New roles for farming in a differentiated countryside: the Portuguese example

Throughout Europe, the role of farming as the private provider of public goods and services increasingly valuated by society is today generally acknowledged. Furthermore, in the turn towards rural development concerns, multifunctionality as an attribute of rural space has emerged, justifying the territorial approach of farming. The situation facing the multifunctionality demand is nevertheless not the same in all European regions, which by all means is getting strengthened in the transition towards post-productivism. In some regions, there is a productivist orientation and production has a dominant economic role, while others will need to be supported on other functions to survive economically and socially, or may be best suited to environmental functions alone. The vocation of the rural territories is different, and thus also the functions they are able to support. This paper discusses the concept of multifunctionality of the rural areas, and defines a possible methodological approach towards the identification of the different types of rural areas in Europe, based on the identification of ideal types, through the analysis of selected indicators. The empirical application has been developed for the Portuguese Ministry of Agriculture, aiming at assessing the differentiated characteristics and dynamics of the Portuguese rural territory. Analyzing data from 1990 and 2000, at municipal level, three dimensions have been considered: the land cover, the agricultural sector and the rural community. Combining the three analyses, it was possible to identify different vocations of the rural space, and the role that farming could have in the future for the multifunctionality of the territory. Accordingly, the municipalities have been grouped in types, pre-defined as ideal types. This was a first attempt to understand the differentiation of the rural territory in Portugal. For decision-making it should be further developed. It nevertheless shows that there is clear differentiation concerning the possible landscape functions to be developed between regions and a possible way to assess. It also shows that a territorial approach to agriculture may be the key for the maintenance of the sector in many areas where production by itself, as it has been know until now, may be severely threatened

A landscape menu to please them all: Relating users’ preferences to land cover classes in the Mediterranean region of Alentejo, Southern Portugal

To address multifunctional land-use management, and as a response to societal expectations with regard to agriculture and well-being in rural spaces, one of the aspects in need of particular attention in the current research is the spatial expression of the landscape attractiveness. Current knowledge about the attributes of landscape that are most highly appreciated, and the ways that individual differences may influence landscape preferences, is still incomplete, particularly for complex agricultural landscapes in the Mediterranean. The aim of this paper is to provide an assessment, including quantitative and qualitative approaches, of user-based landscape preferences in the Mediterranean region of Alentejo, Southern Portugal. To allow for the spatial expression of these preferences and the evaluation of the impact of changes to land-use, specific land cover classes have been used as the basis for our survey. The results are aimed at adding to the body of research literature on the diversity of the landscape attributes that are valued by different user groups and at contributing to informed decision-making processes when resolving land-use issues in the region being studied. To attain this objective, a photo-questionnaire was conducted to identify preferred land cover classes and the land cover qualities that landscape users appreciate most. The study shows that the way that landscape is used is a significant factor influencing the preferences, following a clear functional demand pattern. Not only are there differences between land managers as producers and others as consumers, but the appreciated land cover qualities and land cover preferences also differ from one consumer group to another. Knowledge regarding the preferences of specific groups can inform landscape management at different levels of governance in such a way that multi-functionality may be more successfully attained. Moreover, certain particularities with regard to the preferred landscapes in the region being studied are discussed in comparison with the results of earlier studies from other regions. In this regard, this paper puts great weight on the importance of territorial contextualization in regard to making general assessments concerning landscape preferences

Linking farm management and ecosystem service provision: Challenges and opportunities for soil erosion prevention in Mediterranean silvo-pastoral systems

At both local and landscape levels, farm management is the main driver of land cover change influencing ecosystem functions, processes and traits. In Mediterranean large-scale silvo-pastoral systems these changes can have serious implications in the provision of valuable ecosystem services (ES). Current ES assessment, mapping and valuation are still focused in representing the state and trends of ES provision, often missing the link to actual farm management and farm management systems. We propose an approach that, at the farm level, combines the classification of farm management systems with indicators of ES provision. This is illustrated for soil erosion prevention, a key ES in mitigating current and future impacts in Mediterranean regions and the proposed approach is tested in Southern Portugal. We characterize thirty-eight large-scale farm management units (FMU) regarding their management system and environmental traits. Each FMU was then classified according to their management system and a set of ES indicators was calculated. To classify the FMU, data on livestock composition and grazing density, pastures, and soil mobilization practices were object of a cluster analysis and the result was tested against a set of ES indicators. The results highlight the implications and challenges for the provision of soil erosion prevention under different farm management systems and draw a clear relation between more intensive management practices and the degradation of service provision. Our results can also be used to support land management and policy design through the definition of intensity thresholds that consider the local environmental and ecological condition

Neonatal pneumomediastinum and the spinnaker-sail sign

A male infant was born at 40 weeks of gestation by vacuum-assisted vaginal delivery. Mild respiratory distress with expiratory grunting and subcostal retraction was noted 1 hour after birth. Arterial oxygen saturation remained at more than 95% without the administration of supplemental oxygen. Chest radiography performed 6 hours after birth (Panel A) showed the spinnaker-sail sign, consisting of a large, wedge-shaped opacity extending from the right hemidiaphragm to the superior mediastinum (white arrows), representing thymic tissue displaced from its usual location by a collection of gas under pressure (black arrows). Axial computed tomography of the chest revealed air trapped between the pericardial sac and the thymus, confirming a diagnosis of anterior pneumomediastinum (Panel B, arrow). Named for its visual resemblance to the headsail of a boat, the spinnaker-sail sign occurs with a spontaneous anterior pneumomediastinum and usually resolves without specific treatment. After being observed for clinical and radiographic improvement for 3 weeks, the infant was discharged home in good condition

How can the land managers and his multi-stakeholder network at the farm level influence the multifunctional transitions pathways?

The changing role of agriculture is at the core of transition pathways in many rural areas. Productivism, post-productivism and multifunctionality have been targeted towards a possible conceptualization of the transition happening in rural areas. The factors of change, including productivist and post-productivist trends, are combined in various ways and have gone in quite diverse directions and intensities, in individual regions and localities. Even, in the same holding, productivist and post-productivist strategies can co-exist spatially, temporally, structurally, leading to a higher complexity in changing patterns. In south Portugal extensive landscapes, dominated by traditionally managed agro-forestry systems under a fuzzy land use pattern, multifunctionality at the farm level is indeed conducted by different stakeholders whose interests may or not converge: a multifunctional land management may indeed incorporate post-productivist and productivist agents. These stakeholders act under different levels of ownership, management and use, reflecting a particular land management dynamic, in which different interests may exist, from commercial production to a variety of other functions (hunting, bee-keeping, subsistence farming, etc.), influencing management at the farm level and its supposed transition trajectory. This multistakeholder dynamic is composed by the main land-manager (the one who takes the main decisions), sub land-managers (land-managers under the rules of the main land-manager), workers and users (locals or outsiders), whose interest and action within the holding may vary differently according to future (policy, market, etc.) trends, and therefore reflect more or less resilient systems. The goal of the proposed presentation is to describe the multi-stakeholder relations at the farm level, its spatial expression and the factors influencing the land management system resilience in face of the transition trends in place

A local landscape in transition between production and consumption: can new management arrangements preserve the local landscape character?

Around towns in the Alentejo region, the landscape is dominated by a characteristic agricultural small scale mosaic. These areas are central in the region landscape character, – even if the large scale latifundia landscape of the extensive silvo-pastoral systems is most commonly associated with the region. In the last two decades, these parcels became extremely attractive for new comers, who settle in the rural context as residents, week-end visitors, being often also lifestyle farmers. The paper presents a case-study landscape, in Montemor-o-Novo, a small town 100 km from Lisbon, highly subject to the pressure for consumption uses, by urban users. The study shows that the new owners, even if they have settled in the area due to the tranquility and social bindings of the rural, end up doing farming, with new or reshaped production objectives, markets and models, but at the same time maintaining the traditional farm systems. Thus, the landscape character is maintained, so far. Nevertheless, the role of these neo-rurals and lifestyle farmers is still an unseen role, both by the agriculture and the planning sectors. And thus the question is, whether the combination of actors and land management drivers will continue maintaining the landscape in the futur

The Ecological Dimension into Land Governance

The International Association for Landscape Ecology (IALE) aims to develop landscape ecology as the scientific basis for the analysis, planning and management of the landscapes of the world. IALE advances international co-operation and interdisciplinary synergism within the field, through scientific, scholarly, educational and communication activities. At the Meeting of the Italian IALE chapter, Teresa Pinto Correia Presented 2 studies within The Ecological Dimension into Land Governance: Periurban project and transdisciplinary work in Montad

Policy impacts on regulating ecosystem services: looking at the implications of 60 years of landscape change on soil erosion prevention in a Mediterranean silvo-pastoral system

Context: Policy decisions form a major driver of land use change, with important implications for socially and environmentally susceptible regions. It is well known that there can be major unintended consequences, especially where policies are not tailored to regionally specific contexts. Objectives: In this paper we assess the implications of 60 years of agricultural policies on soil erosion prevention (SEP) by vegetation, an essential regulating ecosystem service in Mediterranean Europe. Methods: To assess these implications we produced and analysed a time series of land cover/use and environmental conditions datasets (from 1951 to 2012) in relation to changing agricultural policies for a specific region in the southern Portugal. A set of indicators related to SEP allowed us to identify that land use intensification as increased soil erosion in the last 60 years. Results: Particularly in the last 35 years, as a consequence of headage payments for cattle, the agricultural policy had a significant effect in the density and renewal of the tree cover, resulting in drastic effects for the provision of the SEP service. These are more significant after 1986, coinciding with the implementation of several Common Agricultural Policy instruments focused on increasing the modernization and productivity capacity of farm systems. Conclusions: The results show some unintended effects of agricultural policy mechanisms on ecosystem service provision and highlight the need for context-based policies, tailored to the environmental constrains and potentials of each region

Emergy analysis of a silvo-pastoral system, a case study in southern Portugal

The Mediterranean silvo-pastoral system known as Montado, in Portugal, is a complex land use system composed of an open tree stratum in various densities and an herbaceous layer, used for livestock grazing. Livestock also profit from the acorns, and the grazing contributes to avoid shrub encroachment. In the last 20 years, subsidies from the European Union have greatly promoted cattle rearing in this system and the introduction of heavy breeds, at the expense of sheep, goats or the native cattle breeds. The balance of the traditional system is thus threatened, and a precise assessment of the balance between the different components of the system, therefore is highly needed. The goal of this study was to gain a better understanding of a Montado farm system with cattle rearing as the major economic activity by applying the emergy evaluation method to calculate indices of yield, investment, environmental loading and sustainability. By integrating different ecosystem components, the emergy evaluation method allows a comprehensive evaluation of this complex and multifunctional system at the scale of an individual farm. This method provides a set of indices that can help us understand the system and design management strategies that maximize emergy flow in the farm. In this paper, we apply the emergy evaluation method to a Montado farm with cattle rearing, as a way to gain a better understanding of this system at the farm scale. The value for the transformity of veal (2.66E+06 sej J−1) is slightly higher, when compared to other systems producing protein. That means that the investment of nature and man in this product was higher and it requires a premium price on the market. The renewability for Holm Oaks Farm (49 %), lower than for other similar systems, supports the assumption that this is a farm in which, comparing with others, the number of purchased inputs in relation to renewable inputs provided by nature, is higher. The Emergy Investment Ratio is 0.91 for cattle rearing compared to a value of 0.49 for cork and 0.43 for firewood harvesting, making it clear that cattle rearing is a more labor demanding activity comparing with extractive activities as cork and firewood harvesting