Nico Polman

Agricultural and Environmental Informatics, Governance and Management: Emerging Research Applications

Agricultural and Environmental Informatics, Governance and Management: Emerging Research Applications is a state-of-the-art reference book which explores how rural policymakers and stakeholders can use information and communication technologies to sustainably manage agricultural and natural resources. The book explores how ICT can support public governance and rural decision-making, how supply chain and agricultural informatics tools and methods can improve agricultural management, and how ICT is especially useful for environmental, resource, and ecosystems management and for geospatial landscape planning. The book integrates cross-disciplinary knowledge about agricultural and environmental applications of informatics, connecting science and policy on a subject critical to the present and future quality of life in rural areas

Scale-sensitive governance of the environment

Sensitivity to scales is one of the key challenges in environmental governance. Climate change, food production, energy supply, and natural resource management are examples of environmental challenges that stretch across scales and require action at multiple levels. Governance systems are typically ill-equipped for this task due to organisational and jurisdictional specialisation and short-term planning horizons. Further to this, scientific knowledge is fragmented along disciplinary lines and research traditions in academia and research institutions. State-of-the-art, Scale-Sensitive Governance of the Environment addresses these challenges by establishing the foundation for a new, trans-disciplinary research field. It brings together and reframes a variety of disciplinary approaches, using the idea of scales to create a conceptual and methodological basis for scale-sensitive governance of the environment from both a natural and social science perspective. This volume presents new visions, methods and innovative applications of thinking and decision making across scales in space and time to develop a holistic view on the subject. It is unique in providing: analysis on how spatial, temporal, and governance scales are constructed, politically and scientifically defined, institutionalized in governance practices, and strategically used in policy discourses details on how current environmental governance practices can be enriched by the use of theory on scale, with specific research themes to show the benefits of recognizing scales in empirical research, insightful case studies drawn from countries in the Americas, Eastern and Southern Africa, Europe, and South and Southeastern Asia, covering a wide range of environmental topics including biodiversity, climate change, commodities (tea and palm oil), cultural landscapes, energy, forestry, natural resource management, pesticides, urban development, and water management. With its comprehensive coverage of scale and scaling issues and convergence of widely different scientific approaches, this book is essential for environmental scientists, policy makers and planners, also conservation biologists and ecologists who are involved in modeling climate change impacts and sustainability. This reference will also benefit students of environmental studies, and all those who seek a response to the urgent environmental governance challenges for the decades ahead.

Adapting to climate variability : learning from past experience and the role of institutions

Adaptation to human-induced climate change is currently receiving a lot of attention in international development circles. But throughout human existence, natural resource-dependent people have exploited and coped with the effects of climate variability on the ecosystems from which they derive a living. Learning from this experience can help inform the design of appropriate policies for responding to human-induced climate change. This paper presents the results of a World Bank study which sought to better understand the role of local institutions in supporting adaptation to climate variability and change in Ethiopia, Mali and Yemen. The study raised three questions. First, what strategies have been adopted by rural households in the past to adapt to climate variability? Second, to what extent do institutions of various sorts assist households in adopting adaptation strategies? And third, what are the factors that prevent households from adopting appropriate adaptation strategies? For the purposes of this paper, institutions are defined as structured, formal or informal organizations. The study followed a three-step approach. First, drawing on original data from field surveys, focus group discussions and institutional stakeholder interviews, household vulnerability to climate variability was characterized in terms of its three constituent elements: exposure to climate-related shocks and stresses, and sensitivity and adaptive capacity in the face of such stressors. Sensitivity refers to the degree to which people are affected by climate variability and change. High levels of exposure and sensitivity and low levels of adaptive capacity generally result in high levels of vulnerability. But a high level of exposure need not necessarily result in a high level of vulnerability if the households adaptive capacity is also high.

Modelling shifts between mono- and multifunctional farming systems: the importance of social and economic drivers

ContextIn Europe, policy measures are starting to emerge that promote multifunctional farming systems and delivery of ecosystem services besides food production. Effectiveness of these policy instruments have to deal with ecological, economic and social complexities and with complexities in individual decisions of local actors leading to system shifts.ObjectiveThe objective of this paper is to discover the most important social and/or economic drivers that cause farm systems to shift between a monofunctional (providing food) and a multifunctional state (providing food and natural pest regulation).MethodsUsing a cellular automata model, we simulated decisions of individual farmers to shift between a mono-and multifunctional state through time, based on their behaviour type and on financial and social consequences. Collaboration of multifunctional farmers at a landscape scale is a precondition to provide a reliable level of natural pest regulation.ResultsCosts of applying green infrastructure was an important driver for the size and the conversion rate of shifts between mono-and multifunctional farming systems. Shifts towards multifunctional farming were enhanced by a higher motivation of farmers to produce sustainably, while shifts (back) to a monofunctional state was enhanced by a low social cohesion between multifunctional farmers.ConclusionsThese results suggest that in order to develop a multifunctional farming system, individual farmers should act counterintuitively to their conventional farming environment. To maintain a multifunctional farming system, social cohesion between multifunctional farmers is most relevant. Financial aspects are important in both shifts.

Rural landscapes in turbulent times: a spatially explicit agent-based model for assessing the impact of agricultural policies

This paper presents a spatially explicit rural agent-based model which has been developed to assess how agricultural policy interventions, market dynamics and environmental change affect heterogeneous farm agents, their land use and the landscape of which they are part. This model moves beyond current literature by modelling market transactions among agents that are heterogeneous with respect to their economic and environmental characteristics within their spatially explicit landscape. The spatially explicit landscape is described by plot size, natural environmental and agricultural quality, shape, type of land use, intensity of use and distance to the homestead. The model is presented using the Overview, Design concepts, and Details (ODD) protocol. Modelling features are demonstrated by evaluating two different land market implementations which are based on auction mechanisms. We also explore how economic indicators change as the relative market power of buyers and sellers change, by moving from a buyers to a sellers’ market and vice versa.

Boeren in Beweging : Hoe boeren afwegingen maken over natuurinclusieve landbouw en hoe anderen hen kunnen helpen

In de ‘Rijksnatuurvisie 2014 Natuurlijk verder’ is een nieuwe term ontstaan: natuurinclusieve landbouw. Het Rijk zwengelde hiermee een discussie aan over de mate waarin en de manier waarop natuur een plek zou moeten hebben in alle facetten van het boerenbedrijf. Het zou een transitie moeten worden: de hele Nederlandse landbouw zou zich richting natuurinclusiviteit moeten bewegen. Deze term is vervolgens opgepakt door onderzoekers, burgers, natuurorganisaties en belangengroepen. Allerlei projecten werden de afgelopen jaren opgezet of onder de noemer ‘natuurinclusief’ gebracht. In bijeenkomsten werd het gesprek aangegaan met ketenpartijen en landbouworganisaties. Een transitie richting een natuurinclusieve landbouw gaat echter alleen plaatsvinden als boeren zelf in beweging komen. Als overheid, burgers, bedrijven en organisaties boeren willen helpen om die beweging te maken, is het belangrijk om inzicht te krijgen in wat hen beweegt. Wat speelt mee in de keuzes die zij maken om wel of niet de natuurinclusieve kant op te gaan en welke rol heeft hun omgeving daarin? Deze brochure is het resultaat van een onderzoek naar die vragen. Het was een verkennend, kwalitatief onderzoek, beperkt tot de melkveehouderij en de akkerbouw en uitgevoerd in 2016/2017. We spraken met vijf melkveehouders in Eemland en vijf akkerbouwers in Flevoland; eerst individueel en vervolgens als groep per gebied. Want: hoe voeren boeren met elkaar het gesprek over natuurinclusieve landbouw? Ook spraken we voor elke sector nog met drie erfbetreders, om te verkennen hoe zij denken over de transitie naar natuurinclusieve landbouw. Het onderzoek was niet opgezet voor een representatief beeld, maar om inzicht te krijgen in wat meespeelt bij overwegingen van boeren om te kiezen voor natuurinclusieve landbouw. In het volgende hoofdstuk introduceren we het raamwerk dat we gebruikt hebben om zicht te krijgen op de totstandkoming van de keuzes van boeren op het gebied van natuurinclusieve landbouw. We hebben dit gebruikt om de interviews en focusgroepen voor te bereiden en te analyseren. Vervolgens vatten we samen wat natuurinclusieve landbouw betekent voor de melkveehouderij in Eemland en voor de akkerbouw in Flevoland. Dit moet niet gelezen worden als objectieve waarheid, maar als de werkelijkheid zoals boeren die zien en zoals zij die in hun keuzes meewegen. Ook is het belangrijk om te beseffen dat de inhoud van elk hoofdstuk is samengesteld op basis van de uitspraken van vijf verschillende boeren, die niet per se door alle vijf zijn gezegd1. In hoofdstuk 3 besteden we extra aandacht aan de rol van de erfbetreders. In hoofdstuk 4 vertalen we de bevindingen uit Eemland en Flevoland naar aanknopingspunten om als politiek en maatschappij de keuze voor natuurinclusieve landbouw voor boeren gemakkelijker te maken. Ten slotte doen we gerichte aanbevelingen voor diverse partijen. Deze brochure is dan ook bedoeld voor iedereen die bij zou kunnen dragen aan een transitie richting natuurinclusieve landbouw: overheden, ketenpartijen, natuurorganisaties, agrarische collectieven, erfbetreders, burgers etc. Voor boeren staat er waarschijnlijk weinig nieuws in deze brochure, maar hopelijk wel veel herkenning! Als onderzoekers hopen we dat meer mensen zich naar aanleiding van deze brochure willen verdiepen in en verbinden aan boeren die streven naar natuurinclusiviteit, en daarmee medeverantwoordelijkheid gaan nemen voor ons landschap, ons voedsel en onze natuur.