Davide Marino

Assessment and governance of Ecosystem Services for improving management effectiveness of Natura 2000 sites

The Natura 2000 network is the cornerstone of the EU Biodiversity Strategy aimed at halting the loss of biodiversity and ecosystem services. Yet in many EU Member States the level of development and execution of management plans and conservation measures of Natura 2000 sites is often very low due to scarce financial resources; for this reason management effectiveness is rarely achieved. This paper presents initial insights from the Life+ MGN project and highlights the costs and benefits associated with 2 out of 21 Natura 2000 study sites in Italy in order to present a new governance approach relying on the qualitative and quantitative valuation of Ecosystem Services (ES). Preliminary results suggest that the quantification of costs and benefits related to the Natura 2000 network is crucial for reaching Natura 2000 conservation objectives and measuring management effectiveness.

Cities, Agriculture and Changing Landscapes in Urban Milieu: The case of Rome

The aim of this paper is to examine the characteristics and the dynamics that characterize urban agriculture in the case of Rome. We summarize in an evolutionary approach the stylized facts of the relationship between town and the context of agricultural production in order to propose a taxonomy of the types of urban agriculture. The effort proposed here is a preliminary analysis of urban agriculture through a system of criteria for the classification of the distribution of the functional and relational features of agricultural activities in urban phenomenon. These interpretative categories attempt to reconstruct the causal relationships that translate agricultural production models (farms’ data, legal forms, use of natural resources, localization), in specific forms in the spatial and functional urban dimension - physical and social - and their role in territorial milieu. On the theoretical level this analysis is embedded in the co-evolutionary paradigm and looks to the landscape as the result of interactions between the environmental system and the action of human who lives and uses the territory. This typization ultimately still seems a goal to achieve, this is the first step towards the construction of an interpretative and vocabulary typological then be systematize with the morphological data and those of land use.

Territorialisation dynamics for Italian farms adhering to Alternative Food Networks

Abstract The demographic processes of the last decades have led to variations in urban and peri-urban territorial configurations, questioning the patterns of traditional productive localisation. They have begun to outline new perspectives related to proximity to trading and commerce sites as well as to the services offered by the city. Business strategies, such as multifunctionality and diversification, have begun to consider these new possibilities that, at a larger scale, have triggered the process of territorialisation. The study analyses the influence of proximity to the city on the strategies of farms diversifying income through short food chains, with the aim of identifying the prevailing behaviours adopted in three different concentric areas at the urban centre of gravity: peri-urban, belt and rural. The study involves a dataset constituted by 217 farms, where each farm has been associated with a set of explanatory variables that outline some structural, social and economic characteristics. The sample has been segmented through a hierarchical cluster analysis, which allowed us to identify 5 groups of farms, after having reduced the number of variables through PCA (Principal Component Analysis). The results show that short food chains and, more generally, AFNs, are based on strategies alternative to those of traditional chains, and which involve a different economic dimension of the same chains and the construction of a different place-based agro-food system, also envisaging a re-localisation of space near the final market.

Resilient Agrarian Landscapes in Face of Changes: The Coevolutive Approach to Understand the Links Between Communities and Environmental Characters

The paper focuses on a conceptual framework through analyses of the relationship that links and communities to their places and determines the capacity for resilience of those landscapes in the face of changes. The coevolutionary approach has been recognized as a key framework for understanding change in complex social–ecological systems and as a foundational concept for ecological economics (Costanza et al. in Introduction to ecological economics. St Lucie Press, Florida, 1997). The coevolutive approach describes as a dynamic relationship between environmental systems and social systems. Coevolution is different than mere co-dynamic change, in that at least one—social or environmental—system is evolving or changing through variation, selection and inheritance. This leads to the necessity of identifying the set of anthropic—or cultural—and natural—biological—relationships that influence change within these relationships, determining their destiny or, in other words, whether these landscapes are conserved or lost. The need to protect local resources, and conserve the functions that come from natural capital, determines processes that can be guaranteed in a more efficient and sustainable way by local communities. The paper discusses the conceptual hypothesis on a case study of the UNESCO Vineyard Landscapes, based on the Switzerland case of Lavaux. The research concludes with a view of adaptive management, aimed to the preservation of landscape values, while respecting the natural dynamics of the landscape evolution.

Enhancing outdoor recreation and biodiversity through payments for ecosystem services: emerging potentials from selected Natura 2000 sites in Italy

Efforts in preserving natural and seminatural ecosystems and associated ecosystem services are affected by scarce financial resources. Payments for ecosystem services (PES) are increasingly recognised for creating additional funding, as in protected areas, and outdoor recreation is one important ecosystem service that is promising for successfully implementing PES. Therefore, this study aimed to develop and evaluate potentials for PES schemes related to recreational services in Natura 2000 sites. For 10 sites in different Italian regions, the study first assessed the ecosystem service outdoor recreation and analysed managerial and economic aspects of Natura 2000 sites. Then, various options for PES schemes were defined in a participatory process. Furthermore, we developed a dynamic model for evaluating the effects of PES on ecosystems and related recreational ES. Whereas the provision of recreational opportunities was mostly at a high level, the potential demand varied greatly among the sites, depending on the spatial distribution of potential beneficiaries. Moreover, we found great differences in visitation rates and consequently the actual recreational value. The PES schemes included small payments (€1) via mobile phone by visitors, contributions from regional government and tourism businesses, and visitor fees or tourist taxes among others. This study highlights how economic agreements, such as PES schemes, may support funding of Natura 2000 sites for biodiversity conservation by valorising the benefits of recreational ecosystem services; however, further research is needed to evaluate the effectiveness of PES in the long term.

Assestamento forestale nel terzo millennio. La pianificazione dei servizi ecosistemici forestali nel progetto LIFE+ MGN

Abstract: Forests are important for timber production and provide a wide range of ecosystem services (ES), including water provision and regulation, carbon sequestration, erosion control, and recreational services. However, these services, which are crucial for human well-being, are not sufficiently recognised and rarely included into forest planning. The project LIFE+ Making Good Natura aims to develop innovative governance models for agro-forestry sites of the Natura 2000 network based on ES to achieve new possible mechanisms of (self)financing. This paper provides insights into the biophysical and monetary valuation of nine ES, which were quantified for selected Natura 2000 sites in different regions of Italy. Based on our results, Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES) are discussed in relation to forest planning and management suggesting a new concept for the forest planning. Management plans should hence integrate different financial flows, not only wood or timber, but also different ES which provide more interesting income.

Between City and Countryside: Changing Nexus in the Urban Phenomenon of Rome

A lack of productive urban land, existence of food insecurity, an uncontrolled urban growth, lack of stable local food markets, land use conflicts in urban areas and a general lack of knowledge about urban and Peri-Urban food production, all join to fuel debate about cities and food in a time of change. Referring to the Mediterranean geography, cities do not originate from the countryside, but rather it is the countryside that originates from a city that it is barely capable of feeding. The settlement models that largely define the forms and processes of the farming and environmental systems to which they belong characterize the territorial dynamics of the Mediterranean urban areas. Looking at agri-food systems, even at a local level the aspects that have to be considered are: market variability and the price of raw materials, how these reflect on food prices definition, access to natural resources and the level of urbanisation. This work starts by analysing the relationship between city and countryside, to then reinterpret the current day context of Rome through factors that outline and define such a relationship. The relationship between food and cities—seen not as a simple fact but as a complex system of social, economic and political behaviour—can tell the story of many Mediterranean cities and certainly that of Rome. This is because the agricultural and urban facets of Rome are set side by side, without interruption, defining a breadth, a space that somehow epitomises the Roman landscape itself.