Colaboración en el blog: Landscapes for People, Food and Nature. Disponible en: http://peoplefoodandnature.org

Bernués Jal, Alberto

citaREA Repositorio Electrónico Agroalimentario

Traditional agricultural activities have suffered a notorious recession inrecent decades in many Euro-Mediterranean regions. This recessionoriginated in changes in the type and intensity of land utilization, suchas intensification of the management system, reduction of grazing andabandonment of remote rangeland areas. Consequently, a generalprocess of vegetation encroachment and landscape closure ishappening.The “Sierra y Cañones de Guara” Natural Park is a protected mountainarea located in Northeast Spain that constitutes a representativeexample of this process. Today, about half of the park consists ofprivate and communal shrub rangelands, and the main agriculturalactivity is grazing livestock, with some agriculture (olive trees andcereals) in more favorable areas. The park constitutes a SpecialProtected Area (EU Birds Directive) that includes three Sites ofCommunity Importance (EU Habitats Directive). Originally created toprotect scavengers, which are highly dependent on carcasses ofdomestic animals for feeding, the park attracts many visitors due to itsrich geological (canyons, caves, etc.), cultural (prehistoric andmegalithic art, traditional buildings, villages, etc.) and natural heritage(endangered species, diversity of landscapes, scavengers and otherDECEMBER 11, 2014What is the Socio-Cultural andEconomic Value ofMediterranean MountainAgriculture?Alberto Bernues, Norwegian University of Life Sciencesbirds of prey, etc.).In highly multifunctional landscapes like this one, the current debate isabout shifting the emphasis of the agricultural policies toward thesupply of public goods. Therefore, the efforts to quantify thebiophysical effects of agricultural practices on the environment and tointegrate relevant agri-environmental indicators into policy design areincreasing. However, studies that simultaneously consider allecosystem services delivered by agriculture and value them fromdifferent perspectives, are still missing.In a recent study, researchers from the Norwegian University of LifeSciences, CITA-Spain and Wageningen University were able to elucidatethe socio-cultural and economic values of a number of ecosystemservices, previously defined in biophysical terms, in “Sierra y Cañonesde Guara” Natural Park. They combined deliberative (focus groups) andsurvey-based stated-preference methods (choice modeling) to, first,identify the perceptions of farmers and other citizens of the ecosystemservices provided by mountain agriculture and, second, to value thesein economic terms according to the willingness to pay of the local(residents of the study area) and general populations (region where thestudy area is located).In a first stage, the deliberative research showed that the culturalservices (particularly the aesthetic and recreational values of thelandscape), supporting services (biodiversity maintenance) and someregulating services (particularly fire risk prevention) were clearlyrecognized by both farmers in the area of study and urban residents,with different degrees of importance according to their particularinterests and objectives. The availability of high quality food productslinked to the territory was also highly valued, especially by urbancitizens.In a second stage, local and general population respondents wereasked to choose their most preferred policy scenario among threealternatives. The status quo scenario corresponded to the currentdelivery of ecosystem services previously identified, whereas theliberalization (reduction of agri-environmental support) and targetedsupport (additional funding to agri-environmental schemes) scenariosrepresented different combinations of levels of ecosystem servicesdelivery.The analysis of responses allowed obtaining a ranking of ecosystemservices, as well as the willingness of the society to pay for theirdelivery. The prevention of forest fires (≈50% of total willingness topay) was valued by the general population as a key ecosystem servicedelivered by mountain agroecosystems, followed by the production ofspecific quality products linked to the territory (≈20%), biodiversity(≈20%) and cultural landscapes (≈10%). The value given by localresidents to the last two ecosystem services differed considerably (≈10and 25% for biodiversity and cultural landscape, respectively). Theauthors were able to obtain the Total Economic Value of Mediterraneanmountain agroecosystems that was ≈120€ per person per year, threetimes the current level of support of agro-environmental schemes (seegraph)."GRICULTURALLANDSCAPEVARIESACCORDINGTOTHESOCIOECONOMICANDPOLICYSCENARIOS1HOTOS"LBERTO#ERNUESThe authors conclude that there is a large underestimation of the socio-cultural and economic values of ecosystem services of Mediterraneanmountain agroecosystems, the welfare loss linked to environmentaldegradation in these areas and the cost of inaction. It is thereforenecessary to value public goods in monetary terms to compensatefarmers in an equitable way for their delivery. By individualizingsupport, monitoring and valuing objective indicators for ecosystemservices and targeting particular agricultural practices, so-called “green”subsidies may truly become Payments for Ecosystem Services.READ MORESocio-Cultural and Economic Valuation of Ecosystem ServicesProvided by Mediterranean Mountain Agroecosystems3ANKINGOFECOSYSTEMSERVICESAND5OTAL&CONOMIC7ALUEFORTHELOCALANDGENERALPOPULATIONS$URRENTLEVELOFSUPPORTISËPERPERSONPERYEARSHAREFacebook 30 Twitter 21 Google Email MoreMORE FROMAlberto BernuesMORE INEurope From Others in Exploring the Evidence,Landscapes Around the WorldPREVIOUS%ECEMBERNEXTName * Email * WebsiteEnter your comment here...Notify me of follow-up comments by email.Notify me of new posts by email.NO COMMENTS-EAVEA$OMMENT©2014 EcoAgriculture Partners serves as the secretariat for theLandscapes for People, Food and Nature Initiative.  EcoAgriculture PartnersWebsite by Cstraight Media 4EARCHSUBMIT COMMENTWe Cannot Learn from HabitatRestoration without FundingMonitoringBuilding Resilience Among theMost Vulnerable Populations%ECEMBER

What is the Socio-Cultural and Economic Value of Mediterranean Mountain Agriculture?

http://citarea.cita-aragon.es/citarea/bitstream/10532/2776/1/2014_354.pdf

What is the Socio-Cultural and Economic Value of Mediterranean Mountain Agriculture?

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citaREA Repositorio Electrónico Agroalimentario