Prioritising Integrated Landscape Change Through Rural Land Stewardship for Ecosystem Services

Phillips, Alistair; Lowe, Kim W.

doi:10.1080/14486563.2005.10648662

Cited by 9 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 5 publications

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“…Thus at the state level too, at least in Victoria, the major preoccupation in developing policies for the governance of farming has been to find more effective ways of addressing environmental problems. An example is the Rural Land Stewardship Project (Cocklin et al, 2003;Phillips and Lowe, 2005), which recognised that:…”

Section: Provision Of Public Goodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

‘Multifunctionality’: Trade Protectionism or a New Way Forward?

Dibden

Cocklin

2009

Environ Plan A

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IntroductioǹMultifunctionality' is a term that has entered into public and academic discourse in recent years. While it can refer to any kind of production process, it has been attached most frequently in recent policy debates to the operations of farming (OECD, 2001, page 8), although earlier uses of the term have been recorded, particularly in relation to forestry (Wilson, 2007). Agriculture has been seen as``inherently multifunctional ... . It has many functions or purposes, thereby potentially producing a wide range of outputs or services'' (Dobbs and Pretty, 2004, page 222). In practice, though, multifunctionality is frequently identified not with agriculture in general but with specific kinds of agriculture or agricultural landscape. For example, multifunctionality is often associated with low-intensity, marginal farming and culturally valued geographic regions. In 1998 the OECD defined multifunctionality in these terms:`B eyond its primary function of supplying food and fibre, agricultural activity can also shape the landscape, provide environmental benefits such as land conservation, the sustainable management of renewable natural resources and the preservation of bio-diversity, and contribute to the socio-economic viability of many rural areas. In many OECD countries, because of this multifunctional character, agriculture plays a particularly important role in the economic life of rural areas.'' (OECD, 1998, paragraph 10; our emphasis). In countries where these functions of agriculture are valued intrinsically, governments have asserted their right to protect the nonproduction qualities of farmed landscapes, which are coproduced by agriculture along with food and fibre.Although it is widely accepted that agricultural production has side effects (or`joint products'), some bad (`negative externalities') and some good (`positive externalities'), the discourse of multifunctionality tends to emphasise the public good (beneficial) aspects of farming in general, or of some approaches to farming and farm management. This interpretation of multifunctionality has become intimately connected with support

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Section: Provision Of Public Goodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

‘Multifunctionality’: Trade Protectionism or a New Way Forward?

Dibden

Cocklin

2009

Environ Plan A

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“…In order to ease nutritional stress on manages as well as wild bee populations in agricultural settings the establishment of complementary foraging habitats has been incentivized via agro-environmental management schemes in the EU and elsewhere (Phillips & Lowe, 2005; Vaughan & Skinner, 2008; Lye et al, 2009; Goulson et al, 2015; Potts et al, 2015). Such schemes were originally intended to provide bees with complementary flower resources outside the mass flowering periods of commercial crops, but have traditionally been intended to support social bees i.e., Bombus sp.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The nectar report: quantitative review of nectar sugar concentrations offered by bee visited flowers in agricultural and non-agricultural landscapes

Pamminger¹,

Becker²,

Himmelreich³

et al. 2019

PeerJ

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There is growing concern that some bee populations are in decline, potentially threatening pollination security in agricultural and non-agricultural landscapes. Among the numerous causes associated with this trend, nutritional stress resulting from a mismatch between bee nutritional needs and plant community provisioning has been suggested as one potential driver. To ease nutritional stress on bee populations in agricultural habitats, agri-environmental protection schemes aim to provide alternative nutritional resources for bee populations during times of need. However, such efforts have focused mainly on quantity (providing flowering plants) and timing (during flower-scarce periods), while largely ignoring the quality of the offered flower resources. In a first step to start addressing this information gap, we have used literature data to compile a comprehensive geographically explicit dataset on nectar quality (i.e., total sugar concentration), offered to bees both within fields (crop and weed species) as well as outside fields (wild species) around the globe. Social bees are particularly sensitive to nectar sugar concentrations, which directly impact calorie influx into the colony and consequently their fitness making it an important resource quality marker. We find that the total nectar sugar concentrations in general do not differ between the three plant communities studied. In contrast we find increased variability in nectar quality in the wild plant community compared to crop and weed community, which is likely explained by the increased phylogenetic diversity in this category of plants. In a second step we explore the influence of local habitat on nectar quality and its variability utilizing a detailed sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.) data set and find that geography has a small, but significant influence on these parameters. In a third step we identify crop groups (genera), which provide sub-optimal nectar resources for bees and suggest high quality alternatives as potential nectar supplements. In the long term this data set could serve as a starting point to systematically collect more quality characteristics of plant provided resources to bees, which ultimately can be utilized by scientist, regulators, NGOs and farmers to improve the flower resources offered to bees. We hope that ultimately this data will help to ease nutritional stress for bee populations and foster a data informed discussion about pollinator conservation in modern agricultural landscapes.

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“…The approach evolved from a longerterm Rural Land Stewardship policy and program analysis project (see Phillips, 2006;Phillips & Lowe, 2005;Victorian Catchment Management Council, 2003). Most of these projects (named multiple outcome projects) were initially issuefocussed, on an issue like dryland salinity management.…”

Section: Linking Policy and Programs Through Ecosystem Servicesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Optimising rural land health: From landscape policy to community land use decision-making

Meyer

Phillips²,

Annett³

2008

Landscape Research

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Implementation of sustainable landscape policy directions can be held back by various constraints. These limitations may include: an absence of reliable integrated landscape character predictions, unproductive tensions arising from poorly informed public and institutional debate, low levels of political resolve due to uncertainty, and limitations on program and project design due to either inadequate availability, or ineffective use of ecological and social data. The need for new methodologies to speed the attainment of sustainable land use is pressing when considered in the context of information indicating that the condition of the world's ecosystems remains in decline. This decline is measurable by the changes in ecosystem services. Taking an ecosystem services view offers an opportunity to address some of the limitations noted earlier. The ecosystem services concept links natural resource management more clearly to the broader functionality of natural systems. Ecosystem services like clean water, productive soils and distinct flora and fauna are generated or maintained by healthy functioning ecosystems. Dwelling on these services and the practices that alter them defines the reasons for natural resource management. Modelling these ecosystems and their services is the key way to understanding these relationships. The utilisation of land use modelling methods to inform, and be informed by community and stakeholder landscape preferences, represents a potential step forward in the evolution of approaches to deliver sustainable landscape policy objectives. This paper presents a summary of examples of a multi-criteria land use optimisation technique that has been used to envision land use combinations most likely to achieve sustainable landscapes in Germany. A number of the sustainable landscape principles arising from Victoria's rural land stewardship project, such as use of an ecosystem services framework to better inform long-term land use planning along with calls to better connect community input to landscape function and land use decisions, are also considered.

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Prioritising Integrated Landscape Change Through Rural Land Stewardship for Ecosystem Services

Cited by 9 publications

References 5 publications

‘Multifunctionality’: Trade Protectionism or a New Way Forward?

‘Multifunctionality’: Trade Protectionism or a New Way Forward?

The nectar report: quantitative review of nectar sugar concentrations offered by bee visited flowers in agricultural and non-agricultural landscapes

Optimising rural land health: From landscape policy to community land use decision-making

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