farm and land system dynamics in the mediter spatial temporal scales and mananagment

Land Use Policy 88 (2019) 104082
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
Land Use Policy
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/landusepol
Farm and land system dynamics in the Mediterranean: Integrating different
spatial-temporal scales and management approaches
T
J. Muñoz-Rojasa, , T. Pinto-Correiaa, C. Napoleoneb
⁎
a
Instituto de Ciências Agrárias e Ambientais Mediterrânicas (ICAAM), Universidade de Évora, Colégio dos Regentes Agricolas, Herdade de Mitra, Valverde-Évora, 7006554, Portugal
b
INRA UR 767 Ecodéveloppement, Domaine Saint Paul, site Agroparc, CS 40509, 84914 Avignon cedex 9, France
ARTICLE INFO
ABSTRACT
Keywords:
Land use changes
Farm-system dynamics
Complexity
Sustainability
Multi-scale analysis
Multi-level governance
The Mediterranean (macro-)region is characterized by its unique bio-physical, socio-political, and cultural
conditions when considered at the global scale. Nonetheless, at the same time this is an extremely heterogeneous
and diverse region, as is reflected in the heterogeneous and dynamic mosaic of farm and land systems developed
along a long history throughout which they have tightly adapted to the frequent scarcity and irregularity of
natural resources. Such long-scale trajectory of adaptation has resulted in a wide range of traditional rural and
peri-urban landscapes hosting a rich biodiversity and bearing multiple social and cultural values. Throughout
recent history, and especially over the past two decades, Mediterranean farm and land use systems have been
undergoing multiple transition processes, resulting in many current landscapes gradually becoming more
homogeneous and intensified, whilst others are being abandoned. It has now become self-evident that both
trajectories of change are evolving at unequal rates and scales across the region. This process too frequently leads
to the degradation of the valuable cultural, social, territorial and natural capital of the region. This demands
urgent and innovative initiatives, either private, public or mixed, that are effective to reverse current trends of
degradation, and move towards higher degrees of sustainability and resilience.
The aim of this Special Issue is to synthesize and critically review key elements current research on farm and
land system dynamics in the Mediterranean region, and to discuss land use management and governance frameworks in place at multiple spatial-temporal scales and institutional levels to foster increased sustainability and
resilience. Papers in this SI address historic and envisaged future changes in the region, focusing on the complexity of interactions at the farm and landscape levels. Furthermore, papers in the SI also address the role and
interactions with non-farming-related land uses (i.e. urban and/or conservation). The SI covers key contexts,
conceptual frameworks, challenges, approaches, methods and alternatives in place to provide with a picture of
the current situation and, more importantly, of likely potential pathways for the future improvements. The need
for further integration across scales, methods and approaches is finally acknowledged.
1. Why focus on farm and land system dynamics in the
Mediterranean?
1.1. Mediterranean farm and land systems dynamics in the early XXIst
century
An increasing sense of awareness can be detected among the scientific, political and public communities of how the dynamics of
Mediterranean land and farm systems is characterized by unprecedented levels of complexity (Malek and Verburg, 2017). This trend
can be perceived as a reaction against the global process of land use
intensification and homogenization (Rudel et al., 2009).
The Mediterranean basin is a bio-physical region (Rundel et al.,
2016) that extends over 22 countries and 427 million of inhabitants1 (in
2000 - 7% of the worldwide population). Currently (2017), Mediterranean agricultural production represents an important share for
certain commodities. This includes, 96% of olives, 83% of figs, 39% of
almonds, 37% of nuts and 32% of grapefruit produced world-wide2. In
addition, agriculture represent an important source of national exports,
ranging from circa 10% in Morocco, Lebanon, Spain, France or Jordan,
Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: [email protected] (J. Muñoz-Rojas), [email protected] (T. Pinto-Correia), [email protected] (C. Napoleone).
1
https://planbleu.org/
2
FAO-Stats: http://fao.org/faostat/on/#home
⁎
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landusepol.2019.104082
Received 28 March 2019; Received in revised form 29 June 2019; Accepted 30 June 2019
Available online 23 July 2019
0264-8377/ © 2019 Published by Elsevier Ltd.
Land Use Policy 88 (2019) 104082
J. Muñoz-Rojas, et al.
to around 20% in Greece, Serbia or Cyprus3). However, human and
environmental challenges are currently exacerbated by certain socialecological trends. From a human perspective, a long history of food
production in the region historically drove the rise of rich civilizations.
Presently, food supply issue has become critical in a context of major
demographic growth (more than 500 million of inhabitants around
20251), inadequate achievement of food security targets (Voltz et al.,
2018) and of expected increases in the intensity and frequency of water
scarcity periods under climate change future scenarios (Guiot and
Cramer, 2016). From a bio-physical perspective, the Mediterranean
basin is both one of the 34 global hot-spots of biodiversity (Médail and
Quézel, 1999), and an area strongly threatened by anthropogenic
pressure and climate change (Gauquelin et al., 2018). This situation is
facilitated by a heterogeneous spatial mosaic combining natural designated areas, highly intensive agricultural production and other specific land uses ((terraces, hedgerows, agro-silvo-pastoral systems…)
frequently resulting from a historic and intensive reshaping of the original environmental conditions (Pinto-Correia and Vos, 2004; Blondel,
2006). Furthermore, it is also becoming apparent how the regional
dynamics of land use change are becoming enacted across nested spatial
scales spanning from the local to the global (Lambin et al., 2006). To
turn the picture even more difficult to grasp, equally high levels of
uncertainty are also detected defining the intricate ways on which
ecosystems, landscapes and societies mutually interact, a problem that
is enhanced by the apparent unpredictability and wicked nature of
social behavior (amplification of risks - e.g. climate refugees) and its
perception (Duckett and Busby, 2013). Resuming, the trajectories of
change in the Mediterranean region are largely defined by the outstanding heterogeneity of biophysical conditions, land use systems,
multi-functionality and multiple values of landscapes, long-term cultural history, and the hybrid nature of urban-rural relations (OrtizMiranda et al., 2013), resulting in a richness of natural, cultural and
territorial resources that is equaled in few other regions world-wide.
In such a context, the consideration of time-, spatial- and institutional-scales is an essential step to unravel the multiple dynamics of
land and farm systems. In this sense, it is important to point out how the
mosaic of land use (Fig. 1), and related farm systems that can be found
nowadays in the Mediterranean region has been developed throughout
a long cultural and agricultural history (Zeder, 2008). Such history has
resulted in certain paradigmatic cases of good management practices
for high nature-value-farming-systems, whereby apparently conflicting
goals such as food production and biological and cultural heritage
protection have been conciliated (Ferraz de Oliveira et al., 2016).
Nonetheless, the richness of agricultural landscapes in multiple natural
values have too often been the historically contingent result of agricultural production strategies and options (e.g. vineyards, silvo-pastoral
systems including silvo-pastoral Montado and Dehesa in Portugal and
Spain respectively, and olive groves), along with unintended socio-political circumstances, bio-physical limitations and cultural patterns, and
not indeed the output of conservation policies or planning, which are
too new in the region. As a result of this all,…he current land mosaic
also includes land uses and farming systems that are closely adapted to
the frequent and irregular scarcity of natural resources affecting the
region (Blondel, 2006). Actually this apparent limitation has paradoxically resulted in highly diverse and unique rural and urban landscapes, high levels of biodiversity richness and in similarly rich set of
natural and cultural values associated with traditional Mediterranean
farm systems and rural land uses (Ruiz-Labourdette et al., 2013).
However, such attributes are currently being hampered by the effects of multiple and mutually intertwining processes of rapid, and at
times even irreversible changes. Such changes are jointly rendering
land and farming systems in the Mediterranean gradually more
homogeneous and intensified (Godinho et al., 2014; Pedroli et al.,
3
2018), in alignment with what is also a dominating trend in other regions of the world (Rudel et al., 2009). Recent trends of change increasingly dominating in the region include landscape and land use
homogenization or simplification (Geri et al., 2010), rapid agricultural
intensification in the most productive soils or those with access to water
and markets (Caraveli, 2000), farm concentration and financialization
(Gertel and Sippel, 2016), and the de-territorialization of agriculture. In
contrast with the former, the abandonment of marginal and less agriculturally productive areas (Caraveli, 2000) is also taking place in the
region.
In parallel, the vastness of the Mediterranean agricultural heritage,
including its many valuable cultural and natural features (Catsadorakis,
2007), indicates to the resilience of traditional farm and land systems in
this context, and represents an asset for the future sustainability of the
region. Paradoxically, this richness in natural and cultural heritage may
easily result in a level of territorial complexity and uncertainty which is
at the source of many wicked challenges that have remained a concern
for land use and landscape planning for various decades (Alden, 2001),
and which are indeed a main barrier to advance towards increased levels of sustainability and resilience (Duckett et al., 2016; Guimarães
et al., 2018). Furthermore, one should also be reminded that human
behaviour, when wrongly oriented, may drive disturbance whilst, when
rightly geared, can provide with social, economic and technical
knowledge that could potentially increase resilience (Ahnström et al.,
2013). Given the fragility and vulnerability of the Mediterranean region
towards increasing climate constraints (Guiot and Cramer, 2016), along
with other challenges related to water scarcity and irregularity (Iglesias
et al., 2007), biodiversity loss (Médail and Quézel, 1999) and socioeconomic marginality (Blöss et al., 2018), another important responsibility may be placed upon the region: leading by example in devising
social behaviours and more effective management options and policies
for the mitigation and adaptation of global changes.
1.2. Hot challenges for Mediterranean land and farm systems dynamics
Within such a regional context, a series of trends are detected that
demand being tackled more urgently and effectively, including:
- Environmental challenges are exacerbated in global hot spots of
biodiversity, in which the Mediterranean region has a key responsibility due to its biodiversity' density and endemism (Médail and
Quézel, 1999).
- Climate processes are especially unpredictable and impactful (Guiot
and Cramer, 2016), currently posing a threat towards the sustainability of increasingly scarce resources, especially water (Laraus,
2004) and biodiversity (Barredo et al., 2016). These are both essential components of natural capital and potential sources of ecosystem services in farming systems and agricultural landscapes
(Mace et al., 2012; Duru et al., 2015; Landis, 2017). Irreversible
processes such as desertification and land degradation, which are
especially acute in the Mediterranean region, could drastically
change the conditions for natural life, agriculture and, ultimately,
for human societies.
- Along with extreme social and economic inequalities that are exemplified in the condition of this region as a frontier between the
Global North and South (Blöss et al., 2018), the Mediterranean region has lately experienced a huge demographic and urban rate of
growth, mainly in coastal areas, potentially adding even more
pressure to food security and environmental sustainability (Zdruli,
2014).
The severity and wickedness of the challenges stemming from these
combined trends demand that scientists work together with actors from
the policy, financial, farming, commercial and lobbying realms to
jointly co-generate new methods and approaches that transcend traditional disciplinary, or model approaches to connecting knowledge
http://agreste.agriculture.gouv.fr/IMG/pdf_analyse341109.pdf
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J. Muñoz-Rojas, et al.
Fig. 1. Synthesis of territorial heterogeneity and complexity in the Mediterranean macro-region using Land Use and Cover as a proxy.
(see the Mediterranean strategy for sustainable development
2016–2025 from the Unit of the Mediterranean Action Plan (UNEP/
MAP)4).
It is therefore imperative to improve the conceptual, epistemic and
methodological research approaches that are currently applied to the
study of the Mediterranean land use and farming systems, while at the
same time, and accordingly, to expand the empirical evidence.
An aspect which is crucial in achieving this goal is improving
knowledge about governance and management of land use. Improved
management and governance frameworks for land and farm system
dynamics are undoubtedly critical factors for devising more sustainable
futures (Lambin and Meyfroidt, 2011). Any models and ideas for more
innovative and sustainable land use management and governance need
to acknowledge the multiple processes that simultaneously occur at the
following levels: farm/local (e.g. agricultural production, habitat conservation, stakeholders’ activities), landscape (e.g. water flow regulation, rural and nature tourism, habitat connectivity, fire vulnerability)
and regional (e.g. food security, carbon sequestration, regional planning). Only by jointly considering all these mutually nested scales
(Foley et al., 2005), will it become possible to characterize each of the
many key challenges that require to be tackled through more innovative and sustainable governance and management options towards
sustainability (Hibbard and Janetos, 2013). In this regard, many scientific studies have so far addressed social, economic and ecological
aspects of land use and farm system dynamics in the Mediterranean
context at the field and farm scales, including processes of change as
relevant (and mutually opposed) as agricultural land intensification
construction and decision making (Guimarães et al., 2018). This implies
re-shaping the traditional silo-based and largely disconnected governance and decision-making structures currently in place across this
macro-region. Indeed, this is a set of trends and challenges that is very
much aligned with what the United Nations identified as Sustainable
Development (SD) Goals for 2030 (https://sustainabledevelopment.un.
org), many of which are directly related to land and farm systems. Core
exemples of these include SD Goals 2 (Zero Hunger), 11 (Sustainable
cities and Communities), 13 (Climate Action) and 15 (Life on Land).
This is especially relevant since the totality of Mediterranean countries
represented in the diverse papers of this SI are all signatory parties to
UN´s SD Goals (https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/memberstates),
and thus should be abiding to its principles and objectives by incorporating them into their own policy frameworks and management
practices.
1.3. Knowledge and research gaps
Despite of the acknowledgement of the relevance and urgency to
improve knowledge on the multiple and simultaneous trends of land
use change undergoing in the region, currently too much is still unknown. This is particularly valid for the dynamics of specific drivers,
patterns and impacts of key land use change trajectories, especially in
the context of farming systems and urban-rural relations. Improving
such areas of knowledge is crucial to inform and create more effective
public policy and private decision making at various levels, if a
pathway towards sustainability is to be followed. As paradigmatic example of this, improved knowledge is required for a more effective
achievement of key International targets and agreements for sustainable development (e.g. CBD and Aichi Targets; see Hill et al., 2015), on
which the Mediterranean region is invariably considered as a hot-spot
4
https://planbleu.org/sites/default/files/publications/mssd_2016-2025_
final.pdf
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J. Muñoz-Rojas, et al.
(Caraveli, 2000), and abandonment (Cerdà et al., 2018a,b). However,
fewer approaches and empirical examples exist in the same context, and
with similar purposes, at the landscape to regional levels (Doreen et al.,
2010; Valbuena et al., 2010), or even less by linking processes that
occur across multiple scales (Lasanta et al., 2017). Consequently, discussing novel and efficient approaches to fulfill multi-scale analyses of
land and farm-system dynamics, including feedback mechanisms, in the
Mediterranean context is urgently required.
When considered altogether, it becomes apparent that multiple and
intertwined processes of change jointly drive the degradation of the
many social, cultural and environmental values of Mediterranean land
and farming systems. Nonetheless, it is equally apparent that enlarging
knowledge about these trends, although representing a much-needed
step forward, will not suffice per se. Actually, knowledge improvement
will also need to address how targeted and innovative public intervention and private initiatives can de designed and implemented that
are effective in order to reverse current trends and move towards higher
degrees of sustainability.
changing societal expectations and demands, including the application of ecosystem and landscape services. This is all performed
either from a behavioral economics perspective (Hinojosa et al.,
2018), an ecological one (Balzan et al., 2018) or using Ostrom’s
social-ecological systems framework (Berriet-Solliec et al., 2018);
3 Farm and land systems management in a urban-rural context. This
cluster of papers is focused on urban-rural linkages and their management for the resilience of landscapes across multiple geographical and institutional levels. This includes papers focusing on
peri-urban agriculture (Sanz et al., 2018), territorial plans and
projects for local-global sustainable development (Mekki et al.,
2018) and tools and studies that aim to support multi-level governance in order to improve the cohesion of rural territories (Fastelli
et al., 2018);
4 Sustainability assessment of farm and land systems. A final group of
papers in the SI depicts methodologies to assess and mitigate the
multiple risks to farms, in order to forecast and scenario analyses
towards more sustainable land and farming systems across rural
territories (Gallego et al., 2019). In addition, they also explore the
relevance of a food sovereignty perspective through the territorialisation of agri-food systems (Baysse-Lainé and Perrin, 2018), as
well as the mutual and dynamic interrelations between territories
and farming systems, and between land use systems and land
management changes (Cerdà et al., 2018a,b).
2. About this special issue
2.1. Main objectives, topics and contents of the Special Issue
In response to the complex picture of land and farm-system dynamics in the Mediterranean region, and in the multiple challenges and
gaps arising, this Special Issue (SI) aims to present an overview of
current research lines and advances on the key underlined challenges.
Furthermore, papers in the SI also discuss land use management and
governance frameworks, either in place or potentially applicable, across
multiple spatial scales, to enhance the sustainability and resilience of
the region´s land and farming systems. In this sense, the SI aims to help
fill the main gaps of knowledge identified in the Mediterranean context.
Research presented in these papers was conducted within a network
of researchers from the European and African shores of the
Mediterranean region, AGroMed (https://agromed2016.wordpress.
com/). The target of this network is to unravel the changing dynamics of land and farming systems across the region: this Network was
launched informally in 2014 and mainly operates in practice mainly
through the international research project Divercrop (https://
divercropblog.wordpress.com/), funded by the ARIMNET2 program of
the European Commission (http://www.arimnet2.net/) and specifically
targeting key challenges in the Mediterranean region.
Thus, papers in the SI deal with current land use changes in the
Mediterranean region, with a focus on farm and related land system
dynamics, whilst also considering potential competition with other land
uses and joint dynamics (such as urban-rural relationships and conflicts
between farming systems and protected areas for conservation). A total
of 11 different papers have been published as part of the SI, which
jointly address the key challenges, geographic sub-regions, spatialtemporal scales and institutional levels, and methods of enquiry and
research of relevance in this micro-region. Papers in the SI cover the
following topics:
An overarching focus of the SI is placed on the planning and assessment of farming systems that can become more resilient to climate
change and to market globalization, and on how novel strategies can be
devised and implemented in a way that is both novel and realistic.
Nonetheless, and given the diversity of the topics and challenges of
relevance, and of the spatial and territorial diversity in the region, the
purpose of the SI is not to become fully encompassing of every single
challenge, approach and solution available. Rather, it is to illustrate,
through examples in different contexts, at and across diverse scales, and
employing a wide range of approaches that the many problems encountered can be better understood, and consequently also more effectively tackled when looked from a systems-based approach (be it
related to farms or to land) where complexity and uncertainty are
considered to be at the core of land use and landscape dynamics.
2.2. Advancing towards more innovative methods, tools and approaches
A first lesson to be learnt about the current state of the art on land
and farming systems in the Mediterranean, is on the wide diversity of
scales, contexts, approaches, goals and methods employed over the past
30 years, as demonstrated in the paper led by Debolini et al (2018).
Case study examples in this paper cover case studies from the farm plot
to the macro-regional scale. Nonetheless, a vast proportion of studies so
far seems to focus on mountain areas, although these studies insufficiently cover key trends including land use extensification and its
multiple drivers and consequences. This is also the case for the extremely relevant and simultaneously process of intensification and
property concentration, which is yet poorly covered from a systemic
approach, with economics driving the main research topics in these
areas. This picture at the macro-regional scale is then complemented by
the pan-European picture of small-farms and their contribution towards
food security and economic sustainability provided by Guiomar et al
(2018), that indicate to the diversity of these yet poorly explored
typologies of production units within the Mediterranean context.
The range of key issues covered in the remaining papers of this SI
include the potential and threats for extensification, abandonment and
re-wilding for securing a wider range of ecosystem services (Hinojosa
et al., 2018), the conflicts arising between land use and agricultural
production and urban development (Sanz et al., 2018), the value and
potential of ecosystems framework (Balzan et al., 2018) and environmentally and socially beneficial outcomes (Berriet-Solliec et al.,
1 Descriptive analyses of Mediterranean farm and land systems dynamics. We begin our special issue with a survey on current land
systems dynamics from a comprehensive overview of 80 papers
published in international journals. This survey highlights the need
to work at medium scales, set between global and local approaches,
especially at farm and land system levels (Debolini et al., 2018).
Then, we complete this survey with a classifications of different
farming systems in Europe that also looks at the significance of
different systems across the many regions of this continent (Guiomar
et al., 2018);
2 Farm and land systems dynamics and related societal expectations.
Papers in this category describe the territorial integration of farming
and multiple other activities in the rural context, and related
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J. Muñoz-Rojas, et al.
area when compared with others similar (Guiomar et al., 2018). Local
scale studies included in the SI range from to range of experimental
plots or farms, thus covering only a few has (Cerdà et al., 2018a,b;
Mekki et al., 2018) to metropolitan areas and watersheds with a few
tens of thousands of hectares each (Baysee-Lainé et al., 2018; Sanz
et al., 2018). In addition, they also address sub-regional studies in
contexts as diverse as Southern France (Berriet-Solliec et al., 2018;
Hinojosa et al., 2018), Northern Italy (Fastelli et al., 2018) and Eastern
Spain (Gallego et al., 2019), including also Malta (Balzan et al., 2018),
which although should strictly be considered as a National context, is
small enough to be placed in this category. Lastly, some papers address
macro-regional studies that cover various countries of the wider Mediterranean region, including those by Debolini et al (2018) and Guiomar
et al (2018).
It is a relevant outcome of the SI that although cross-scale perspectives are indeed much needed, the width and depth of challenges
ahead demand that empirical studies are continued and improved at the
farm and plot scales at which management decisions effectively take
place.
Nonethless, for such enlarged local studies to help advance current
knowledge, increasingly sophisticated tools and approaches are yet
needed that can compile such local information at the scales at which
bottom up processes of decision making can be reconciled with equally
relevant top-down tools for coordination and alignment at the scales
that matter for policy makers, the landscape scale being surely a key
one. A clear necessity thus exists to enlarge and improve studies that
design and test both multiscale, landscape-scale and improved farmscale methods, solutions and approaches, especially in order to link
land system dynamics with planning and local and regional policies.
Fig. 2. Word-tag mapping of the papers published in this SI.
2018) to help reconcile different land use targets and potential pathways to better understand land managed towards food production and
its sustainability at the farm scale and under very different conditions
(Baysse-Lainé and Perrin, 2018; Mekki et al., 2018). From a more operational perspective, the potential to device more effective and better
policy tools tackling concrete and quantifiable processes of degradation
is also addressed (Cerdà et al., 2018a,b). Lastly, the potential of lategeneration spatial analytical and data-base tools to help better monitor
(Gallego et al., 2019) the information available and engage a wider
range of actors (Fastelli et al., 2018) are also presented and further
discussed.
The diversity of issues, approaches and challenges addressed in
apparent in the word-tag mapping constructed by analyzing the 100
most repeated words in the 11 papers published using the WordClouds
software (https://www.wordclouds.com/ - Fig. 2. To obtain this figure
we searched through the abstracts of all papers in the SI and selected
the 100 most repeated words (with a frequency of 3 or higher times) to
then generate a circular figure of white background and 1200 dpi resolution.
2.4. The case for (more and better) integration as a pathway towards
increased resilience and sustainability
As aforementioned, implementing more and better landscape-scale
based studies may be considered as a key strategy to improve the
knowledge base for land and farm system dynamics in the
Mediterranean context. Indeed, landscape approaches are being lately
advocated to reconcile the numerous conflicts and trade-offs arising
among conservation and food production targets whilst ensuring social
sustainability and enhance resilience (Sayer et al., 2013 & Sayer and
Margules, 2016). This is an approach that is based on the integration of
the diverse actors, scales, perspectives, networks and institutions with a
role in land and farm systems and is an approach that remains yet to be
tested in the Mediterranean context.
Naturally, this is not the only approach advocating more and better
integration for enhanced sustainability, but is exemplary of the relevance that integration has on the agenda for farm and land system
sustainability (Darnhofer, 2014). The papers in this SI address various
aspects of integration that are embedded in the landscapes and other
approaches to integrative systems science. These include aspects of
information integration using spatial analytical tools (Guiomar et al.,
2018; Fastelli et al., 2018; Gallego et al., 2019), the integration of information from scientific studies (Debolini et al., 2018), of urban and
rural contexts (Balzan et al., 2018; Sanz et al., 2018), of land management approaches and options (Mekki et al., 2019; Hinojosa et al.,
2018; Baysse-Lainé and Perrin, 2018), of decision-making scales and
levels (Berriet-Solliec et al., 2018) and of policy targets and objectives
(Cerdà et al., 2018a,b).
2.3. Spatial scales and institutional levels for governance and decision
making
A recurrent thought that arises when looking at the literature in
farm and land-system analysis in the Mediterranean context (Debolini
et al., 2018) is that spatial scales and institutional levels play a preeminent role in the configuration of key approaches to understanding
dynamics of change (as highlighted by Fig. 2) and devising more innovative solutions. Furthermore, it is also clear that despite of the fact
that studies have been performed across all scales from the plot to the
macro-regional, the majority of studies so far focus on the plot to farm
scales where most empirical scientific work still takes place. This results
in a certain gap in studies at other higher scales, and especially across
various nested scales. Such cross-scale approaches are deemed essential
for decision-making in a multi-scale governance context (Doreen et al.,
2010).
The various papers in this SI are indeed reflective of the variety of
spatial scales and institutional levels at which land use functions take
place and decisions are made (Fig. 3). Actually, the scope of the papers
in the SI even expands across the whole scope of the Mediterranean
macro-region, in some cases permitting comparative conclusions to be
reached about the territorial heterogeneity and yet clear identity of this
3. Conclusions: the value and potential of (current and future)
research on farm and land systems in the Mediterranean
Based on the arguments and findings in the various papers in the SI,
it seems clear that the Mediterranean rural landscapes are still host to a
contingent social-ecological mosaic characterized by its land and
farming systems complexity, with high levels of biodiversity and socio5
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J. Muñoz-Rojas, et al.
Fig. 3. Spatial scope and locations covered by the papers in this SI.
cultural values. Furthermore, this is a space characterized by overly
problematic demographic trends and challenges that result from processes as diverse as urban sprawl or economic migrations. The territorial and rural land use heterogeneity and diversity of this macro-region is made relevant at scales that range from global to the local.
Challenges realizing at the wider scales require from studies at levels
from the river basin to the country, which are generally addressed using
quantitative and geomatics tools and approaches. In contrast, local
processes and challenges generally rely on farm or micro case studies
with qualitative approaches using social enquiry methods, including
interviews, focus groups and other stakeholders-based methodologies.
According to the papers published in this SI, and to the various casestudies and meta-analyses they individually address, the wide range of
scales from the farm plot to the inter-national one, are well represented
and updated in the current scientific literature. However, no holistic
approach exists so far that combines a multiscale analysis (from local to
global) with a longer-term temporal perspective, whilst also considering differences on social behaviour across the macro-region´s
multiple socio-cultural and political contexts.
Thus, we argue how this holistic approach remains the major
challenge for farm and land systems research and analysis in a
Mediterranean context; even though one must acknowledge that this
may seem to many researchers and decision-makers as a quasi-unrealistic aspiration. Nonetheless, some opportunities are lately arising
that may end up facilitating steady progress in this direction. Firstly,
remote sensing data are rapidly becoming more accurate and frequent
for the whole Mediterranean basin (e.g. SENTINEL GIS database),
whilst certain land use models are also made available that incorporate
updated GIS databases on land use, population or agriculture - For instance, the high resolution data on current and future land systems in
the
Mediterranean
basin,
freely
available
on
www.
environmentalgeography.nl. Along with advancements in the availability and quality of spatial information, a trend is lately arising in
advancing research via scientific models and ideas that favour multiscale and multidisciplinary approaches to integrate agro-ecosystems,
institutions and socio-economic drivers of land system dynamics. Some
of the novel research integrative frameworks that have already been
tested in diverse Mediterranean contexts include the ecosystem services
framework (O’Farrell and Anderson, 2010; Fleskens and Hubacek,
2013), social–ecological services (see Huntsinger and Oviedo, 2014, for
an example), the vulnerability (Fraser et al., 2011) and the LTSER
frameworks (Angelstam et al., 2019). Nonetheless, other relevant frameworks for social-ecological integration and applications to land
management and practice, including the Landscapes Approach (Sayer
et al., 2013 & Sayer and Margules, 2016) remain already to be tested in
such context.
Although the current SI does not manage to fill all the aforementioned gaps and challenges, it does innovatively address major issues
and challenges in the region that are linked to the aforementioned
complexity and wickedness of its land use and farming systems, and
that are directly relevant to the UN´s Sustainable Development Goals
for 2030 (https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org), including tackling
climate change (Goal 13) and achieving food security (Goal 2). A main
lesson stemming from these 11 papers, is on how the focal point, from a
land systems perspective, should shift from the current consideration of
the adaptation ability of clusters of farms at incremental yearly changes
(as can be measured, e.g. through rural censuses and public stats at
National or regional scales), towards unravelling the consequences of
the ability to drastically change individual practices when thresholds on
temperature, water or other biotic condition are exceeded in the future;
i.e. for an event not yet occurred and for which individual decision
makers with incomplete information may not have the capacity to
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anticipate and act. This lag in the knowledge prevents public or private
initiatives able to reverse current trends of degradation of the cultural,
social, territorial and natural capital and values in the Mediterranean
region, and thus also moving towards higher degrees of sustainability
and resilience. It is expected that the papers in the SI will indeed help
shed some light on how this is currently being approached in diverse
contexts and at and across differing scales.
Mediterranean citrus plantations. Land Use Policy 75 (2018), 734–745. https://doi.
org/10.1016/j.landusepol.2017.12.052.
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Targetti, S., Napoléone, C., 2018. Land and farming system dynamics and their drivers in the Mediterranean Basin. Land Use Policy 75 (2018), 702–710. https://doi.
org/10.1016/j.landusepol.2017.07.010.
Doreen, G., Sait, S.M., Hodgson, J.A., Schmutz, U., Kunin, W.E., Benton, T.G., 2010. Scale
matters: the impact of organic farming on biodiversity at different spatial scales. Ecol.
Lett. 13, 858–869. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1461-0248.2010.01481.x.
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132–153. https://doi.org/10.1057/rm.2013.2.
Duckett, D., Feliciano, D., Martin-Ortega, J., Muñoz-Rojas, J., 2016. Tackling wicked
environmental problems: the discourse and its influence on praxis in Scotland.
Landsc. Urban Plan. 154, 44–56. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landurbplan.2016.03.
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Fastelli, L., Rovai, M., Andreoli, M., 2018. A Spatial Integrated Database for the
Enhancement of the Agricultural Custodianship Role (SIDECAR)—Some preliminary
tests using Tuscany as a case-study Region. Land Use Policy 78 (2018). https://doi.
org/10.1016/j.landusepol.2018.07.025. 791-702.
Ferraz de Oliveira, M.I., Azeda, C., Pinto-Correia, M.T., 2016. Management of Montados
and Dehesas for High Nature Value: an interdisciplinary pathway. Agrofor. Syst. 90-1,
1–6. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10457-016-9900-8.
Fleskens, L., Hubacek, K., 2013. Modelling land management for ecosystem services. Reg.
Environ. Change 13 (3), 563–566.
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Routledge, London, pp. 215––226 ISBN: 9781138804371.
Godinho, S., Guiomar, N., Machado, R., Santos, P., Sá-Sousa, P., Fernandes, J.P., Neves,
N., Pinto-Correia, T., 2014. Assessment of environment, land management, and
spatial variables on recent changes in montado land cover in southern Portugal.
Agrofor. Syst. 90 (1), 177–192. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10457-014-9757-7.
Guimarães, M.H., Guiomar, N., Surová, D., Godinho, S., Pinto Correia, T., Sandberg, A.,
Ravera, F., Varanda, M., 2018. Structuring wicked problems in transdisciplinary research using the Social–Ecological systems framework: An application to the montado system, Alentejo, Portugal. J. Clean. Prod. 191 (2018), 417–428. https://doi.
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Guiomar, N., Godinho, S., Pinto-Correia, T., Almeida, M., Bartolini, F., Bezák, P., Biró, M.,
Bjørkhaug, H., Bojnec, Š., Brunori, G., Corazzin, M., Czekaj, M., Davidova, S., Kania,
J., Kristensen, S., Marraccini, E., Molnár, Z., Niedermayr, J., O’Rourke, E., OrtizMiranda, D., Redman, M., Sipiläinen, T., Sooväli-Sepping, H., Šūmane, S., Surová, D.,
Sutherland, L.A., Tcherkezova, E., Tisenkopfs, T., Tsiligiridis, T., Tudor, M.M.,
Wagner, K., Wästfelt, A., 2018. Typology and distribution of small farms in Europe:
Towards a better picture. Land Use Policy 75 (2018), 784–798. https://doi.org/10.
1016/j.landusepol.2018.04.012.
Guiot, J., Cramer, W., 2016. Climate change: the 2015 Paris Agreement thresholds and
Mediterranean basin ecosystems. Science 354 (6311), 465–468. https://doi.org/10.
1126/science.aah5015.
Hibbard, Janetos, 2013. The regional nature of global challenges: a need and strategy for
integrated regional modelling. Clim. Change 118, 565–577. https://doi.org/10.
1007/s10584-012-0674-3.
Hinojosa, L., Lambin, E.F., Mzoughic, N., Napoléone, C., 2018. Constraints to farming in
the Mediterranean Alps: Reconciling environmental and agricultural policies. Land
Use Policy 75 (2018), 726–733. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landusepol.2017.11.047.
Hill, R., Dyer, G., Gimona, A., Lozada-Ellison, L.M., Martin-Ortega, J., Muñoz-Rojas, J.,
Gordon, I., 2015. A socio-ecological systems analysis of impediments, and potentially
more effective pathways, to delivery of the Aichi 2020 Targets. Glob. Environ.
Change 34, 22–34. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2015.04.005.
Huntsinger, L., Oviedo, J.L., 2014. Ecosystem services are social–ecological services in a
traditional pastoral system: the case of California’s mediterranean rangelands. Ecol.
Soc. 19 (1), 8. https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-06143-190108.
Iglesias, A., Garrote, L., Flores, F., Moneo, M., 2007. Challenges to manage the risk of
water scarcity and climate change in the Mediterranean. Water Resour. Manag. 21,
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Funding
The authors acknowledge the role played by the European
Commission research program ARIMNET2 (Coordination of Agricultural
Research in the Mediterranean Area) (http://www.arimnet2.net/) in
funding the research shown in this paper and SI within the context of
the Divercrop (Land system dynamics in the Mediterranean basin across
scales as relevant indicator for species diversity and local food systems
(2017–2020) research project (project code: ANR-16-ARM2-618127)
(https://divercropblog.wordpress.com/). Additionally, funds have been
provided by the PEGASUS (Grant agreement ID: 633814) and SUFISA
(Grant Agreement: 635577) H2020 projects, and from the ICAAMUniversidade de de Évora annual funding program, including allowances for expenses, meetings and discussions. Lastly, this work was also
co-funded by National Funds through FCT (Foundation for Science and
Technology-Portugal) under the project UID/AGR/00115/2019.
Acknowledgements
We would like to thank Marta Debolini, from INRA-Avignon, for her
support in obtaining and processing the spatial layers and files required
to represent Figs. 1 and 3 in this paper.
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