Desarrollo rural y calidad de vida en el entorno del Parque Nacional de Doñana

Este trabajo se centra en el análisis de las motivaciones que subyacen a la atracción de población en una serie de núcleos emplazados en las proximidades del Parque Natural de Doñana, y en la valoración que el conjunto de residentes tiene sobre la presencia de un espacio natural de sus especiales características paisajísticas y medioambientales. El desarrollo y puesta en práctica de medidas de conservación constituye con frecuencia una fuente de conflicto e incluso enfrentamiento entre la Administración y la población que habita en torno a los espacios protegidos. Se tiene la imagen de que este colectivo antepone siempre cualquier actuación dirigida a fomentar el desarrollo económico por encima de los intereses de conservación, por lo que conocer sus opiniones y valoración es tan importante como la aplicación de dichas medidas. Las opiniones manifestadas por los residentes suponen por tanto una contribución decisiva a los objetivos del desarrollo sostenible y la conservacion de las areas naturales.In this paper an analysis is made of the motives of people to move to and reside either permanently or temporarily in the nuclei situated in the proximity of the protected natural area of Doñana. Attention is also paid to the way these residents valuate the presence of the protected natural area itself and the scenic and natural characteristics of it. From this analysis it became clear that the application of conservation measures has not been easy and led to a lot of tension between the different conservation authorities and the autochthonous population. This tension was especially caused by the fact that the economy of the Doñana area, like in most of the other Andalucian rural areas, found itself in a relatively disadvantaged position. For the autochthonous population of the area the creation of more local economic opportunities has therefore been more important than the conservation of the environment. For the future sustainable management of the Doñana area it is therefore very relevant to get a better insight in the way the local people perceive the natural characteristics of the area and the restraining influence of the nature area on the local economy

Protocols for spatial analysis to be implemented in the domain editor by WP5 - Allocation of farm types spatially including the new Member states

Agricultural and Food Policy, Environmental Economics and Policy, Land Economics/Use, Production Economics,

A multidimensional farming system typology

Farm Management,

Protocols for spatial allocation of farm types

Farm Management,

Study Report on Reporting Requirements on Biofuels and Bioliquids stemming from the Directive (EU) 2015/1513

This report was commissioned to gather comprehensive information on, and to provide systematic analysis of the latest available scientific research and the latest available scientific evidence on indirect land use change (ILUC) greenhouse gas emissions associated with production of biofuels and bioliquids. The EU mandatory sustainability criteria for biofuels and bioliquids do not allow the raw material for biofuel production to be obtained from land with high carbon stock or high biodiversity value. However, this does not guarantee that as a consequence of biofuels production such land is not used for production of raw materials for other purposes. If land for biofuels is taken from cropland formerly used for other purposes, or by conversion of grassland in arable land for biofuel production, the former agricultural production on this land has to be grown somewhere else. And if there is no regulation that this must happen sustainably, conversion of land may happen, which is not allowed to be used under the EU sustainability criteria for biofuels. This conversion may take place in other countries than where the biofuel is produced. This is called indirect land use change (ILUC). According to Article 3 of the European Union’s Directive (EU) 2015/1513 of 9 September 2015, the European Commission has to provide information on, and analysis of the available and the best available scientific research results, scientific evidence regarding ILUC emissions associated to the production of biofuels, and in relation to all production pathways. Besides, according to Article 23 of the revised European Union’s Directive 2009/28/EC (RES Directive), the Commission also has to provide the latest available information with regard to key assumptions influencing the results from modelling ILUC GHG emissions, as well as an assessment of whether the range of uncertainty identified in the analysis underlying the estimations of ILUC emissions can be narrowed down, and if the possible impact of the EU policies, such as environment, climate and agricultural policies, can be factored in. An assessment of a possibility of setting out criteria for the identification and certification of low ILUCrisk biofuels that are produced in accordance with the EU sustainability criteria is also required

Agricultural biomass as provisioning ecosystem service: quantification of energy flows

Agro-ecosystems supply provisioning, regulating and cultural services to human society. This study focuses on the agro-ecosystem provisioning services regarding the production of agricultural biomass. These services strongly respond to the socio-economic demands of human beings, and are characterised by an injection of energy in the ecosystems production cycle which is often exceeding the ecological capacity of the ecosystem, i.e. the overall ability of the ecosystem to produce goods and services linked to its bio-physical structure and processes that take place during the agricultural production. Agricultural production is identified as ecosystem service in widely recognised ecosystem service frameworks, but currently there is no clear agreement within the scientific and policy communities on how the ecological-socio-economic flow linked to this provisioning service should be assessed, beyond a mere accounting of yields. This study attempts to provide a new insight to this issue by proposing an approach based on the energy budget, which takes into consideration the energy needed by the ecosystem to supply the service. The approach is based on the concepts of Energy Return on Investment (EROI) and Net Energy Balance (NEB), and considers different bio-physical structures and processes of agro-ecosystems. The work is structured in three parts: the first aims at estimating inputs (machinery, seeds, fertilizers, irrigation, labour) in energy terms; the second at estimating biomass output in energy terms; the third to compare actual agricultural production with three reference scenarios encompassing a range of human input (no input – low input – high input scenarios). Results show that in general terms cereal and grassland systems have the largest energy gains (both in terms of EROI and NEB). Such systems are characterised by a lower economic value of their output compared to other producing systems such as fruits, which have lower energy gains but a higher embodied energy, which is recognized in the market as valuable. Comparison of actual production systems with the high input scenario confirms that current production in Europe is already highly intensive, and that increasing the energy input would not improve the efficiency of the conversion of such additional energy into biomass. Overall, the proposed approach seems a useful tool to identify which are the factors in the agricultural production process that could be modified to improve the energy efficiency in agricultural systems and the sustainability of their production. This study can be considered as a first step in the assessment of the total energy balance of the agro-ecosystem. In fact it deals with the quantification of energy regarding human inputs and the corresponding output and further analysis should address crucial issues such as the quality of the energy and the embodied energy in the plant production, which will help to understand the full complexity of the agro-ecosystemJRC.H.4-Monitoring Agricultural Resource

Methodological concepts for integrated assessment of agricultural and environmental policies in SEAMLESS-IF

Agricultural and Food Policy, Environmental Economics and Policy, Farm Management, Land Economics/Use,

Prospects of Bioenergy Cropping Systems for A More Social-Ecologically Sound Bioeconomy

The growing bioeconomy will require a greater supply of biomass in the future for both bioenergy and bio-based products. Today, many bioenergy cropping systems (BCS) are suboptimal due to either social-ecological threats or technical limitations. In addition, the competition for land between bioenergy-crop cultivation, food-crop cultivation, and biodiversity conservation is expected to increase as a result of both continuous world population growth and expected severe climate change effects. This study investigates how BCS can become more social-ecologically sustainable in future. It brings together expert opinions from the fields of agronomy, economics, meteorology, and geography. Potential solutions to the following five main requirements for a more holistically sustainable supply of biomass are summarized: (i) bioenergy-crop cultivation should provide a beneficial social-ecological contribution, such as an increase in both biodiversity and landscape aesthetics, (ii) bioenergy crops should be cultivated on marginal agricultural land so as not to compete with food-crop production, (iii) BCS need to be resilient in the face of projected severe climate change effects, (iv) BCS should foster rural development and support the vast number of small-scale family farmers, managing about 80% of agricultural land and natural resources globally, and (v) bioenergy-crop cultivation must be planned and implemented systematically, using holistic approaches. Further research activities and policy incentives should not only consider the economic potential of bioenergy-crop cultivation, but also aspects of biodiversity, soil fertility, and climate change adaptation specific to site conditions and the given social context. This will help to adapt existing agricultural systems in a changing world and foster the development of a more social-ecologically sustainable bioeconomy

Building the Policy Ecosystem in Europe for Cultivation and Use of Perennial Biomass Crops

Perennial biomass crops (PBCs) can potentially contribute to all ten Common Agricultural Policy (2023-27) objectives and up to eleven of the seventeen UN Sustainable Development Goals. This paper discusses interlinked issues that must be considered in the expansion of PBC production: i) available land; ii) yield potential; iii) integration into farming systems; iv) research and development requirements; v) utilisation options; and vi) market systems and the socio-economic environment. The challenge to create development pathways that are acceptable for all actors, relies on measurement, reporting and verification of greenhouse gas emissions reduction in combination with other environmental, economic and social aspects. This paper makes the following policy recommendations to enable greater PBC deployment: 1) incentivise farmers and land managers through specific policy measures, including carbon pricing, to allocate their less productive and less profitable land for uses which deliver demonstrable greenhouse gas reductions; 2) enable greenhouse gas mitigation markets to develop and offer secure contracts for commercial developers of verifiable low carbon bioenergy and bio-products; 3) support innovation in biomass utilisation value chains; and 4) continue long-term, strategic research and development and education for positive environmental, economic and social sustainability impacts. © 2023 ETA-Florence Renewable Energies

Combining Nature Conservation and Residential Development in the Netherlands, England and Spain

In this paper the function of protected nature in rural living environments is discussed in relation to residential choice, appreciation of the residential environment and rural development policy. In five case studies a comparison is made between the situation of protected natural areas in the Netherlands, England and Spain. The research results show that protected natural areas are an increasingly popular endogenous quality of rural regions as they have the ability to influence the residential choice and satisfaction of households. Therefore, they have not only become an important driving factor in the attraction of residential and other consumption-orientated activities towards rural areas but also need to be considered in policy formulation. After all, choices have to be made when different functions need to be combined in rural areas. Different activities may have both positive and negative effects on each other and regulatory measures are needed to tune their co-existence. For a sustainable and balanced development of rural areas it is therefore very important to create basic conditions that will make the combination of activities possible within the specific national and regional contexts.