Women's Cooperatives and their Contribution to the Local Development of the North Aegean Region, Greece

In the last twenty years Greece has witnessed the emergence and establishment of women’s cooperatives, a form of productive agricultural cooperatives. This paper explores their importance and their contribution to local development. Evidence is presented for an island region, the North Aegean. Personal interviews, using structured questionnaires, were conducted with the chairwomen of all the region’s cooperatives in order to obtain an insight into their structure and dynamics. According to the findings of this study, women’s cooperatives are characterized by substantial potential on the one hand and by serious drawbacks on the other. The economic performance of the cooperatives is satisfactory, while the use of local resources and ‘know how’ contribute to the development of the region. Interpersonal problems, the inability of the cooperatives’ members to fully understand their new role as businesswomen and the small participation of rural women are the cooperatives’ major problems. The future of the women’s cooperatives is still unclear despite their 20 years of existence.women’s cooperatives, North Aegean, local development, Community/Rural/Urban Development,

Accessibility of Peripheral Regions: Evidence from Aegean Islands (Greece)

Islands, especially smaller ones, are characterized by discontinuity of space and are considered as some of the least accessible areas. In this paper, we seek to shed light on the accessibility problems that islands face from the point of view of island residents. This shift in emphasis considers additional aspects to accessibility that include the availability of connections to access services required to cover the needs of island residents and the different destinations where these may be available, and the time that one may have to spend to get to these destinations in order to use these services. An alternative measure of accessibility is proposed, based on the time required to travel; this is then applied to three different Greek islands in the Aegean Sea. The accessibility of the residents of these islands to selected services is compared with that of settlements in continental Greece of similar population and distance to the capital Athens. The findings clearly demonstrate the adversities that island residents have to face, especially for smaller islands, where accessing selected services may require as many as four destinations, with virtual distances 4 to 6 times longer than ‘real distances’

Cultural landscapes and behavioral transformations:An agent-based model for the simulation and discussion of alternative landscape futures in East Lesvos, Greece

Agricultural intensification and abandonment have been identified as two of the more prominent and polarizing drivers of landscape change in Europe. These transitions may induce deterioration in landscape functioning and character, particularly in cultural landscapes demonstrative of evolving human-environment dynamics that have sustained environmental benefits through time. Cultural and behavioral motives are important root influences to such landscape transitions, yet efforts to address landscape degradation are often hampered by a failure to account for the heterogeneous decision-making nature of its agents of change and the inherent complexity of socio-ecological systems. Novel techniques are required to further disentangle responses to multi-level drivers and discuss alternative landscape development trajectories. Agent-based models constructed by means of participatory approaches present increasingly applied tools in this context. This study sought to capture and model the future perspectives emerging from presently occurring farming discourses in the region of Gera (Lesvos, Greece), characterized by persistent abandonment of its traditionally managed olive plantations. We constructed an agent-based model iteratively in collaboration with the local farming community and experts in landscape research. Empirical findings informed the model through the construction of a farmer typology, revealing a heavy reliance of the farming community upon sectorial profitability, prevalent cultural farming motives and emerging landscape initiatives. The model examined the de-coupled role of agricultural profitability and landscapes initiatives in shaping the behavior of land managers, mapping alternative landscape futures over a period of 25 years. Model results illustrate both increased profitability and action by landscape initiatives are required to reverse abandonment trends within the simulated time frame. The hypothesized ability of landscape initiatives to maintain and promote a cultural drive amongst adhering farmers is crucial for securing behavioral transformations towards professionalism. This study confirmed agent-based modelling to be intuitively received by stakeholders who significantly contributed to model structure refinement and the rejection of a status quo scenario

Island identities? Comparing the perceptions of islanders towards governing institutions and quality of life

In this paper, we seek to shed light on issues related to satisfaction with government institutions and personal quality of life from living on an island, teasing out common themes to determine whether there is a shared identity among islanders, regardless of geography, level of development and size, as it relates to governance. We explore these qualities in six different groups of island residents across ten islands or archipelagos, ranging in size, location and governance features. Half are sovereign states and the rest are subnational island jurisdictions: Tobago (Trinidad & Tobago), Grenada, Prince Edward Island (Canada), St. Lucia, Lesvos (Greece), Cyprus, Newfoundland (Canada), Iceland, Reunion (France) and Mauritius. Using a Likert-type questionnaire, island participants were asked about the factors that constitute “quality of life” on their islands, with a particular focus on governance. The construction of composite indicators from survey questions and cluster analysis allows us to compare the attitudes within and between different groups of islands and stakeholder groups. Results suggest that, despite significant contextual variances among stakeholders and island locations and situations, some common threads run through all groups and all islands, related to the group the respondents were classified in. These threads comprise a rough basis for a deeper understanding of island identities.peer-reviewe

Advancing the study of driving forces of landscape change

Over the past 25 years, the study of driving forces of landscape change has developed into a central theme in land change science by contributing to theory development, promoting the analysis of causation of change and gaining insights into how landscape development could be steered into a societally more desirable direction. Based on this progress, we designate important research avenues, reviewing critical challenges forming the base for advancing the study of driving forces of landscape change and addressing the question on how the study of driving forces can contribute to system transformative research. For each of the research avenues, we describe the current dominant approach and provide some specific ways of advancing both the conceptualization and the research methods. Together, advancing on these research avenues will promote a more social-ecological systems perspective to the study of driving forces of landscape change.ISSN:1747-4248ISSN:1747-423

Farmers' attitudes and landscape change: evidence from the abandonment of terraced cultivations on Lesvos, Greece

Agricultural landscapes are the product of the interaction of the natural environment of an area and the practices of its farmers. In this paper, farmers' practices are examined in order to describe and understand processes of landscape change in terraced fields on the island of Lesvos, Greece. We examine the changes of the terraced fields of each farmer and the reasons for these changes, practices concerning the maintenance of terraces and how farmers view this landscape change. The concept of farming systems is used to link farmers' practices at the farm level with changes at the landscape level. Data come from research via questionnaires to farmers in order to record their practices, to explore changes in land use and the landscape elements and the reasons behind these changes, and finally to record their opinions on the landscape change that result. Findings indicate that although farm households in the case study areas depend on farming incomes by very different degrees, they employ similar cultivation and landscape management practices. At the same time, "hobby" farm households may be more prone to abandonment of fields and negligence of landscape elements (here terraces)

The ESPON 2013 programme : the development of the islands – European islands and cohesion policy (EUROISLANDS)

The report was accepted by the ESPON Monitoring Committee as it demonstrates interesting outputs and observations on the situation and development of the European islands. The report raises awareness of the specificities and diversity of this specific type of territories and takes into consideration the current policy debate related to European Cohesion Policy. The revised version of the Final Report has been considered meeting the minimum demands in contractual terms. However, some case studies raised comments from individual stakeholders involved. Some improvements requested were not implemented to their entire satisfaction as part of the revision of the Final Report. It was felt that the case studies could have been better used and integrated in the analysis, making the report richer, more precise and evidence based, enhancing its narrative.peer-reviewe

Farmer surveys in Europe suggest that specialized, intensive farms were more likely to perceive negative impacts from COVID-19.

It has been shown that the COVID-19 pandemic affected some agricultural systems more than others, and even within geographic regions, not all farms were affected to the same extent. To build resilience of agricultural systems to future shocks, it is key to understand which farms were affected and why. In this study, we examined farmers' perceived robustness to COVID-19, a key resilience capacity. We conducted standardized farmer interviews (n = 257) in 15 case study areas across Europe, covering a large range of socio-ecological contexts and farm types. Interviews targeted perceived livelihood impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on productivity, sales, price, labor availability, and supply chains in 2020, as well as farm(er) characteristics and farm management. Our study corroborates earlier evidence that most farms were not or only slightly affected by the first wave(s) of the pandemic in 2020, and that impacts varied widely by study region. However, a significant minority of farmers across Europe reported that the pandemic was "the worst crisis in a lifetime" (3%) or "the worst crisis in a decade" (7%). Statistical analysis showed that more specialized and intensive farms were more likely to have perceived negative impacts. From a societal perspective, this suggests that highly specialized, intensive farms face higher vulnerability to shocks that affect regional to global supply chains. Supporting farmers in the diversification of their production systems while decreasing dependence on service suppliers and supply chain actors may increase their robustness to future disruptions. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s13593-022-00820-5