Community resilience and land degradation in forest and shrubland socio-ecological systems: Evidence from Gorgoglione, Basilicata, Italy

Abstract

Assessing the resilience of communities is assuming greater importance at a time of global economic upheaval, climatic and socio-demographic change. The past 10-15 years have seen a significant increase in the number of studies addressing resilience issues at community level from a variety of perspectives, and although the resilience of communities in dealing with disturbances feature strongly in these studies, less work appears to have been undertaken at the interface between community resilience and land degradation. In addition, little attention has been paid to land degradation, desertification risk and community resilience at the forest-community interface, despite the fact that forest ecosystems represent one of the most important terrestrial biomes in terms of the ecosystem services and socioeconomic benefits that they provide. Building on existing community resilience literature, which highlights the importance of various socio-economic and political drivers for understanding community resilience, this study analyses how economic, institutional, social, cultural and natural factors at community level affect the ability of communities to adapt and adjust decision-making pathways towards resilience. The study focuses on the municipality of Gorgoglione (Basilicata, Italy), a typical Mediterranean forest and shrubland socioecological system characterised by a mixture of agricultural and forest landscapes, and prone to land degradation issues linked to both anthropogenic (deforestation, overgrazing, forest fires) and natural (soil erosion, droughts, climate aridity) causes. A case study approach is used, drawing on quantitative and qualitative data across spatial levels and temporal scales to examine the complex interrelationships between community resilience, forest ecosystems and land degradation.

Adaptive Cycle as a Tool to Select Resilient Patterns of Rural Development

“…Included in the definition adopted of social capital were social networks, levels of interaction between community members such as trust, relationships, conflict resolution processes, engagement of young and old people, learning and communication pathways, cooperation, bonding and bridging capital [50], and human capital. Strong capital guarantees a high level of potential, just as, conversely, weak capital signals an incapacity for the SES for adaptation, transformation, and overall responsiveness to changes, thus influencing the system's degree of resilience.…”

Desperately Seeking Sustainability: Urban Shrinkage, Land Consumption and Regional Planning in a Mediterranean Metropolitan Area

“…Our study suggests that green belts surrounding large Mediterranean cities may act as "buffer zones" mitigating land degradation because they form a physical barrier against urban dispersion and reduce the off-site impact of soil sealing on the hydrological cycle and ecosystem services loss [27,34,42]. The agro-forest mosaic surrounding Rome has preserved high land quality, maintaining a relatively stable level of vulnerability over time and playing an important role in the mitigation of climate changes at the local scale [32].…”

“…A specific assessment [24] based on heterogeneous datasets with different reliability, confirms that the ESA indicators are reliable proxies for land quality and vulnerability to degradation in the Mediterranean region [28]. Significant correlations were found between the ESA indicators and a number of soil degradation variables in several Mediterranean sites [23,24,34]. Lastly, Ferrara et al [25] evaluated the stability of the ESA indicators demonstrating that the main output of the model, i.e., the composite index called ESAI, is particularly stable over spatio-temporal heterogeneity in the four elementary components (Climate Quality Index, Soil Quality Index, Vegetation Quality Index and land Management Quality Index).…”

Soil Conservation Practices and Stakeholder’s Participation in Research Projects—Empirical Evidence from Southern Italy

“…Some other researchers [21] have acknowledged that they may not have provided full details of choices, and this may have affected adoption rates. Few studies in the literature describe the details of how information was disseminated to farmers, so it is difficult to know whether quality or format of information was a factor in adoption or non-adoption of new ideas [22]. In the DESIRE project there were particular efforts to provide information in a range of formats and complexity of language, to appeal to most of the identified stakeholder types [18].…”