Markus Schermer

Multiple ecosystem services of a changing Alpine landscape: past, present and future

In mountain regions, ecosystem services provision is strongly linked to land use, topography and climate, where impacts can be expected under global change. For our study site in the Austrian Alps, we examined the relationship between agricultural activities and multiple ecosystem services on landscape scale from past to future. Modelling of future land-use patterns was based on stakeholder workshops considering different socio-economic and climate scenarios. In the past, land-use intensity was reduced resulting in less forage provision but better regulating services. Future scenarios predict contrasting developments; under conditions of global change, farmers shift the focus of their activities towards tourism, but in times of global economic crisis farming becomes more important again. Developing the local economy facilitates new markets for agricultural products, but projected drought periods will cause an abandonment of farmland. While forest regeneration is valuable for regulating services, it reduces the aesthetic value. Both regulating and cultural services decrease when forage provision is optimized. To ensure multiple ecosystem service provision, agricultural management should be related to ecosystem services and included into land-use policies and agricultural incentives.

GMO and sustainable development in less favoured regions—the need for alternative paths of development

Abstract The risk assessment for new technologies, like the use of GMO in the agricultural production, becomes enormously complex. It cannot be limited to purely natural–scientific analysis. Socio-economic factors need to be considered as well. The active promotion of GMO-free areas is discussed as a means for an alternative path of development. Economically less favoured and at the same time ecologically sensitive areas are suitable for the territorial application of this concept. The state of discussion on the influences of the agricultural use of GMO on the regional development of less favoured and ecologically sensitive regions is presented. The social acceptance of GMO-free areas was tested in a survey, which was conducted in 1999 in Austria. The results suggest that the idea is worth being pursued. A case study for local application is presented: GMO-free areas as part of a biosphere park stimulate economically sustainable endogenous development.

Implementing Sustainable Agriculture and Rural Development in the European Alps Assets and Limitations of Local Projects Based on Multi-stakeholder Participation

Abstract In current scientific and political discourses there is common agreement that the future of Alpine agriculture is a challenge not only for farmers, but also for society at large. What remains unclear is the question of how to adapt agriculture towards sustainable development of the Alpine territory in a manner that takes sufficient account of local diversity. We propose to treat agriculture and rural development as a matter of local concern, starting with a definition of sustainable agriculture drawn up by local stakeholders. Based on a 3-year experiment, we examine the capacity of local people to take joint action to contribute in a consistent way to rural development and to sustainable agriculture. We discuss the assets and limitations of local projects based on multi-stakeholder participation, ie in relation to their capacity to initiate closer links between farmers and other stakeholders and renew the contribution of agriculture to rural development. Our paper highlights 2 main points: first, how social dynamics are initiated and how farmers and other actors take joint action towards sustainable development; second, we analyze the impact of such local projects on agriculture and rural development and the counterbalancing effects of global factors, including market trends and related policies. Finally, we discuss the consequences of our results for policies targeting sustainable rural development.

Organic policy in Austria: greening and greenwashing

Within the EU Austria is in the vanguard of the development of organic farming, with more than 10% of farms and land under organic management. Austria therefore provides an excellent example of what happens when organic production becomes an accepted mainstream mode of farming. This raises key questions about how agricultural policy actors and market actors react to this growth. Does the increasing share of organic production substantially change the future direction of agricultural and policy development? Or is the growth of the organic sector mainly instrumental, allowing policy and market actors to communicate a positive image while at the same time ramifying conventional approaches?

Participative Spatial Scenario Analysis for Alpine Ecosystems

Land use and land cover patterns are shaped by the interplay of human and ecological processes. Thus, heterogeneous cultural landscapes have developed, delivering multiple ecosystem services. To guarantee human well-being, the development of land use types has to be evaluated. Scenario development and land use and land cover change models are well-known tools for assessing future landscape changes. However, as social and ecological systems are inextricably linked, land use-related management decisions are difficult to identify. The concept of social-ecological resilience can thereby provide a framework for understanding complex interlinkages on multiple scales and from different disciplines. In our study site (Stubai Valley, Tyrol/Austria), we applied a sequence of steps including the characterization of the social-ecological system and identification of key drivers that influence farmers’ management decisions. We then developed three scenarios, i.e., “trend”, “positive” and “negative” future development of farming conditions and assessed respective future land use changes. Results indicate that within the “trend” and “positive” scenarios pluri-activity (various sources of income) prevents considerable changes in land use and land cover and promotes the resilience of farming systems. Contrarily, reductions in subsidies and changes in consumer behavior are the most important key drivers in the negative scenario and lead to distinct abandonment of grassland, predominantly in the sub-alpine zone of our study site. Our conceptual approach, i.e., the combination of social and ecological methods and the integration of local stakeholders’ knowledge into spatial scenario analysis, resulted in highly detailed and spatially explicit results that can provide a basis for further community development recommendations.

The Impact of Eco-regions in Austria on Sustainable Rural Livelihoods

This paper provides a closer look into the concept of eco-regions in Austria. The idea behind the eco-region is to merge organic farming and rural development into a territorial strategy. The actors proposing this are farmers as well as various stakeholders in regional development. A survey of current manifestations of eco-regions in Austria provides an overview and a base for a preliminary classification. It also indicates the eco-region concept as a potential answer to individual problem situations. The ‘Eco-region National Park Hohe Tauern’ serves as a specific case to assess the impact of this concept using the sustainable rural livelihood (SRL) framework. The case study proves that the concept of eco-regions delivers a range of improvements in the livelihood of small organic farms in less favoured regions. Moreover it supports the forging of new alliances, which can extend the principles of sustainability inherent to organic farming to other actors and sectors in the region. Thus it provides the framework for a territorial application of the principles of organic farming. But the case study also reveals potential dangers, especially from powerful market partners who use the concept for their purposes, dominating further development and creating new dependencies. Finally some general conclusions on the preconditions necessary to establish eco-regions are presented.

How a region benefits from regionally labelled cheese products in Austria: a model-based empirical assessment along different value chains

The major aim of the study is to analyse six Austrian value chains of regionally labelled cheese along the whole food value chain concerning their potential socio-economic benefit for the labelled region. Twenty-eight quantitative as well as qualitative indicators, with a potentially positive impact on the region, were used to assess these value chains. An assessment model was developed, which is based on indicators focusing on socio-economic issues concerning regional and corporate resilience, which should be understood as a complementary method to environmental accounting methods such as life cycle assessments. The analysed value chains reach 37 to 79% of the maximum possible benefit for the region. Variation is highly dependent on whether the value chain was conventional and retailed nationally or organic with direct marketing. Whereas the results of all the analysed organic value chains with retailing via supermarket are rather similar to each other (their results reach around 58% of the maximum). Interestingly, milk products, organic as well as conventional, which are sold directly, induce the highest socio-economic benefit for their production region, whereas organic value chains receive slightly more points than conventional when sold via supermarkets. The results of the value chains analysed with the method are consistent and comprehensible if the complex system of food production, processing and retailing is examined in detail. As a result, this study shows the importance of developing methods for assessing the socio-economic impact on value chains in food production. This is of increasing relevance as regionally labelled food is a globally expanding trend.

Mobilizing and Managing Social Capital: On Roles and Responsibilities of Local Facilitators in Territorial Development

Abstract The paper explores the difficulties and challenges in mobilizing and managing social capital in concrete local and territorial directed rural development project activities. The main focus is put on the roles of local facilitators working with farmers and other local stakeholders during project implementation. The EU 5th framework project IMALP included a strong component of implementing concrete actions. In each of the four participating countries a region was selected where a so-called local group was established. A local facilitator was employed to moderate the local group and to assist in the design and implementation of concrete projects. Research accompanied and monitored the process. The recent shift of EU policy towards rural development from a mainly sectoral (agricultural) approach to a territorial approach requires new competences in managing social capital and on their changing role(s) in the different stages of group formation and development. Professional support by facilitators with a set of new skills is needed in the course of group formation and development. The identification, mobilization and management of social capital become a crucial challenge. So far the mobilization and management of social capital does not happen consciously. Agricultural advisors taking over the task of local facilitators need to be specially trained in actively mobilizing and coordinating towards a common goal. The value of the paper lies in the analysis of the experimental approach of the project and the cross-country comparison of the results.