view of the agricultural system in all its components (irrigation, energy, micro-climate and aesthetic functions): a completely different approach to agriculture which, for its holistic nature, could be indeed defined as agroecology. Such structural revolution marked deeply the Sicilian agrarian landscape; it was the beginning of the coltura promiscua system, based on an authentic intercropping of the fruit trees" [35], p. 140.…”

Section: The Valley Of the Temples Of Agrigento As A Case Studymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The structuring of agricultural production imposed on Sicily by the Romans with the large estates continued to persist until the 20th century, when agricultural mechanisation also began in Sicily. Immediately after the First World War, the Fascist regime tried to revive the ancient Roman concept of Sicily as the "granary of Italy", but the large-scale cultivation of wheat was not well managed and impoverished the soil [35].…”

Section: The Valley Of the Temples Of Agrigento As A Case Studymentioning

confidence: 99%

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Managing the Historical Agricultural Landscape in the Sicilian Anthropocene Context. The Landscape of the Valley of the Temples as a Time Capsule

Badami

2021

Sustainability

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The debate over whether we are entering the Anthropocene Epoch focuses on the unequal consumption of the Earth system’s resources at the expense of nature’s regenerative abilities. To find a new point of balance with nature, it is useful to look back in time to understand how the so-called “Great Acceleration”—the surge in the consumption of the planet’s resources—hastened the arrival of the Anthropocene. Some particular places—for various reasons—survived the Great Acceleration and, as time capsules, have preserved more or less intact some landscape features that have disappeared elsewhere. How can we enhance these living archives that have come down to us? Through the analysis of the case study of the Valley of the Temples in Agrigento (Sicily, Italy), the article presents several initiatives that have tried to answer this question. For example, the pre-Anthropocene landscape of the Valley of the Temples has preserved rare specimens of some plant species from which living gene banks have been built for the propagation of species, such as the Living Museum of the Almond Tree. In addition, the Kolymbethra, an ancient example of a Mediterranean garden, has been brought back to life revealing finds related to Greek and Arab cultivation and irrigation systems. The research perspectives opened by the “disappeared landscapes” show that the knowledge of the historical landscape, in particular the mechanisms behind its resilience, is indispensable for countering the unsustainable voracity of the Anthropocene and rediscover a renewed synergy between humankind and nature.

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“…Among other agro-economic systems, ancient traditional olive groves are recognized as Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems since they play a crucial role for agrobiodiversity conservation and livelihood [30]. The traditional olive groves may play an important role in building ecological and social resilience to climate change while maintaining ecological diversity, improving adaptability and putting into practice a sustainable model of land use which may go beyond business-as-usual logics [31,32]. In a food security realm, at a time when the actual intensification processes lead to the installation of monovarietal olive groves, preservation of traditional local adapted varieties plays an important role in environmental and climate change crop adaptation as well as aid in coping with genetic vulnerability issues by acting as diversity reservoirs [33][34][35].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Hyperspectral Reflectance as a Basis to Discriminate Olive Varieties—A Tool for Sustainable Crop Management

et al. 2020

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Worldwide sustainable development is threatened by current agricultural land change trends, particularly by the increasing rural farmland abandonment and agricultural intensification phenomena. In Mediterranean countries, these processes are affecting especially traditional olive groves with enormous socio-economic costs to rural areas, endangering environmental sustainability and biodiversity. Traditional olive groves abandonment and intensification are clearly related to the reduction of olive oil production income, leading to reduced economic viability. Most promising strategies to boost traditional groves competitiveness—such as olive oil differentiation through adoption of protected denomination of origin labels and development of value-added olive products—rely on knowledge of the olive varieties and its specific properties that confer their uniqueness and authenticity. Given the lack of information about olive varieties on traditional groves, a feasible and inexpensive method of variety identification is required. We analyzed leaf spectral information of ten Portuguese olive varieties with a powerful data-mining approach in order to verify the ability of satellite’s hyperspectral sensors to provide an accurate olive variety identification. Our results show that these olive varieties are distinguishable by leaf reflectance information and suggest that even satellite open-source data could be used to map them. Additional advantages of olive varieties mapping were further discussed.

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Biocultural Heritage in Sicilian Olive Groves; The Importance of Heterogeneous Landscapes over the Long Term

Cited by 7 publications

References 33 publications

Historical Ecology: A Robust Bridge between Archaeology and Ecology

Historical Ecology: A Robust Bridge between Archaeology and Ecology

Managing the Historical Agricultural Landscape in the Sicilian Anthropocene Context. The Landscape of the Valley of the Temples as a Time Capsule

Hyperspectral Reflectance as a Basis to Discriminate Olive Varieties—A Tool for Sustainable Crop Management

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