Forum: Social-Ecological System Archetypes for European Rangelands

Tibor Hartel, Nora Fagerholm, Mario Torralba, Ágnes Balázsi, Tobias Plieninger

Research output: Contribution to JournalArticleAcademicpeer-review

Abstract

Rangelands in Europe are imprinted by livestock production and embedded in mosaic landscapes of grasslands, croplands, woodlands, and settlements. They developed as social-ecological systems: People managed rangelands in order to maintain or enhance their ecosystem services, which in turn supported their well-being. The appreciation of ecosystem services provided by rangelands depends on the broad, socioeconomic aspirations and abilities of the managers and the capital available to achieve these aspirations. Here we propose four archetypical social-ecological system representations for European rangelands along the dimensions of socioeconomic aspirations (i.e., oriented toward conventional or sustainable production) and available financial capital (i.e., low or high) to employ farming technologies on rangelands. The four archetypes are aspiration misfit, pockets of sustainability, techno-dependence, and money dependent sustainability. We describe the landscape physiognomy, ecosystem service appreciation, and management-related synergies and trade-offs in ecosystem services supply related to each archetype and formulate a number of research questions to document and further understand them as social-ecological systems. We include the importance of urbanization, land grabbing, and institutional networks in shaping the social-ecological archetypes of rangelands and the relationship between our social-ecological archetypes and the resilience and transformability of rangelands.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)536-544
JournalRangeland Ecology and Management
Volume71
Issue number5
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Sept 2018
Externally publishedYes

Funding

This work received support from the European Community's Seventh Framework Programme under Grant Agreement 613520 (Project AGFORWARD, 2014-18). The work of T. H. and Á. B. is also a contribution to the project SusTaining AgriCultural ChAnge Through ecological engineering and Optimal use of natural resources (STACCATO), supported by a grant of the Romanian National Authority for Scientific Research and Innovation, CCCDI–UEFISCDI, project code ERA-FACCE-STACCATO-3. This work received support from the European Community's Seventh Framework Programme under Grant Agreement 613520 (Project AGFORWARD, 2014-18). The work of T. H. and ?. B. is also a contribution to the project SusTaining AgriCultural ChAnge Through ecological engineering and Optimal use of natural resources (STACCATO), supported by a grant of the Romanian National Authority for Scientific Research and Innovation, CCCDI?UEFISCDI, project code ERA-FACCE-STACCATO-3.

FundersFunder number
National Authority for Scientific Research and Innovation
Seventh Framework Programme
Seventh Framework Programme2014-18, 613520

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