The Monte di Portofino Promontory is a complex area where plants from North African climates and species belonging to the Apennines live closely together; a territory in which pressure from ...settlements, abandonment of agriculture and consumer tourism are gradually erasing an identity rich in historical depth. The main purpose of the project here described is to enable the Mountain communities and the Park authority to develop a participated management and to choose among several opportunities, with very different consequences. As a first step the research carried out an analysis and prepared an extremely detailed map of plant associations. As a second step, analyses and field investigations were performed aimed at building a physiotope map which, together with information on land use and vegetation, defines about 150 ecotopes. The aggregation of significant ecotopes identified a cmall number of landscapes which were functionally evaluated in terms of biodiversity, regulation, habitat, production, information. The distribution and content of ecotopes, together with their evolutionary dynamics in the absence of any interference, were then assessed, finally comparing, based on indicators, the advantages and disadvantages of four strategies defined as: 'Modern Economic Landscape, 'Arcadian Landscape, 'Natural Landscape, 'Rural Landscape (the latter implying a new agricultural economy). Keywords: Monte di Portofino; landscape ecology; physiotope map; ecotope map; strategic indicators. Riassunto. Il Monte di Portofino e un territorio complesso in cui coesistono a stretto contatto piante dei climi nordafricani e specie dell'Appennino e nel quale pressioni insediative, abbandono dell'agricoltura e turismo di consumo stanno progressivamente cancellando un'identita ricca di stratificazioni storiche. La principale finalita del progetto qui presentato e mettere in condizione le diverse comunita del Monte e l'autorita del Parco di sviluppare una gestione partecipata e di scegliere fra diverse opportunita, con conseguenze assai diverse fra loro. Il primo passo della ricerca e stata un'analisi e una Carta delle associazioni vegetazionali di estremo dettaglio. In una seconda fase sono state eseguite analisi e indagini sul campo finalizzate a costruire una Carta dei fisiotopi che, unitamente alle informazioni su usi del suolo e vegetazione, giunge a definire circa 150 ecotopi. Laggregazione significativa degli ecotopi ha individuato un numero limitato di paesaggi di cui sono state valutate le funzioni in termini di biodiversita, regolazione, habitat, produzione, informazione. Sono stati poi valutati i contenuti e la distribuzione degli ecotopi, le dinamiche evolutive in assenza di qualsiasi intervento e confrontati, mediante indicatori, vantaggi e svantaggi di quattro strategie: 'paesaggio economico moderno', 'paesaggio arcadico, 'paesaggio naturale, 'paesaggio rurale' (quest'ultimo sottintende una nuova economia agricola). Parole-chiave: Monte di Portofino; ecologia del paesaggio; carta dei fisiotopi; carta degli ecotopi; indicatori strategici.
This paper develops the transboundary concept of market‐based commons to explore how partial and incomplete privatisation measures are contributing to the creation, operation, and maintenance of ...common property in agrarian societies embedded in global economies. Focusing on Indonesia’s Riau province, I show how transboundary publics and geographically dispersed users of peatland resources collectively engage in environmental stewardship around sustainable forms of peatland development and activities aimed at mitigating the socio‐ecological costs of growth. The paper explores three types of peatland commons centred on social agroforestry using paludiculture (wet cultivation) techniques, fire mitigation strategies, and green supply chains around sustainable peatland products. I argue that while these market‐based commons are still in their infancy, they inscribe a specific set of transboundary governance relationships that seek to reform rather than resist capitalism by promoting both the protective and productive functions of carbon‐rich peatlands as profitable environmental goods of public value.
This paper develops the concept of market‐based commons to explore how partial and incomplete privatisation measures are contributing to the creation, operation, and maintenance of common property regimes. Focusing on Indonesia’s Riau province, I show how market‐based peatland commons are seeking to reform rather than resist capitalism by promoting both the protective and productive functions of carbon‐rich peatlands as profitable environmental goods of public value.
Pollination is a well-studied and at the same time a threatened ecosystem service. A significant part of global crop production depends on or profits from pollination by animals. Using detailed ...information on global crop yields of 60 pollination dependent or profiting crops, we provide a map of global pollination benefits on a 5' by 5' latitude-longitude grid. The current spatial pattern of pollination benefits is only partly correlated with climate variables and the distribution of cropland. The resulting map of pollination benefits identifies hot spots of pollination benefits at sufficient detail to guide political decisions on where to protect pollination services by investing in structural diversity of land use. Additionally, we investigated the vulnerability of the national economies with respect to potential decline of pollination services as the portion of the (agricultural) economy depending on pollination benefits. While the general dependency of the agricultural economy on pollination seems to be stable from 1993 until 2009, we see increases in producer prices for pollination dependent crops, which we interpret as an early warning signal for a conflict between pollination service and other land uses at the global scale. Our spatially explicit analysis of global pollination benefit points to hot spots for the generation of pollination benefits and can serve as a base for further planning of land use, protection sites and agricultural policies for maintaining pollination services.
ABSTRACT
What happens to labour when major redistributive land reform restructures a system of settler colonial agriculture? This article examines the livelihoods of former farmworkers on large‐scale ...commercial farms who still live in farm compounds after Zimbabwe's land reform. Through a mix of surveys and in‐depth biographical interviews, four different types of livelihood are identified, centred on differences in land access. These show how diverse, but often precarious, livelihoods are being carved out, representing the ‘fragmented classes of labour’ in a restructured agrarian economy. The analysis highlights the tensions between gaining new freedoms, notably through access to land, and being subject to new livelihood vulnerabilities. The findings are discussed in relation to wider questions about the informalization of the economy and the role of labour and employment in a post‐settler agrarian economy, where the old ‘farmworker’ label no longer applies.
In this paper we advance the conceptualisation of the ‘good farmer’ through integration of Bourdieusian concepts with DeLanda’s assemblage theory. Considering new farms as assemblages is useful to ...unlock the relative power of association amongst component parts, and to understand what drives the emergence of a farm. Utilising an empirical case study of new entrants to crofting in Scotland, we assess the interlinked processes of new symbolic capital formation and new croft establishment. Following Bourdieu, the ‘good farmer’ concept provides an approach to identify how established and shifting norms of crofting shape new holding establishment. Findings develop the materiality of social and cultural capital formation, with ‘good crofting’ ideals coded in relation to land capacity, practical experiences working the farm, multifunctional transitions and crofting legislation. New entrants actively ‘territorialise’ (define) their crofts by integrating new markets and management practices. The historicity of new farm assemblage is evident in the active mobilisation of historic images to inform expectations of productivity. The authors argue that integration of assemblage theory with Bourdieusian concepts elucidates the flexibility of farming forms and identities, the role of ‘more-than-human’ actants in farming identity construction, and the role of legislation in shaping understanding of what farming should entail. This is important for academics and policy makers alike concerned with the efforts to revitalise rural and agrarian economies.
•Social and cultural capital act as the ‘glue’ holding assemblages together.•Identity develops iteratively through experimentation with commodities.•De-territorialising involved identifying neighbours as ‘bad crofters’.•New crofters establish hybrid identities, based on diffuse sources.•New entrants assert a mobilising identity to ‘revitalise’ crofting.
Drought, recognized as one of the major disasters, negatively affects India’s agrarian economy, and in turn, farmers’ well-being. Households incur both economic and non-economic loss and damage. The ...latter is most often unnoticed and unaddressed although it is expected to be quite significant in developing nations. Understanding and assessing loss and damage are the prime objectives of the Warsaw International Mechanism. While numerous studies have emerged to estimate the impact on crop production, income, on-farm employment and financial status, there are only limited studies with respect to assessing loss and damage to intangible resources and the total cost of a drought in particular. By interviewing drought-affected farmers in the Kutch district of Gujarat state, this study aims to understand the perception of farmers and to estimate total economic value and noneconomic loss and damage. A contingent valuation method was employed. In sum, two major findings emerged: (i) intensity of economic loss and damage is perceived as relatively high as compared to noneconomic loss and damage, although the reverse was expected, and (ii) the average total economic value of a drought was INR 8303, and the mean value of noneconomic loss and damage was INR 4831. This study reveals that households give lower value to intangible losses that occurs over a period than the immediate tangible loss and damage which directly affect their total wealth. Given this, community-level adaptations to minimize non-economic loss and damage are less likely to be formulated. From the policy perspective, this study strongly advocates the evaluation of intangible costs, so that upcoming state action plans, disaster management plans and ex-post assessment reports could be tailored accordingly for minimizing these risks.
The literature on development has long highlighted the role of international trade and developmental states as key factors in explaining divergent processes of economic development. A country’s ...position in the world economy and its state’s capacity to promote industrialization are seen as fundamental to understanding its development path. Yet, these approaches are often inadequate for explaining the actual contours of industrial and economic growth across the Global South. In this study, an in-depth case study of Brazil reveals the limits of the mainstream approaches and illustrates the centrality of the underlying agrarian economy for understanding the country’s development path. Archival and quantitative data show that both the timing and location of industrialization in Brazil are better explained by the agrarian dynamics that unfolded in the country in the twentieth century. This has broader implications for understanding development processes throughout the Global South.
This paper examines the transformation of agrarian livelihoods due to crop booms at the China-Myanmar borderland. A key finding is that local villagers have rented out their land to outside investors ...looking to make fruit boom investments. However, the villagers neither cultivated the same crops themselves, nor were they hired as wage laborers. Overall, this study finds that crop booms provide local villagers with opportunities to reallocate natural resources and adjust their livelihoods. We argue that the dynamics of agrarian livelihoods are co-produced as the result of transnational labor migration and state-led borderland repositioning under secure land tenure relations. This study contributes to the current discussion regarding the changes undergone by an agrarian society experiencing crop booms.
This paper compares coca with mainstream agrarian economies in Colombia. It shows that the country's legal and illicit sectors share several fundamental characteristics and processes. Due to its very ...illegality, coca is endowed with positive characteristics that are not easily found elsewhere: it is a productive – even in the absence of basic public goods –, familial, labor intensive, smallholder agriculture, relatively resistant to monoculture. Furthermore, different processes of social change have mitigated some of the typical problems of agrarian frontiers linked to global markets. In turn, its illegal status also imposes extreme costs over peasants and other social sectors. On the one hand, due to coca producers can escape from the “reproductive squeeze” and extreme pattern of land concentration that affect other peasants; on the other, coca becomes an unending source of risk and distress. This contradiction puts peasants in front of very tough tradeoffs, which in turn demand a careful reconsideration of what “alternative” development can mean in the Colombian context.
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