Resilient food production - resilient landscapes. The role of heterogeneity and scale

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Management of rented farmland in Norway: Factors impacting on tenants’ decisions to make investments

Renting agricultural land is a common practice in many countries. The possibility to rent land provides farmers with increased flexibility in terms of production volume. Land renting may have various effects on farmland management; however, results from studies analysing these are ambivalent. Farmland in the best possible state is a prerequisite for following up ambitions of feeding a growing population through a sustainable agriculture. Decisions regarding investments on farmland are key. The aim of this study is to increase the understanding of which factors are the most important ones for farmers’ decisions about investments on land they rent. We carried out a questionnaire survey followed by a multiple linear regression considering 34 variables. Although variables included in our model come out as significant in explaining investments, a large part of the variation is left unexplained (R2 = 0.22). Our interpretation of this result is that making investments is a complex decision. Non-economic factors impacting on farmers’ investment decisions such as trust or norms may contribute to the unexplained variation, but may only have been captured partly by our variables. Moreover, decisions regarding investments may not only vary among farmers but also among investments made by an individual farmer. The complex nature of the decisions on how to treat rented land makes it challenging for policymakers to develop measures targeted at farmers renting land. However, the finding that farmers are driving longer distances to rented land than they find acceptable deserves political attention. One potential policy implication may be strengthened incentives for land re-allotment. Re-allotment may address increasing distances and potential consequences such as reduced productivity and increased land abandonment. However, the sustainability of a re-allotment process needs to be considered carefully in terms of economic viability, ecological soundness and social responsibility.Management of rented farmland in Norway: Factors impacting on tenants’ decisions to make investmentspublishedVersio

Landskapets mellomrom – fra gårdbrukerens perspektiv

I prosjektet «Mellomrommet» har vi kartlagt mangfoldet av plantearter som finnes i jordbrukslandskapet, men på arealer som ikke er i aktiv bruk. Vi har også intervjuet en gruppe gårdbrukere om deres tanker rundt disse arealene og hva som finnes der.publishedVersio

Vipa varsler om vår - men stiller krav til arealene

Når vinteren går mot slutten snakker folk hyppig om vårtegn. Et av de tidligste vårtegnene bærer det velklingende navnet Vanellus vanellus på latin. I slutten av februar og begynnelsen av mars kommer vipene tilbake til det norske jordbrukslandskapet. Denne fantastisk flotte fuglen er et populært vårtegn der den bedriver luftakrobatikk over åkerjorda

Bruk av skog til bioenergi - betyr det noe for opplevelsesverdier?

Som en del av det grønne skiftet har økt uttak av biomasse fra skogene våre fått mye oppmerksomhet. Målet er blant annet å øke produksjonen av bioenergi. Økt uttak kan påvirke hvordan skogene oppleves og hvor tiltrekkende de er for rekreasjon, noe som igjen kan ha betydning i et folkehelseperspektiv

Agri-environmental policies and their effectiveness in Norway, Austria, Bavaria, France, Switzerland and Wales: Review and recommendations

This review identifies ‘successful’ policies for biodiversity, cultural heritage, and landscape scenery and recreation in Austria, France, Bavaria (Germany), Wales (UK), and Switzerland, and a comparison with current efforts in Norway. All of these countries face similar risks and challenges, mostly with regard to mountain areas. Sources used for the analysis were the evaluations of the national Rural Development Plans, and the midway evaluation and national ex-post evaluations of the CAP programme period 2000–2006. An evaluation of the Swiss Direct Payment System was available from 2009, as well as information about further development from 2011. Scientific papers and other official reports by, e.g., the OECD, the European Commission and the European Environmental Agency, were used as well. Expert interviews were conducted by telephone and e-mail. Measures deemed particularly successful often had very specific aims, included local information, appeared to involve fairly simple application and organization requirements, were developed and designed in cooperation with farmers and were adapted to local characteristics or challenges. Measures considered less successful were criticized for being unfair in terms of regional repartition of grants, for lacking transparency, for being applied only to small areas, and for requiring a great deal of organization and implementation work. In terms of future developments of the Norwegian agricultural and agri-environmental subsidy system we recommend examining the following particular policies more closely: the Organic Farming scheme in Austria, the Welsh whole-farm scheme Tir Gofal, and the Austrian, Bavarian and Swiss measures for cultural landscape maintenance. Since no ‘best practice’ or ‘standard design’ of agricultural support schemes has been recognized on an international level to date, an enhanced evaluation system will be as important as new and adjusted schemes. Monitoring data suitable for comparison should be collected, based on internationally defined indicators. For the time being, we suggest “double-tracked” agri-environmental support: mainly measures that have proved to be effective; but also measures where positive effects are considered very likely due to well-known cause-effect relationships, even though they may not yet have been thoroughly documented and approved, e.g. because of their long-term character or due to weaknesses in monitoring and evaluation

Diversity patterns in high-latitude grasslands

Aim Grasslands of varying land-use intensity and history were studied to describe and test species richness and compositional patterns and their relationships with the physical environment, land cover of the surrounding landscape, patch geometry, and grazing. Location The mainland of Norway. Methods We utilized data from the Norwegian Monitoring Programme for Agricultural Landscapes, which recorded vascular plants from 569 plots, placed within 97 monitoring squares systematically distributed throughout agricultural land on the Norwegian mainland. We identified four grassland types: (i) moderately fertilized, moist meadows; (ii) overgrown agricultural land; (iii) cultivated pastures and disturbed ground; and (iv) natural/unfertilized and outfield pastures. Results Soil moisture and grazing measures were found to be important in explaining species compositional variation in all grassland types. Richness patterns were best explained by complex and differing combinations of environmental indicators. Nevertheless, negative (nitrogen and light level) or unimodal (pH) responses were similar across grassland types. Vegetation plots adjacent to areas historically and/or currently dominated by mires, forests, or pastures, as well as abandoned and overgrown grasslands, had a slightly higher species richness. Larger grasslands surrounding the vegetation plots had slightly less species than smaller grasslands. Conclusions This study demonstrates that data from a national monitoring programme on agricultural grasslands can be used for plant ecological research. The results indicate that climate-change-related shifts along moisture and nutrient gradients (increases) may alter both species composition and species richness in the studied grasslands. It is likely that large and contiguous managed (grass)land might affect areas perceived as remnants, probably caused by the transformation to homogeneous (agri)cultural landscapes reducing edge zones, which in turn may threaten the species pool and richness. The importance of land use and land-cover composition should be considered when planning management actions in extensively used high-latitude grasslands.acceptedVersio

Overvåking av fredete kulturmiljøer - utvikling av metode for langsiktig overvåking

Rapporten presenterer en metode egnet til å overvåke fredete kulturmiljøer, og er et resultat av et oppdrag gitt av Riksantikvaren. I samråd med oppdragsgiver ble det valgt ut to fredete kulturmiljøer for å eksemplifisere forslag til metode; Havråtunet i Osterøy kommune, Hordaland og området rundt Birkelunden i Oslo. Ved fredning av kulturmiljø legges det stor vekt på helheten og en meningsfylt sammenheng i området, og hvordan dette kan bevares for ettertiden. Forslaget til metode for overvåking av fredete kulturmiljøer består av fire ulike tilnærmingsmåter/metoder. De fire er; indikatorer utledet fra flyfoto, bakkefoto, feltstudier og registerdata. Indikatorer for tilstand og endring som skal inngå i en rapportering bør være klare og enkle. Det er forskriftene som definerer hva som bør overvåkes og hvor detaljert, og dermed også avgjør hva som vil rapporteres som tap eller god skjøtsel. Basert på forskriftene og forslag til metoder, er det utarbeidet et sett med indikatorer som kan registreres og rapporteres for de valgte områdene. Hva som er grensen for akseptable endringer må vurderes sammen med fagmyndighet. Ingen av de fire metodene er alene tilstrekkelige, men samlet tror vi en kombinasjon vil gi en god dekning av formålet med overvåkingen.publishedVersio

Landbruket – mer enn matproduksjon

Gjennom en periode har både antallet foretak som driver jordbruk i Norge, og jordbruksareal som holdes i drift, gått ned. Landskap der forholdene har ligget til rette for å drive jordbruk har mange steder en lang brukshistorie. Her har menneskers aktivitet satt spor, både i form av kulturhistoriske spor og i form av arter som trives nær jordbruk og bosetning. I en vurdering av hvilke areal som bør prioriteres for å bringes tilbake i jordbruksproduksjon kan også dette være viktige forhold å ta med i vurderingene.Landbruket – mer enn matproduksjonpublishedVersio

Langt ute på landet?

En stor andel av jordbruksarealet i Norge ligger nær byer og tettsteder. Nær 83 % av befolkningen bor i tettsteder, og denne andelen øker årlig. Fra dette perspektivet kan nærheten være positiv, om man tenker på avstand fra jord til bord. Men har jordbruksarealenes nærhet til tettsteder også betydning i forhold til om disse arealene er i drift eller ikke?Langt ute på landet?publishedVersio