TY - JOUR

T1 - Conservation policy in traditional farming landscapes

AU - Fischer, Joern

AU - Hartel, Tibor

AU - Kuemmerle, Tobias

PY - 2012/6

Y1 - 2012/6

N2 - Many traditional farming landscapes have high conservation value. Conservation policy in such landscapes typically follows a ‘preservation strategy’, most commonly by providing financial incentives for farmers to continue traditional practices. A preservation strategy can be successful in the short term, but it fails to acknowledge that traditional farming landscapes evolved as tightly coupled social-ecological systems. Traditionally, people received direct benefits from the environment, which provided a direct incentive for sustainable land use. Globalization and rural development programs increasingly alter the social subsystem in traditional farming landscapes, whereas conservation seeks to preserve the ecological subsystem. The resulting decoupling of the social-ecological system can be counteracted only in part by financial incentives, thus inherently limiting the usefulness of a preservation strategy. An alternative way to frame conservation policy in traditional farming landscapes is a ‘transformation strategy’. This strategy acknowledges that the past cannot be preserved, and assumes that direct links between people and nature are preferable to indirect links based on incentive payments. A transformation strategy seeks to support community-led efforts to create new, direct links with nature. Such a strategy could empower rural communities to embrace sustainable development, providing a vision for the future rather than attempting to preserve the past.

AB - Many traditional farming landscapes have high conservation value. Conservation policy in such landscapes typically follows a ‘preservation strategy’, most commonly by providing financial incentives for farmers to continue traditional practices. A preservation strategy can be successful in the short term, but it fails to acknowledge that traditional farming landscapes evolved as tightly coupled social-ecological systems. Traditionally, people received direct benefits from the environment, which provided a direct incentive for sustainable land use. Globalization and rural development programs increasingly alter the social subsystem in traditional farming landscapes, whereas conservation seeks to preserve the ecological subsystem. The resulting decoupling of the social-ecological system can be counteracted only in part by financial incentives, thus inherently limiting the usefulness of a preservation strategy. An alternative way to frame conservation policy in traditional farming landscapes is a ‘transformation strategy’. This strategy acknowledges that the past cannot be preserved, and assumes that direct links between people and nature are preferable to indirect links based on incentive payments. A transformation strategy seeks to support community-led efforts to create new, direct links with nature. Such a strategy could empower rural communities to embrace sustainable development, providing a vision for the future rather than attempting to preserve the past.

KW - Ecosystems Research

KW - CAP reform

KW - Common Agricultural Policy

KW - Community-based natural resource management

KW - Eastern Europe

KW - Farmland biodiversity

KW - Romania

KW - Subsistence agriculture

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84862542914&partnerID=8YFLogxK

UR - https://www.mendeley.com/catalogue/a7e5a2af-cafb-32a4-b8bd-ecb649b86521/

U2 - 10.1111/j.1755-263X.2012.00227.x

DO - 10.1111/j.1755-263X.2012.00227.x

M3 - Journal articles

VL - 5

SP - 167

EP - 175

JO - Conservation Letters

JF - Conservation Letters

SN - 1755-263X

IS - 3

ER -