The EU societal awareness of landscape indicator: A review of its meaning, utility and performance across different scales

Abstract

Abstrats:There is increasing recognition that agricultural landscapes meet multiple societal needs and demands beyond provision of economic and environmental goods and services. Accordingly, there have been significant calls for the inclusion of societal, amenity and cultural values in agri-environmental landscape indicators to assist policy makers in monitoring the wider impacts of land-based policies. However, capturing the amenity and cultural values that rural agrarian areas provide, by use of such indicators, resents significant challenges. The EU social awareness of landscape indicator represents a new class of generalized social indicator using a top-down methodology to capture the social dimensions of land-scape without reference to the specific structural and cultural characteristics of individual landscapes. This paper reviews this indicator in the context of existing agri-environmental indicators and their differing design concepts. Using a stakeholder consultation approach in five case study regions, the potential and limitations of the indicator are evaluated, with a particular focus on its perceived meaning, utility and performance in the context of different user groups and at different geographical scales. This analysis supplements previous EU-wide assessments, through regional scale assessment of the limitations and potentialities of the indicator and the need for further data collection. The evaluation finds that the perceived meaning of the indicator does not vary with scale, but in common with all mapped indicators, the usefulness of the indicator, to different user groups, does change with scale of presentation. This indicator is viewed as most useful when presented at the scale of governance at which end users operate. The relevance of the different sub-components of the indicator are also found to vary across regions

Cultural heritage and biodiversity conservation – plant introduction and practical restoration on ancient burial mounds

“…Integrating cultural ecosystem services into landscape planning and protection can effectively support nature conservation projects which aim to conserve historical landscape elements with a potential of harbouring high biodiversity and providing ecosystem services (Jones et al 2016. Ancient burial mounds called 'kurgans' can serve as ideal objects for such projects.…”

“…Given the importance of burial mounds in landscape protection and biodiversity conservation, they can serve as representative spots for the demonstration of the results of conservation projects. Their importance is acknowledged by the European Landscape Convention and they are considered typical landscape elements of Hungary (Jones 2007, Jones et al 2016. Despite their legal protection, urbanisation and ploughing considerably threaten the vegetation of the burial mounds, thus in many cases active restoration measures are needed for their revitalisation ).…”

Governance Discourses Reflecting Tensions in a Multifunctional Land Use System in Decay; Tradition Versus Modernity in the Portuguese Montado

“…The state and preservation of the montado is a frequent focus of discussion in the European arenas where high nature value farming systems, along with their associated landscapes and cultural identities, are on the agenda [13,14]. These silvo-pastoral systems host to a large extent the cultural and natural values that European society most appreciates in rural landscapes and offering a balanced combination between farming, nature conservation, and rural heritage [15,16]. In effect, the montado is considered as one of the most iconic high nature value farming systems of Southern Europe [12,15], but also as a decaying one [17,18].…”

Kunhalmok élőhely-rekonstrukciójának eredményei a Hortobágyi Nemzeti Parkban

“…Az élőhelyvesztés, fragmentáció, izoláció, valamint a hagyományos gazdálkodási módok megszűnése a természetes élőhelyek degradációjához és a biológiai sokféleség csökkenéséhez vezetett (Valkó et al 2012, Tälle et al 2016. A hagyományos gazdálkodási módok és az egyedi tájértékek megőrzése ezért a természetes élőhelyek és a hozzájuk kötődő kulturális ökoszisztéma szolgáltatások fenntartásához egyaránt hozzájárul (Jones et al 2016). A történelmi tájelemek és a gyepi biodiverzitás megőrzésének összekapcsolása növelheti a társadalom tudatosságát is (Plieninger et al 2015).…”

“…Azonban a halmok növényzetét egész Eurázsiában veszélyezteti az emberi zavarásból, fásszárúak terjedéséből és nem megfelelő kezelésből adódó degradáció (Deák et al 2016a,b, Tóth & Tóth 2011. A halmok fontosságát az Európai Táj Egyezmény is elismerte, ahol a tipikus magyarországi tájelemek között szerepelnek (Jones 2007, Jones et al 2016 A kunhalmokon a gyepi mátrixfajokat (Filipendula vulgaris, Salvia austriaca és a S. nemorosa), valamint további 12 kísérőfajt kézi magvetéssel (2013 szeptemberében), míg a ritkább kísérő fajokat palántázással (11 faj), illetve veszélyeztetett populációkból való áttelepítéssel (3 faj) 2014 szeptemberében telepítettük a halmokra (1. táblázat). A magkeverékhez szükséges magokat a régió löszgyepjeiből gyűjtöttük be kézi erővel, a kunhalmok 50 km-es körzetében a terület felelősével előre egyeztetett időpontban és helyszínen.…”