Colloque international - Paysages de la vie quotidienne: Regards croisés entre la recherche et l’action

S’il est vrai que la très grande majorité des populations européennes vit aujourd’hui dans des espaces urbains ou périurbains, il est difficile d’affirmer que les paysages qu’elles vivent aient fait l’objet d’une attention particulièrement exigeante de la part de l’action politique. Ces paysages sont souvent considérés comme dégradés et peu amènes, et portent souvent les stigmates de l’exclusion sociale et de la détérioration des conditions de vie. Le colloque que le ministère français de l’écologie, de l’énergie, du développement durable et de la mer, la Généralitat de Catalunya, la Communauté d’Agglomération de Perpignan, les villes de Perpignan et de Girona se proposent d’organiser en 2011 a précisément l’objectif de reconsidérer ces paysages qui sont vécus quotidiennement par des millions de citoyens européens ou des autres continents sous l’angle d’une part des projets d’amélioration dont ils ont pu être les objets, sous l’angle des « valeurs particulières qui sont attribuées par les acteurs et les populations concernés » et d’autre part, sous l’angle de la mobilisation de ces derniers pour les revaloriser. Les nombreux pays membres du Conseil de l’Europe qui ont ratifié la Convention Européenne du Paysage se sont engagés notamment à donner une place privilégiée aux paysages du quotidien et « à mettre en place des procédures de participation du public, des autorités locales et régionales, et des autres acteurs concernés par la conception et la réalisation des politiques du paysage ». Qu’en est-il réellement ? Quelle est la place que les procédures mises en œuvre par les institutions publiques et les collectivités territoriales ont accordée à la négociation et à la participation des acteurs dans l’amélioration de la qualité des paysages ? Parmi ces expériences, quelles sont celles qui permettent d’affirmer que ces formes de négociation et de participation sont un gage de réussite ? Et au-delà des projets relevant des institutions politiques, qu’en est-il de ceux que développe le milieu associatif qui entend contribuer à l’amélioration du paysage cadre de vie des populations. Par ailleurs, les projets d’aménagement paysager, parfois dénommé projet de paysage ou les opérations de planification territoriale à dimension paysagère sont de plus en plus considérés comme des processus qui évoluent en se nourrissant des enseignements que l’expérience collective d’analyse et d’action apporte. Le projet d’aménagement paysager conçu comme processus dans le temps et dans l’espace exige-t-il des méthodes particulières et lesquelles ? Enfin, les paysages du quotidien sont fortement affectés par l’ensemble des projets d’aménagement du territoire ou de développement économique : qu’en est-il alors de la dimension paysagère ? Ces diverses questions ne sont pas adressées uniquement à la communauté scientifique. Elles interrogent également les acteurs institutionnels et politiques et les praticiens du paysage. Ce colloque est donc ouvert au dialogue entre les méthodes opérationnelles et les méthodes cognitives. Cette ouverture porte évidemment une double exigence : d’une part de donner la parole aux « fabricants » de paysage, quels qu’ils soient (professionnels, élus, experts, membres d’ONG ou simples habitants) mais également aux chercheurs et surtout de favoriser le dialogue entre ces deux catégories. D’autre part, de fournir au débat les données qui permettent d’évaluer l’efficacité des méthodes mises en œuvre et parmi celles-ci les méthodes fondées sur la participation ou l’échange et le partage de la connaissance ou des objectifs de l’action. Mais lorsque l’on évoque l’efficacité, il ne s’agit pas de restreindre la question de la qualité des paysages à leur seul aspect esthétique. Il s’agit également de savoir si les méthodes mises en œuvre dans des projets ont permis d’accéder aux exigences du développement durable et en particulier si elles ont pu garantir l’équité sociale générationnelle et intergénérationnelle ou la qualité des milieux et de la biodiversité ; tout en permettant aux individus et aux catégories sociales de trouver leur place au sein de la société et de penser l’avenir avec optimisme, pour eux-mêmes et pour leurs descendants. Comment se croisent et s’interpellent réciproquement les notions de paysage et de développement durable ? Comment notamment est prise en compte la dimension temporelle dans les projets et les politiques publiques ? Quelles conséquences sur les projets, leur mode de production et leur gouvernance ? Comment ces notions sont elles intégrées dans les pratiques professionnelles ? Si d’emblée, cette proposition a mis l’accent sur les paysages de forte densité démographique, c'est-à-dire a priori urbains et périurbains, il ne faudrait cependant pas croire que les paysages ruraux, de montagne ou du littoral sont exclus de la réflexion collective. Ils sont également vécus quotidiennement par leurs habitants et ils entretiennent avec les premiers des relations qui portent en elles-mêmes des complémentarités ou des antagonismes qu’il s’agira de justifier et de mettre à jour. Ils sont porteurs, comme les paysages urbains de nombreuses expériences de participation et de négociation sociale

The CAP towards 2020:for a balanced territorial development

THis conference adresses de need for a more territorially based CAP for the next framework programme, considering the diversity and differentiation of farming systems in Europ

High Nature Value Farming in Portugal.

High Nature Value (HNV) farming systems are inherently valuable for biodiversity. They use semi-natural pastures, meadows and orchards, as well as species-rich arable land, and often retain a wealth of landscape features. HNV farming is present in all European countries, with a diversity of types and extent. Apart from being the cornerstone of European farmland biodiversity, these types of farming provide a multitude of other services for society, including sustainable rural economies, and the rich social fabric and character of Europe’s landscapes. The environmental, socio-cultural and territorial significance of HNV farming is increasingly recognised, but greater awareness is needed amongst policy makers and the wider public. This chapter on Portugal is part of a book presenting an overview of HNV farming across 35 European countries, describing the main characteristics and presenting examples of farming systems, farms and farmers. Beside the country chapters there are thematic chapters looking at a range of issues of farming, nature, economy and policy. In Portugal exists an immensely rich heritage of traditional farming systems, almost all of which are still of High Nature Value. Some of these use large-scale semi-natural areas – the baldios and lameiros of the north and the montado in the south. Others are characterised by low-intensity mosaics – small-scale permanent cropping farms in the south and especially the typical smallholdings of the northern uplands. Both the area of farmland and the number of farmers have declined steeply over recent years; all HNV farmland associated with small farms are in practice severely threatened. On the southern latifundia, the picture is more complex – cork prices maintain a relatively good income, but the quality of management of many montados is in decline, with both localised intensification and abandonment. New intensive systems are being put in place, included irrigated low nature value olive monocultures. A territorial vision for Portugal’s agricultural landscapes is only in its infancy; this is a severe impediment to the development of holistic and targeted support for HNV farming systems. Economic marginalisation has allowed the survival of Portuguese HNV farming systems into the early 21st century; a socio-economically and ecologically sustainable future for those systems or their modern successors requires an end to their political marginalisation

Paisagem material, paisagem simbólica e identidade no concelho de Castelo de Vide

O artigo incide sobre a relação entre paisagem e identidade social no contexto da presente transformação e reinvenção do espaço rural. Discutem-se os resultados e a metodologia de um estudo multidisciplinar que mobilizou conhecimentos tanto da antropologia como da geografia. Com base numa tipologia da paisagem e em narrativas pessoais e do lugar, equaciona-se o papel da paisagem como operador simbólico na produção de identidades locais em Castelo de Vide (Norte alentejano). Identificam- -se e descrevem-se os eixos de diferenciação simultaneamente espacial e social que consubstanciam, neste caso, a relação dinâmica entre paisagem e identidade local

A local landscape in transition between production and consumption goals: new management arrangements and new challenges for governance.

Around all towns in the Alentejo region, the landscape is dominated by an agricultural mosaic, where small scale farming dominates, composed of olive groves combined with pastures, fruit orchards, and vegetable gardens, in the most fertile and water abundant soils. This is a totally different pattern then the large scale landscape of the extensive silvo-pastoral systems in the latifundia that normally is associated with the region. It is not the most know, but it is the landscape where people live or see in their everyday life. These small scale farm units have increasingly lost their importance as production units over the last decades, even if farming has been maintained by aging local population. In the last two decades, these parcels became extremely attractive for new comers, who settle in the rural context as lifestyle farmers, or simply as new residents (permanent or week-end houses). These new comers have higher economic possibilities, often rebuilding the houses and investing in the land. They search for a new life quality. Farming and the production of food have been loosing their importance – but it is increasing again, due to the raising demand for local and quality food products and the difficult economic situation of many families. As farming is concerned, new arrangements emerge: the new owners may be able to keep farming, often with new or reshaped production objectives, markets and models; they may search for associated older farmers in the area who support them with their knowledge and with this maintain the traditional farm systems; or they may let others, new comers or locals, use their land. The mixture of the different trends calls for new management arrangements, where the traditional cooperation and neighbour relations are reshaped. These new arrangements are emerging but still need to be strengthened and acknowledged by authorities and policies, so they can unfold

Challenges for heritage landscape management: the case of the Causses and the Cévennes

In some Mediterranean peripheral areas, highly adapted extensive traditional agro‐pastoral systems have been in place due to the existent biophysical constrains. These systems, resulting from long historical experiences and empirical knowledge progressively incorporated by generations of farmers, have strongly contributed for the existence of outstanding resultant landscapes today. Based on society’s increasingly interest in such landscapes labels such as Unesco Heritage landscape have been developed. At the same time, farmers in these peripheral areas struggle to keep their farming incomes in a globalized liberal market scenario. In the Mediterranean agro-pastoral cultural landscape The Causses and the Cévennes (World Heritage ‘Cultural Living Landscape’ in UNESCO’s list since June 2012), the traditional systems in place are under diverse changing trends, from overgrazing to extensification, indicating that the landscapes and values recognized within them are far from secured. Landscape conservation in the new rural development policy post‐2013 is now under priority, with focus on “restoring and preserving the state of European Landscapes”. The need is there to develop tools supporting effective management of heritage landscapes. As farmers stand as the ones changing more directly landscape character, through their attitudes and practices, one first step towards more effective management of heritage landscapes is to understand: how is the concept of world heritage agro‐pastoral cultural landscape seen by farmers? As a unifying concept reinforcing agro‐pastoralism importance and highlighting its opportunities? Or as a political strategic label with little effect on their ways of managing the land? The goal of the present work is to assess the opinions of farmers and other local stakeholders in regard to heritage landscape, introducing some of the challenges within land management and landscape conservation that lay ahead

Linking research to practice: the landscape as the basis for integrating social and ecological perspectives of the rural

The rural spaces in Europe are undergoing complex processes of transition, at multiple scales, and rhythms. In order to grasp and understand the changes occurring, the need emerges for new, conceptual approaches that make it possible to combine the different factors that shape spaces. Recent, literature on the multifunctional character of rural spaces and their transition pathways shows the, need for spatially based approaches, where the natural characteristics of a landscape are combined, with the socio-economic and cultural drivers that affect its changes. Experience shows how practical, questions on the changes affecting the rural, addressed by society to the scientific community, are of a, new character and require novel research approaches. This paper argues that landscape based, approaches can be useful basis for the required conceptual innovation. The paper presents and, discusses a set of examples of practice driven research developments, in contrasting regions of Europe. And it proposes a conceptual model which aims to contextualize empirical research driven by, problems set up in practice, and combining the ecological and structural dimensions with the socioeconomic, and cultural ones, all converging in the rural landscape, at multiple scales. The landscape, as, the spatial entity, in its material and immaterial dimensions, is presented in this paper as the most, comprehensive basis for the required step forward. This does not mean a disciplinary landscape, analysis revisited, but a new multi-scale and multi-domain place based approach, where the place is, the rural landscape

Unfolding relations between land cover and farm management: high nature value assessment in complex silvo-pastoral systems

The high nature value (HNV) concept, proposed by the European Environment Agency, recognizes that specific farming systems support high biodiversity levels, mainly as a result of extensive management practices. The Portuguese montado is one of the most significant HNV systems in southern Europe. However, considering the great complexity characterizing these systems both in land management and in landscape structure, a specific context-oriented methodology to assess which montado areas are likely to be classified as HNV farmland is needed. In this sense, the aim of this study is to explore a methodological approach which makes it possible to assess land management pressures through land cover information on these complex silvo-pastoral systems. The proposed methodology was tested through a local case study in a montado area in southern Portugal, assessing the relation between management practices and a vegetation cover index. Results show that in similar montado areas different land management strategies varying in stocking density, but also in type of grazing animals and shrub control practices, configure different vegetation cycles. These results indicate there is a way to develop a straightforward methodology to assess the HNV value of Mediterranean silvo-pastoral systems based on land cover indicators. These would make it possible to assess the HNV of montado areas with direct and objective information and independent of farmer’s surveys or other farm-based data