Uncertainty and change are increasingly commonplace as communities respond to impacts of social-ecological change including climate change, and dangerous levels of pollution. Given the extent of ...these crises, new approaches are needed to support responses. Here we identify challenges and discuss insights that the nexus of Senses of place (SoP) and mobilities research offers in navigating such uncertainty. We conducted a two-round Delphi, followed by a workshop, and collaborative writing process with a global network of researchers with expertise in either or both SoP and mobilities research. Participants identified five challenges at the place-mobility nexus that emerge when a social-ecological system is disrupted. We use the 2022 Odra River fish die-off to exemplify the identified challenges: 1) accounting for power dynamics, inequalities and motility; 2) doing justice to more-than human actors; 3) integrating multiple and sometimes nested spatial scales; 4) considering temporalities of place and mobilities, and 5) embracing multisensoriality. To address these challenges, we recommend drawing on diverse methods and knowledge co-creation processes that combine more-than-human perspectives, multisensoriality, and engage in the dynamic relations between places to understand people-place disruptions in the face of socio-spatial precarity. Addressing such knowledge gaps requires stronger collaboration of mobilities and place researchers.
•Understanding the nexus of mobilities and place perspectives is necessary to understand human response to place disruptions.•Place and mobilities researchers identified five key challenges at the nexus through mixed-method approach.•Challenges evolve around power, multispecies perspective, spatial and temporal scales, and multisensoriality.•We use case of Odra River's ecological catastrophe to illustrate relevance of interconnected place and mobility research.
•Ecosystem service relations were assessed by linking modelled and participatory data.•Synergies and trade-offs between ecosystem services were dependent on land cover.•Mixing forest and agroforestry ...resulted in a balance delivery of ecosystem services.•Integrated analysis of ecosystem services can help to inform management decisions.
Rural Europe encompasses a variety of landscapes with differing levels of forest, agriculture, and agroforestry that can deliver multiple ecosystem services (ES). Whilst provisioning and regulating ES associated with individual land covers are comparatively well studied, less is known about the associated cultural ES. Only seldom are provisioning, regulating, and cultural ES investigated together to evaluate how they contribute to multifunctionality. In this study we combined biophysical and sociocultural approaches to assess how different landscapes (dominated by forest, agriculture or agroforestry) and landscape characteristics (i.e. remoteness and landscape diversity) drive spatial associations of ES (i.e. synergies, trade-offs and bundles). We analysed data of: i) seven provisioning and regulating ES (spatially modelled), and; ii) six cultural ES (derived from participatory mapping data) in 12 study sites across four different biogeographical regions of Europe. Our results showed highly differentiated ES profiles for landscapes associated to a specific land cover, with agroforestry generally providing higher cultural ES than forest and agriculture. We found a positive relationship between the proportion of forest in a landscape and provisioning and regulating ES, whilst agriculture showed negative relationships. We found four distinct bundles of ES. Three of them were directly related to a dominant land cover and the fourth to a mixture of forest and agroforestry that was associated with high social value. The latter bundle was related to zones close to urban areas and roads and medium to high landscape diversity. These findings suggest that agroforestry should be prioritised over other land covers in such areas as it delivers a suite of multiple ES, provided it is close to urban areas or roads. Our results also illustrate the importance and application of including people’s perception in the assessment of ES associations and highlight the relevance of developing integrated analyses of ES to inform landscape management decisions.
Recent land cover change estimates show overall decline of tropical forests at the regional and global scales caused by multiple social, cultural and economic factors. There is an overall concern on ...the prevailing land use practices, such as shifting cultivation and extraction of forest materials as agents of forests losses, but also new, emerging land uses are threatening tropical forests. Understanding of the long-term development and driving forces of forest changes are needed, especially at local levels where many decisions on forest policies and land uses are made. This paper addresses the importance of such information for improved estimates of forest dynamics by studying local level land cover and land use changes during the last 50–70 years in the Eastern African tropical island of Zanzibar, Tanzania. The paper discusses the role of traditional and new land uses mainly subsistence farming, tourism and government interference through tree planting, in the long-term development of the forests at the village level. The material for the study is gathered from the interpretation of archival maps and aerial photographs combined with contemporary digital aerial photographs. The analyses are based on the mapping, spatial sampling and spatio-temporal change trajectory analysis (LCTA) of forest land cover, forest land uses and settlement patterns with GIS and statistics. Six distinct forest land cover change trajectories were identified and these illustrate dynamic and heterogeneous nature of the forests. Closed forest cover has dominated throughout due to cyclical land use patterns, but over 70% of the land area has been continuously transforming between closed, semi-open and open land cover conditions. Land use turnover rates indicate that hardly any forest areas are left untouched from the forces, which remove and re-establish forest vegetation in the long run. Land cover and land use change trajectories are spatially fragmented in the studied landscape. Majority of forest loss-gain dynamics is caused by shifting cultivation, while forest losses are most dramatic along the coast, where traditional and new land uses meet and land uses pressures are highest. The study suggests that landscape change trajectory analyses, where contemporary and historical information on land uses and land cover changes are spatially linked, can provide valuable aspects into local level forest land use planning and management strategies. For the case study, the findings suggest the following key forest management strategies for consideration: (1) establishment of a protected forest/scrubland in participation with the local stakeholders, especially the farmers, (2) promotion of areas for permanent agricultural practices, while simultaneously introducing management controls in the traditional slash-and-burn farming areas, and (3) promoting new livelihood opportunities for the farmers, who have traditionally been dependent on forest resources, meanwhile introducing alternatives for fuel wood for cooking.
The efforts in sustainable natural resource management have given rise to decentralization of forest governance in the developing world with hopes for better solutions and effective implementation. ...In this paper, we examine how spatially sensitive participation is realized from policy to practice in the process of establishing participatory forest management in Zanzibar, Tanzania. Our policy-practice analysis shows that the policies in Zanzibar strongly support decentralization and local level participation has in practice been realized. However, the policy does not emphasize participatory process design nor address the possibilities of using spatial information and technologies to ensure wider participation. Thus, the practices fall short in innovativeness of using site-sensitive information with available technologies. Reflecting the Zanzibari Community Forest Management Agreements (CoFMA) context with examples of participatory use of spatial information and technologies in other parts of the world, we discuss ways to improve the Zanzibari CoFMA process towards increased participation, communication, local sense of ownership and more sustainable land management decisions, and argue for the future implementation of CoFMA as a spatially sensitive participatory process.
Forest transitions cannot be separated from the overall changes in land uses and land cover patterns. On a local scale, these changes relate closely to values and preferences which people set on ...different land use strategies. We have analysed the dynamics of forested land cover over the last 50 years in Zanzibar, Tanzania, in relation to farmers' material and non-material place-based forest benefits. Our results show that forest change patterns are emerging from the adaptations of farmers' traditional land use practices to prevailing physical site conditions and accessibility and availability of resources. External forces, such as government intervention in the form of planting and gazetting, have had a substantial influence on the increase in forest cover during the last couple of decades but also challenged farmers to adapt to changing land use regimes. Our study implies that forest management and land use planning efforts, such as community forest management processes implementing REDD+, would substantially benefit from a place-sensitive interpretation of forest transitions on a local scale. This would enhance genuine participation of the locals in producing place-based forest benefit maps and expressing their values and preferences in terms of land use planning.
In order to identify sustainable management solutions for small-scale farmer agroecosystems, a better understanding of these dynamic forest–farmland systems, existing farming and forestry strategies, ...and farmer perspectives is important. We examined the relationship between agricultural land use patterns and farmers’ practices and identified existing and potential characteristics of healthy agroecosystems at local scale in the context of village communities in Zanzibar, Tanzania. With in-depth household survey and participatory mapping, five distinct cropping patterns were identified and their relation to land cover elucidated. Consequences of the diverse local farming strategies to field level cultivation patterns are dynamic. However, long-term adaptation of the local farmers to prevailing edaphic site conditions and resource-poor circumstances create fragmented but fairly stable land use patterns at landscape level. By integrating local expert knowledge and realities with scientific knowledge, we identified sustainable agroecosystem characteristics and farming practices, which are knowledge-intensive, alternative and adaptable to local conditions. Some of these practices are already a part of the local farming strategies and some require training and higher level support to reach healthier agroecosystem and better food security. They also offer potential opportunities for forest conservation since their tree-based nature provide forest products to the communities.
Independent mobility in a local environment is crucial for a child’s development and physical activity, contributing to overall health and well-being. This methodological article describes a study ...capturing children’s daily mobility in two residential areas in Turku, southwestern Finland, by combining the methods of GPS tracking, mobility diaries, interviews and questionnaires. Geographical positioning data enables analysis of spatial characteristics of children’s mobility, e.g. the comparison to land use structure and analysis of the travel speed, while the qualitative data sets reveal how, why and with whom the travel was realised and the level of children’s independence in mobility. The results show that children’s mobility is clustered around homes and schools and evident gender differences exist; boys travel longer distances and at higher speeds than girls. The children in Turku are relatively independent and have extensive mobility licenses. However, the travel undertaken to practise hobbies or participate in organised leisure activities is realised in adult company and significantly dominated by car transportation. The results strengthen the observation that Finnish children are allowed to travel rather independently and to explore the surrounding environment without adult company, using active forms of transportation. The significant level of independence is a consequence of the high perception of safety, both from the children and the parents in the residential areas. The described mixed methods approach, combining objective measurement of actual mobility with qualitative data sets, is applicable for further mobility studies and the results offer implications for planning child-friendly urban environments.
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