Preservation of Agricultural Land as an Issue of Societal Importance

Abstract

Based on concerns about food security and food sovereignty, it is appropriate to scrutinise societal measures for protecting agricultural land from conversion to other uses. Changes from agricultural to urban land use are particularly problematic, as they are largely irreversible. By analysing relevant Swedish policy, the present study investigated how the protection of agricultural land is framed as an issue of societal importance. Protection of agricultural land is enshrined in Swedish law, but its use is still continually changing to housing and other constructions. In a structured policy analysis, two questions were examined: (1) what are the societal motives for protecting agricultural land in Sweden, and (2) how do these motives influence the governance of agricultural land? The meaning of 'national importance', 'suitable for cultivation' and 'significant national interests' in Swedish land-use law was also analysed. The results showed that formulations in the law reflect the ambivalent discourses on agricultural land preservation and that the Swedish authorities view other land uses as more important than agriculture.The Swedish governance system is currently built on trust that municipal institutions will make satisfactory decisions concerning land and water use. However, it has been shown that these decisions have not been satisfactory concerning the protection of agricultural land, and it is important to acknowledge that the sum of local decisions can be degrading for these life-supporting resources. The present analysis revealed a looming conflict between the preservation of soils for food production, on one hand, and local participation in decision making, on the other. This raises the question of whether it is more important to defend subsidiarity or to preserve certain resources which are important for food security, such as agricultural land.

Implementing Green Infrastructure in Spatial Planning in Europe

“…This challenge, which can be seen in the GI implementation in Slovenia, Ireland, Italy, Norway and Austria but which is also indicated elsewhere in Europe, is related to one of the fundamental issues of governance of land and resources, i.e., the balance between knowledge and power. Regardless of the level of government involved, relevant and up-to-date knowledge is one of the fundamentals for decision making-using the information to make decisions is another fundamental [33].…”

“…Attempts to include human beings and societies in ecosystem thinking [23][24][25] have failed to take sufficient account of spatial restrictions (e.g., that land is a limited resource) [26][27][28][29]. Any defined space in the physical environment is subject to a variety of competing interests and activities [29][30][31][32], which makes conflicts between different users of land and water the rule rather than an exception [33,34]. Any realistic assessment of the potential for implementing GI at an institutional level must take these conflicts about land use into consideration.…”

Saving the ground beneath our feet: Establishing priorities and criteria for governing soil use and protection

“…The last resort for farmland preservation, if it occurs at all, is usually some form of spatial or territorial planning, but the primary motive for such planning regulation is typically urban expansion driven by population and commercial pressure, rather than rural protection [105,106]. There is a distinct lack of robust legal instruments to prohibit or restrict agricultural land take and the approach taken varies considerably between and within countries, producing policies that are frequently complex and sometimes ambiguous or conflicting [40,[106][107][108][109][110][111][112][113]. Added to this is the prevalence of 'informal' governance of planning regulations in many low-and middle-income countries [111,114,115].…”

Land for agriculture? Conflicts and synergies between land use in two parts of Scandinavia

“…Although the land is not now characterised by economic activities and uses such as farming and forestry alone, agriculture today is still a key vehicle for communities and economic development in rural areas (Marsden & Morley 2014). Given current concerns about food security and food sovereignty, it is problematic that land that was once agricultural is now being used for other purposes, and the ongoing sealing of soil alerts us to the need to take precautions with land that is in use for agricultural production (Slätmo 2017). This paper takes as its starting point the shared situatedness of agriculture, which implies that land is a limited resource and thus the object of struggle between a range of different land uses (Smith et al 2010).…”

“…Since the 1970s, agricultural and land policies at Swedish state level have not had this type of candid focus on soil preservation for agriculture. However, several policy measures to halt agricultural landuse change are in place (Slätmo 2017).…”