How farming styles influence biodiversity maintenance in Austrian agricultural landscapes

Schmitzberger, Ingrid; Wrbka, Thomas; Steurer, B.; Aschenbrenner, G.; Peterseil, Johannes; Zechmeister, Harald G.

doi:10.1016/j.agee.2005.02.009

Cited by 228 publications

(142 citation statements)

References 42 publications

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“…However, even under similar production conditions and in comparable locations farms are not necessarily managed in the same way. The observed heterogeneity among farmers (Schmitzberger et al, 2005) is in contrast with the common view that agricultural practices are determined only by technology and market, which in fact only constitute the space in which farmers make not uniform but individual decisions (Van der Ploeg, 1993;Wilson, 1997). These decisions may have highly diverse consequences on farm management and future evolution, including those on environment and biodiversity.…”

Section: Livestock Systems In Italian Alpsmentioning

confidence: 42%

Livestock systems and farming styles in Eastern Italian Alps: an on-farm survey

Sturaro

Cocca

Gallo

et al. 2009

Italian Journal of Animal Science

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this research aimed to study the relationships between livestock systems, landscape maintenance and farming styles in the belluno Province, a mountainous area of the Eastern Italian Alps. A total of 65 farms were sampled on the basis of livestock category farmed and herd size. Farms were visited to collect information on technical and productive aspects, on landscape features of land managed, which was identified by aerial photographs and digitised in a GIS environment, and on the farmers' background, attitudes and approach to farming. Six different livestock systems were identified: intensive beef cattle (2 farms); extensive beef cattle (12 farms); large sheep/goat farms (9 farms); small sheep/goat farms (6 farms); intensive dairy cattle (14 farms) and extensive dairy cattle (22 farms). The intensive systems had larger herds, modern structures and equipment, and were strongly production oriented, whereas the extensive systems had smaller herds and productivity, with often traditional or obsolete structures and equipment, but showed a tendency to diversify production by means of on-farm cheese making and/or mixed farming of different livestock categories. the ability to maintain meadows and pastures was greater for the extensive systems, especially in steep areas, while the annual nitrogen output, estimated as kg N/ha, was lower. Data on the farmers' background and attitudes were analysed with a non-hierarchical cluster procedure that clustered the farmers into 4 farming styles widely different in motivations to farming, innovative capability, and ability to diversify income sources and ensure farm economic viability. the farming styles were distributed across all livestock systems, indicating the lack of a linkage between the assignment of a farm to a livestock system and the way the farm is managed. this study demonstrates that in mountain areas variability of livestock systems may be high, and that they differ not only in production practices but also in the ability to maintain landscape, which is generally higher in the extensive or even marginal systems. Within a given livestock system, farms may be managed with different styles, which implies that informative knowledge to address policy decisions needs to integrate the definition of livestock systems with the assessment of farming styles.

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Section: Livestock Systems In Italian Alpsmentioning

confidence: 42%

Livestock systems and farming styles in Eastern Italian Alps: an on-farm survey

Sturaro

Cocca

Gallo

et al. 2009

Italian Journal of Animal Science

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“…The similarity of responses to the question of whether they managed for wildlife on their farms between organic and nonorganic farmers also supported this. This tendency towards a more' wildlife friendly' farming style (see Schmitzberger et al, 2005), coupled to the fact that farms were located close to their pairs (i.e. in a similar landscape context at the coarse scale), makes the observed differences between the farm types more notable.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Consequences of organic and non-organic farming practices for field, farm and landscape complexity

Norton

Johnson

Joys

et al. 2009

Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment

134

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“…Ideally, different groups of farmers should be addressed with different incentives within AES (Schmitzberger et al 2005). In our study, three groups of farmers were identified-the traditionalists, profitable stewards, and opportunists-with different sets of motivations for managing wood-pastures.…”

Section: Groups Of Farmers and Targeting Of Incentivesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Reviving wood-pastures for biodiversity and people: A case study from western Estonia

Roellig

Sutcliffe

Sammul

et al. 2015

Ambio

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Wood-pastures are associated with high cultural and biodiversity values in Europe. However, due to their relatively low productivity, large areas of wood-pastures have been lost over the last century. In some areas, incentive schemes have been developed to revive wood-pastures. We investigated the effects of one such scheme in western Estonia. We compared the structure of grazed wood-pastures (old and restored) to those of abandoned wood-pastures and ungrazed forest stands to explore the effects of management, and conducted interviews with 24 farmers to investigate their motivations to carry out the management. We found a positive influence of active management on the semi-open structure of wood-pastures. Financial support was vital for management, but personal values related to tradition also played an important role. The interviewees differed widely in their range of motivations, suggesting that other strategies in addition to financial incentives would further improve the management of wood-pastures in the region.

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How farming styles influence biodiversity maintenance in Austrian agricultural landscapes

Cited by 228 publications

References 42 publications

Livestock systems and farming styles in Eastern Italian Alps: an on-farm survey

Livestock systems and farming styles in Eastern Italian Alps: an on-farm survey

Consequences of organic and non-organic farming practices for field, farm and landscape complexity

Reviving wood-pastures for biodiversity and people: A case study from western Estonia

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