Traditional olive orchards on sloping land: Sustainability or abandonment?

Duarte, Filomena; Jones, Nádia; Fleskens, Luuk

doi:10.1016/j.jenvman.2007.05.024

Cited by 132 publications

(99 citation statements)

References 27 publications

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“…In the European Union (EU), the viability of small farms will be further compromised by subsidy policies that favor intensive, less ecologically sustainable olive production systems (29) (SI Appendix, SI Discussion). The combined effect of climate warming and economic EU policy will increase the rate of abandonment of at-risk farms (32) that in addition to income, provide important ecosystem services such as soil conservation, biodiversity habitat, and wildfire prevention (29,30) (SI Appendix, SI Discussion). Technology changes may occur to mitigate climate change effects in some areas (e.g., irrigation), but data are unavailable to include this in our analysis.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fine-scale ecological and economic assessment of climate change on olive in the Mediterranean Basin reveals winners and losers

Ponti

Gutiérrez

Ruti

et al. 2014

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

150

110

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The Mediterranean Basin is a climate and biodiversity hot spot, and climate change threatens agro-ecosystems such as olive, an ancient drought-tolerant crop of considerable ecological and socioeconomic importance. Climate change will impact the interactions of olive and the obligate olive fruit fly (Bactrocera oleae), and alter the economics of olive culture across the Basin. We estimate the effects of climate change on the dynamics and interaction of olive and the fly using physiologically based demographic models in a geographic information system context as driven by daily climate change scenario weather. A regional climate model that includes fine-scale representation of the effects of topography and the influence of the Mediterranean Sea on regional climate was used to scale the global climate data. The system model for olive/olive fly was used as the production function in our economic analysis, replacing the commonly used production-damage control function. Climate warming will affect olive yield and fly infestation levels across the Basin, resulting in economic winners and losers at the local and regional scales. At the local scale, profitability of small olive farms in many marginal areas of Europe and elsewhere in the Basin will decrease, leading to increased abandonment. These marginal farms are critical to conserving soil, maintaining biodiversity, and reducing fire risk in these areas. Our fine-scale bioeconomic approach provides a realistic prototype for assessing climate change impacts in other Mediterranean agro-ecosystems facing extant and new invasive pests.ecological impacts | economic impacts | species interactions | Olea europaea | desertification

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fine-scale ecological and economic assessment of climate change on olive in the Mediterranean Basin reveals winners and losers

Ponti

Gutiérrez

Ruti

et al. 2014

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

150

110

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…In semi-arid mountainous areas of Mediterranean Europe, land abandonment has been shown to reduce soil loss and sediment delivery in surface water flows, despite slower plant colonization. When the abandoned farmland comprises terraced areas, this trend can be reversed, as small-scale landslides and erosion may increase as terraces collapse [101,102]. Slow recovery of soil properties has been noted in abandoned vineyard soils in semi-arid Spain and attributed to intense soil degradation under the vines [103].…”

Section: Land-use Changesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Soil Degradation and Soil Quality in Western Europe: Current Situation and Future Perspectives

et al. 2014

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“…While AES in these agricultural systems have been previously studied (Calatrava-Leyva et al, 2007;Duarte et al, 2008;Fleskens and de Graaff, 2010;Franco, 2011), to the authors' knowledge none of these works have focused on the ex-ante assessments of farmers' WTA for AES participation, though this is not the case for herbaceous cropping systems (Christensen et al, 2011;Broch and Vedel, 2012). Ex-ante analyses of farmers' WTA for AES participation in permanent crops are opportune now since new AES are being designed for the next programming period, 2014-2020.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The design of agri-environmental schemes: Farmers’ preferences in southern Spain

et al. 2015

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Agri-environmental schemes (AES) play a key role in promoting the production of environmental public goods by European Union agriculture. Although extensive literature has analyzed AES, some important issues remain understudied. This paper performs an ex-ante assessment of AES in permanent cropping, analyzing several issues that have received little attention from researchers, such as ecological focus areas (EFA) and collective participation. For this purpose, a choice experiment was used to assess farmers' preferences toward AES in a case study of olive groves in southern Spain. Results show high heterogeneity among farmers, with different classes being identified, from potential participants to non-participants. As regards EFA, almost half of the farmers would be willing to accept it for low monetary incentives (€8-9/ha per additional 1% of the farmland devoted to EFA) while the rest would do it for moderate-to-high monetary incentives (€41-151/ha per additional 1% of EFA). However, for a high share of EFA (e.g., 5-7%) higher incentives would presumably be required due to the intrinsic spatial restrictions of olive groves. With regard to collective participation, we find that it is unlikely that farmers would participate collectively with the incentive of the up-to-30% EU-wide bonus. These results are relevant for policy-making now when new AES are being designed for the next programming period 2014-2020.

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Traditional olive orchards on sloping land: Sustainability or abandonment?

Cited by 132 publications

References 27 publications

Fine-scale ecological and economic assessment of climate change on olive in the Mediterranean Basin reveals winners and losers

Fine-scale ecological and economic assessment of climate change on olive in the Mediterranean Basin reveals winners and losers

Soil Degradation and Soil Quality in Western Europe: Current Situation and Future Perspectives

The design of agri-environmental schemes: Farmers’ preferences in southern Spain

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