Environmental history in the Mediterranean world: cross-disciplinary investigation of cause-and-effect for degradation and soil erosion

Butzer, Karl W.

doi:10.1016/j.jas.2005.06.001

Cited by 296 publications

(231 citation statements)

References 25 publications

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“…For instance, in Southern and South-eastern Spain, stakeholders attached the highest priority to regulating services and soil formation (Castro et al, 2011;Derak and Cortina, 2014;Martín-López et al, 2012). In semiarid areas of Morocco and Spain, the provision of regulating and supporting services has been a priority, favouring the deployment of conservative agricultural practices such as terracing (Butzer, 2005;García-Llorente et al, 2012;Laouina et al, 2006). However, human dependence on local hydrological and agricultural issues is more important in the former country.…”

Section: Stakeholder Preferences Regarding Ecosystem Servicesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Similarities in stakeholder identification of restoration targets in a semiarid area

Derak

Taiquib

Aledoc

et al. 2016

Journal of Arid Environments

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Ecological restoration is a suitable tool to revert the decline in the provision of ecosystem services in semiarid areas. Stakeholder opinion has been increasingly incorporated in ecological restoration strategies. However, the debate still exists whether the opinion of scientists and managers should be integrated together with that of local stakeholders in the decision making process. We assessed the restoration priorities in a semiarid area in North Morocco according to the opinion of 67 stakeholders, including scientists and managers, direct users and collaborators. The questions consisted in (i) ranking five categories of services in addition to economic benefits, and in (ii) comparing pairs of services within each category. We checked for both cardinal and ordinal inconsistency. The results showed an overall consensus about regulating and supporting services as the most valuable categories. More specifically, the most important services were erosion and flood control, soil fertility, water supply and species richness. The accuracy of the responses of the three groups was similar as the consistency for their judgments was not significantly different. Our results bring additional proof that the opinion of scientists, managers and local stakeholders should be considered of similar interest and accuracy when defining the most suitable restoration objectives.

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Section: Stakeholder Preferences Regarding Ecosystem Servicesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Similarities in stakeholder identification of restoration targets in a semiarid area

Derak

Taiquib

Aledoc

et al. 2016

Journal of Arid Environments

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“…[1], [3], [10], [27]), while inorganic sediments also provide information on past environmental change that can be linked with vegetation and landuse change (e.g. [12], [39]). The scope for application of paleoecology is thus wide.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

What drives long-run biodiversity change? New insights from combining economics, palaeoecology and environmental history

Hanley

Tinch

Angelopoulos

et al. 2009

Journal of Environmental Economics and Management

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This paper presents a new approach to understanding the effects of economic factors on biodiversity change over the long run. We illustrate this approach by studying the determinants of biodiversity change in upland Scotland from 1600-2000. The measure of biodiversity used is a proxy for plant species diversity, constructed using statistical analysis of paleoecological (pollen) data. We assemble a new data set of historical land use and prices over 11 sites during this 400 year period; this data set also includes information on changes in agricultural technology, climate and land ownership. A panel model is then estimated, which controls for both supply and demand shifts over time. A main result is that prices, which act in our model as a proxy for livestock numbers, do indeed impact on biodiversity, with higher prices leading to lower biodiversity.

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“…However, contrary to British assumptions, initially, shepherds and agriculturalists did work together on Cyprus by following a normal Mediterranean practice derived from common law (16,59). There was a reciprocal agreement between the two, with the goats allowed access to fields after the harvest to graze on the stubble and fertilize the land before they were driven into the forests or onto other uncultivated land.…”

Section: Cypriot Environmental History and Factoid Threementioning

confidence: 95%

“…Much scholarship (12)(13)(14)(15)(16)(17)(18) has questioned depictions of degradation both in the Mediterranean and elsewhere. Such examples illustrate that degradation is often a highly subjective attribute and that separating natural from human influences can be quite difficult.…”

Section: Factoids As Pseudo-historymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Meiggs (22) provides examples to show that goats were often viewed positively within the classical period, contrary to Virgil's complaints, whereas in more modern periods, numerous authors (13,(15)(16)(17)(58)(59)(60)(61)(62)(63) have illustrated that grazing is not necessarily an anathema to vegetation growth and that, in the correct situations, the two can coincide well. The fact that transhumance can be part of a successful polyculture subsistence pattern is seen in its long-term history of existence in many areas of the Mediterranean and Near East as well as a history of land use laws allowing for it.…”

Section: Cypriot Environmental History and Factoid Twomentioning

confidence: 99%

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Cyprus as a degraded landscape or resilient environment in the wake of colonial intrusion

Harris

2012

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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Concerns about global warming, degradation of fragile ecosystems, and environmental and societal collapse have increased interest for lessons and/or solutions for today's environmental issues. Popular writers have turned to a classic degradation thesis of deforestation and presumed desertification within the Eastern Mediterranean as a cautionary tale of how past societies have committed ecological suicide. However, degradation and/or collapse is far more complex than the thesis permits, and uncritical adoption of such simplified stories encourages continued use of inaccurate assumptions about human–environment interaction. In Cyprus, such a degradation story materialized 150 y ago, and its promoters aimed to impress on readers their responsibility to reverse past environmental mistakes. Both the British Colonial authorities (1878–1960) and the post-Independence Cypriot government used it to justify their environmental policies. Unfortunately, this thesis was formed around several misunderstandings about Cypriot environments and society: ( i ) judgment of degradation without appropriate consideration of the difference between degradation and change; ( ii ) oversimplified representation of ruling powers and those people ruled; and ( iii ) denigration of the shepherd lifestyle and its presumed environmental impact. A multimethod approach using archival and field research offers a more nuanced understanding of the complexity of human–environment interaction, the underappreciated environmental and societal resilience of areas classified as degraded, and the importance of placing events within changing socioeconomic and political contexts. This study of natural resource management and environmental resilience illustrates that the practices that the colonial government viewed as unsustainable likely were sustainable.

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Environmental history in the Mediterranean world: cross-disciplinary investigation of cause-and-effect for degradation and soil erosion

Cited by 296 publications

References 25 publications

Similarities in stakeholder identification of restoration targets in a semiarid area

Similarities in stakeholder identification of restoration targets in a semiarid area

What drives long-run biodiversity change? New insights from combining economics, palaeoecology and environmental history

Cyprus as a degraded landscape or resilient environment in the wake of colonial intrusion

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