The abandonment of traditional agricultural landscape in Slovakia – Analysis of extent and driving forces

Lieskovský, Juraj; Bezák, Peter; Špulerová, Jana; Lieskovský, Tibor; Koleda, Peter; Dobrovodská, Marta; Bürgi, Matthias; Gimmi, Urs

doi:10.1016/j.jrurstud.2014.12.007

Cited by 196 publications

(164 citation statements)

References 54 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

152

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…Conservation stakeholders at several sites noted the difficulty of recruiting and retaining hay farmers and graziers with reasons cited, as noted elsewhere, including demography and an ageing population (ADAS 1993;Lieskovsky, 2015) as noted by the Warwickshire Wildlife Trust , as well as social and cultural change in rural areas leading to a loss of interest in traditional farming such as hay meadows (Lieskovsky, 2015) as noted in Oxfordshire and for North Meadow, which was not adequately grazed for nearly 10 years. Other structural changes in farming included regional specialisation, which in the UK context is the specialisation of arable in the eastern counties and livestock grazing in the west, as noted by Crofts and Jefferson (1999) and Rodwell et al (2007), such that some landscapes lacked candidate hay farmers whilst others lacked candidate graziers.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 97%

“…Farmers' initial interest and enthusiasm, may encompass a range of factors including aesthetic and affective reasons and interest in cultural landscapes and nature conservation, but ultimately, farmers interest still focuses primarily on economic factors, as found elsewhere (Riley, 2006;Babai and Molnar, 2014;Lieskovsky, 2015). This said, as noted by one farmer in Warwickshire who was happy to manage meadows for whatever objectives others would pay for, farmers can still take a holistic view of meadow value and meadows can provide a range of benefits in keeping with the ecosystem services perspective (UKNEA, 2011).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Yet worldwide, changes in agricultural practices are leading to the abandonment of grasslands as a result of social, economic, cultural and historical factors (Scanga and Leopold, 2012;Babai and Molnar, 2014;Beilin et al, 2014;Joyce, 2014;Sharma et al, 2014;Lieskovsky et al, 2015).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Social factors include changes in rural demography, society and culture (ADAS, 1993;Crofts and Jefferson, 1999;Lieskovsky et al, 2015). Economic factors include barriers that act as disincentives and competition from intensification, as well as financial incentives such as agri-environment schemes that may compensate for low productivity under different farming conditions.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

The threat of abandonment in socio-ecological landscapes: Farmers’ motivations and perspectives on high nature value grassland conservation

McGinlay

Gowing

Budds

2017

Environmental Science & Policy

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Future sustainability of the conservation management of socio-ecological landscapes is typically reliant on on-going agricultural management. Such management may be threatened by changes in the drivers of management and the fragility of the stakeholder networks that deliver management. This study examined evidence for the risk of abandonment in a series of case study high nature value (HNV) grassland sites. The work found that the motivation of farmers to participate in the conservation management was typically limited and often marginal. Landowners and conservation stakeholders who relied on partner farmers to manage such sites often struggled to recruit and retain their help, leading to intermittent turnover in managing farmers and to some sites being under-managed. A trend towards greater financial incentivisation of farmers was evident, which policy-makers responsible for agri-environment schemes should note, and elsewhere some conservation organisations were seen to be bringing grassland management in-house. Primary reasons for farmer turnover and difficulty of recruitment included a lack of candidate farmers in the local landscape, and the marginal and fluctuating economics of grassland management. Farmers' motivations to participate in conservation management of such systems may continue to weaken and abandonment may therefore become a significant risk to the successful conservation of such systems. Conservation stakeholders need to foster good relations with their farmer-manager partners and not further depress their limited motivations to participate, as well as consider carefully whether farmer stakeholders are being adequately compensated for their efforts. Highlights Abandonment is a key risk to the management of some socio-ecological landscapes  Risks result from the difficulty in recruiting and retaining managing farmers  Farmers' motivations to participate are limited by marginal economic benefits  Trend towards increased financial incentivisation of farmers to improve retention

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

The threat of abandonment in socio-ecological landscapes: Farmers’ motivations and perspectives on high nature value grassland conservation

McGinlay

Gowing

Budds

2017

Environmental Science & Policy

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…What are the values assigned to these landscapes by its users (e.g., via questionnaires, image elicitation, or public participation geographical information systems (PPGIS) (Fagerholm et al 2012, Palomo et al 2013, Scolozzi et al 2014? What are the drivers of landscape change (e.g., Bürgi et al 2015, Lieskovský et al 2015? What are specific combinations of driving forces and actors that lead to change (e.g., Bohnet 2008, Bieling et al 2013, Bürgi et al 2017?…”

Section: Linking Driving Forces Concepts With Research Aims and Spatimentioning

confidence: 99%

From concepts to practice: combining different approaches to understand drivers of landscape change

Kizos¹,

Verburg²,

Bürgi³

et al. 2018

E&S

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

ABSTRACT. Landscape change and its drivers have been the focus of a growing body of literature in the past years. Our objective is to present different approaches to studying and understanding landscape change. We sketch the way in which different approaches and existing conceptual models are related to spatial scales and epistemological aims, and discuss complementarity and a range of applications with five specific research approaches from a Mediterranean landscape, including approaches at national and European levels. These include an analysis of historical landscape change, an investigation of decision-making processes, public awareness raising, evaluation of landscape services, and provision of policy support with data from published and unpublished material. The findings indicate that on the issue of complementarity, some models work better together with others. A major difference observed is the role that conceptual models and related approaches provide to the "voice" of stakeholders and actors of landscape change, sometimes contradicting, but often complementary. An important issue that comes up is a need for a plurality of research approaches and underlying conceptualizations of human-environment interactions, as the approaches represent different lenses for looking at the humanenvironmental system that are all abstractions from the full complexity of how decision-making on land use is conducted.

show abstract

Abandonment of traditional terraced landscape: A change detection approach (a case study in Costa Viola, Calabria, Italy)

2017

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This paper presents the results of a change‐detection study of the historical agricultural terraced landscape in “Costa Viola” (Calabria, South Italy). During the last century, because of the loss of economic competitiveness, it has undergone progressive abandonment, followed by landscape degradation. Taking into consideration the very steep slopes of Costa Viola and the need to analyse with high precision the historical evolution of the terraced landscape, research methods were implemented coupling advanced geomatic techniques with in situ detailed surveys. Based on historical aerial photographs, orthophotos, and numeric cartography, we analysed the land use/land cover change in the period 1955–2014 using photogrammetric and geoprocessing techniques, focusing particularly on trajectories in agricultural terraces. Area covered by active terraces decreased dramatically between 1955 and 2014, from 813.25 to 118.79 ha (−85.4%). The implemented spatial database was built in a free open‐source software taking into consideration spatial accuracies and completeness. Spatial comparison among land use/land cover maps was carried out using a postclassification comparison technique that can provide complete cross‐tabulation matrices. These data were compared with socio‐economic statistics concerning demography and trends of farms with vineyards. The evolutionary dynamics of the active agricultural terraces were also analysed trough the definition of 6 types of spatio‐temporal patterns recognised in the analysed period. These methods allowed to highlight the ongoing dynamics of abandonment of agricultural terraces in relation to their main causes and effects. Although tailored for the specific case study, they can be applied to many other terraced agricultural landscapes presenting similar characteristics and problems.

show abstract

The abandonment of traditional agricultural landscape in Slovakia – Analysis of extent and driving forces

Cited by 196 publications

References 54 publications

The threat of abandonment in socio-ecological landscapes: Farmers’ motivations and perspectives on high nature value grassland conservation

The threat of abandonment in socio-ecological landscapes: Farmers’ motivations and perspectives on high nature value grassland conservation

From concepts to practice: combining different approaches to understand drivers of landscape change

Abandonment of traditional terraced landscape: A change detection approach (a case study in Costa Viola, Calabria, Italy)

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About