Mauro Agnoletti

Landscape and biocultural diversity

With the convention on biological diversity (CBD) office in UNEP acting as global focal point for biodiversity, and UNESCO acting as global focal point for cultural diversity, the two institutions launched in 2010 the Joint Programme on the Links between Biological and Cultural Diversity (JP-BiCuD) to strengthen the linkages between biological and cultural diversity initiatives, and to enhance the synergies between interlinked provisions of conventions and programmes dealing with biological and cultural diversity at relevant scales. The first meeting for the implementation of the Joint Programme was held in Florence (Italy) in April 2014 and produced a declaration to promote the Joint Program in the European Continent. The scientific committee received 165 paper proposals. The selection operated by the Steering Committee accepted 63 papers considered highly relevant for the topic of the conference and also 11 posters, from 25 countries. The expert meeting for the drafting of the final declaration was attended by 42 experts from 14 countries and about 33 organizations, including FAO, ICOMOS, IUCN, and IUFRO among others. The Florence Declaration (UNESCO and SCBD 2014) was drafted taking into account the results of the conference works, and has not only produced political indications for the implementation on the Joint Programme, but also indicated some of the most important issues concerning research activities for the promotion of the concept of biocultural diversity:

Traditional Forest-Related Knowledge and Climate Change

The holders and users of traditional forest-related knowledge are on the front lines of global efforts to deal with climate change and its impacts. Because of their close connection with, and high dependence on, forest ecosystems and landscapes, indigenous and local communities are among the first to witness, understand, and experience the impacts of climate change on forests and woodlands as well as on their livelihoods and cultures. The history of forest and agricultural landscape management practices of indigenous and local communities based on their traditional knowledge offer insights into principles and approaches that may be effective in coping with, and adapting to, climate change in the years ahead. Global, regional, national and local efforts to mitigate and adapt to climate change, however, have not yet given adequate attention either to the forest-related knowledge and practices of traditional communities, or to the interests, needs and rights of local and indigenous communities in the formulation of policies and programmes to combat climate change. Due consideration of, and a more prominent role for, traditional forest-related knowledge and its practitioners could lead to the development of more effective and equitable approaches for facing the challenges posed by climate change while enhancing prospects for sustainable management of forest resources.

Cultural values and sustainable forest management: the case of Europe

Abstract The European continent still has a rich heritage of rural landscapes built up over thousands of years. The UNESCO-sCBD Florence Declaration of 2014, describes it as being predominantly a biocultural landscape, as it assimilates economic, social, cultural, and environmental processes in time and space. This definition also includes the forests, which have been affected by several centuries of human action and are also a part of the European cultural heritage. However, an approach to forest landscapes often employing the same tools used for nature conservation has led to a definition of management tools mostly based on ecological characteristics. The origin of forests and woodlands is rarely interpreted as the result of human activities and protected and managed accordingly. The three pillars on which Sustainable Forest Management (SFM) in Europe are based are ecological values, economic values, and sociocultural values. However, no political resolutions requiring countries to develop strategies and carry out actions for the preservation of cultural forests have been developed so far. The fact that cultural values currently play a limited role in SFM indicates the scant consideration given to the role of culture and history, as well as the lack of a comprehensive landscape approach. Failure to effectively and coherently address culture and history may very well be an emerging weakness that needs to be reconciled, especially now that the landscape approach is proposed on a global scale as a new perspective for sustainable development. One of the consequences of this failure has been the widespread application of an idea of ‘naturalness’ to places that are not natural, threatening the conservation of the cultural identity of local populations and the historical values of forests, and favoring processes of abandonment and renaturalization. The present paper advocates the practical implementation of existing tools for protecting cultural forest landscapes, such as the MCPFE Guidelines for Social and Cultural Values in SFM and the UNESCO-sCBD Florence Declaration.

The Unique Character of Traditional Forest-Related Knowledge: Threats and Challenges Ahead

This chapter reflects on the major findings of the lead authors of this book regarding traditional forest-related knowledge (TFRK) using five criteria for distinguishing the unique character of traditional knowledge: (1) its attention to sustainability; (2) relationships to land; (3) identity; (4) reciprocity; and (5) limitations on market involvement. Following an explanation of these criteria, we discuss the definition of “traditional forest-related knowledge,” with some remarks about its resilience. We then consider threats to the maintenance of TFRK, how other definitions of sustainability differ from that used in TFRK, and how relationships that holders of this knowledge have to their land have been weakened and their identities challenged. We highlight how the key role of reciprocity, or the sharing of the utilization of land, is undermined by individualistic motives which are promoted by the global expansion of modern markets (for commodities, ecosystems services and for knowledge itself), which also challenge the policies of traditional knowledge holders to keep market influences under control. We then focus on two notable, but often ignored, contributions of TFRK (and the holders of this knowledge) to forest management today, specifically the preservation of biodiversity, and traditional knowledge-based shifting cultivation practices and their importance for both sustainable management of forests and food security. Finally, we consider enabling conditions for the preservation and development of TFRK, and examine the role of the scientific community in relation to TFRK and principles for successful collaboration between traditional knowledge holders and scientists.

Italian Historical Rural Landscapes: Dynamics, Data Analysis and Research Findings

One of the first questions that the scientific committee needed to answer when proposing this research to the Italian Ministry of Agriculture Food and Forestry, was why we needed a national register of the rural landscapes, in these difficult times of economic and social crisis, that seems to pose more urgent matters in the political agenda. Several different answers could be given to this question, since several different reasons induced a large group of scholars working in different domains to undertake this work. Let me just point out a significant and fairly obvious one. After over half a century of an industrial agriculture which has deeply transformed our countryside, after decades of Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) which have placed our land and environment under extreme pressure, it has become urgent to draw a balance and provide a general assessment of what remains of one of the most diverse and aesthetically compelling landscapes in Europe and the world, and one of the richest in agricultural biodiversity. On the other hand, it is worth noting that since the end of the 1980s Common Agricultural Policy has started to limit and regulate the use of land and its agricultural transformations by means of milk quotas and set-aside plans—that is, putting the less productive land to rest. The same is being done today in viticulture, as well.

Wooded grasslands as part of the European agricultural heritage

Wooded grasslands have always played an important role in rural life with changing issues: They are of high importance for questions of biodiversity, soil, and water resources and in preserving agricultural heritage, but their maintenance is labor intensive. Abandoned wooded grasslands undergo succession, and food production alone does not support their survival. They require special attention and at the beginning a well-established subsidy system can help to contribute to their survival. Their sustainable use in the present-day landscapes can only be conceivable in complexity where food production, reintroduction of their cultural values, biodiversity and landscape protection, and ecotourism are playing an important role. This chapter gives an overview on the recent situation of wooded grasslands and their historical development, based on the work done by the Institute for Research on European Agricultural Landscapes (www.​eucalandnetwork.​eu). National pictures, definitions, history (including local names), threats, potentials, cultural values, spatial distributions, subtypes, and available databases have been collected, described, and analyzed. The main results of this survey are as follows: (1) Wooded grasslands are known to the public but mainly to local communities where they occur; (2) Many subtypes of wooded grasslands exist in various European countries; (3) Wooded grasslands underwent tremendous changes during the past centuries and lost their importance for various reasons; (4) There are many local and regional projects focusing on wooded grasslands, often as “lighthouse” projects to valorise cultural achievements.

Biocultural Diversity and Landscape in Europe: Framing the Issue

The International Conference on Biological and Cultural Diversity held in Montreal on June 2010, produced the Declaration on Biocultural Diversity and the UNESCO-SCBD Joint Programme on the linkages between cultural and biological diversity. The first meeting for the implementation of the Joint Programme was held in Florence (Italy) in April 2014. The scientific and policy dimensions of the linkages between cultural and biological diversity are of utmost importance in Europe where policies are devoted to the conservation of biodiversity and cultural heritage, but rarely focused on the result of interactions between nature and culture expressed by the rural landscape. The Florence Conference gathered scientists from different disciplines considering biocultural diversity as a good example of a topic requiring a transdisciplinary approach not always supported by university and research. This not only for an effective understanding of the biodiversity associated with landscapes shaped by the man, but also for the further development of the Joint Programme in terms of research and political implementation. The meeting was organized into a scientific part and a workshop for the drafting of a declaration on biocultural diversity. The declaration states that the European rural landscape (about 80 % of the European Union territory) is predominantly a biocultural multifunctional landscape, while the current state of biological and cultural diversity in Europe results from the combination of historical and ongoing environmental and land-use processes and cultural heritage. This book shows the existence and the importance of biocultural diversity associated to European landscape. This heritage should be studied, preserved and valorized by public policies.

Assessing the Integrity of the Historical Landscapes

Considering the importance of terraced cultivation for economic in the areas surveyed by this research, it has been decided to develop an investigation in order to analyse their features and assess the historical integrity of some areas considered as having a high level of integrity. The study is useful also in view of the funds available for the restoration of terracing according to the Common Agricultural Policy and the initiatives taken by the Ministry of Agriculture Food and Forestry, but also for the establishment of the national register of traditional landscapes. The latter will require a definition of the level of integrity in order to include the selected areas in the register. In this research three case studies were identified, Lamole, Valdobbiadene and Costa Viola, located respectively in the north, the center and the south of Italy, choosing an extension of about 800–1,000 ha for each one of them. For each area a methodology defined “Historical Cultural Evaluation Approach” was applied, already developed as part of a project for the monitoring of the Tuscan landscape (Agnoletti in Il paesaggio agro-forestale toscano. Strumenti per l’analisi, la gestione e la conservazione, ARSIA, Firenze, 2002; Agnoletti in The conservation of cultural landscapes, CAB International, New York, 2006). The project for Tuscany considered three dates starting from the early nineteenth century, but in our case, to simplify the analysis we adopted as a starting point the landscape in the 1950s. The aerial photos taken in this period represent Italy before the industrialization of agriculture, allowing us to understand the traditional features of the agricultural landscape and make a comparison with recent aerial photos representing the situation after industrialization.

Valorising the European Rural Landscape: The Case of the Italian National Register of Historical Rural Landscapes

Europe’s rural areas are diverse in terms of geography, population, demography, economic and social structures as well as labour markets. It is this diversity that is part of their richness and that has also created an extraordinary diversity of landscapes, which today are playing an increasingly important role. Europe’s rural landscape represents 91 % of the territory in EU 27 and about 56 % of the population live in predominantly and significantly rural areas. Rural areas generate 45 % of gross value added in EU 27 and 53 % of the employment. Nevertheless, many of Europe’s rural landscapes face a common challenge as their dynamics and quality are mostly triggered by socio-economic developments affecting the rural world.

Exploring Alpine Landscapes as Potential Sites of the Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS) Programme

Traditional agricultural landscapes give a distinct character to the European Alps and are considered part of their heritage due to their distinctive natural and sociocultural features. At a workshop jointly organized by the Swiss Interacademic Commission for Alpine Studies (ICAS), the International Scientific Committee on Research in the Alps (ISCAR), and the Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts (ZRC SAZU), Ljubljana, experts from different European countries discussed current trends in traditional Alpine agricultural landscapes in September 2017 in Tolmin, Slovenia. The objective of the workshop was to develop options for proposing these landscapes as Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (www.fao.org/giahs/en).