Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Groot's classification, from our perspective at least, is that the analysis of jointness
should be performed only at coherent levels: jointness between functions fulfilled,
or between processes involved, or between goods and services provided. Trying to
identify relationships between the supply of a commodity and the provision of
several non-market functions will lead to conceptual difficulties that will hamper
analysis and risk producing results that are spurious.
One important point of the analysis of multifunctionality is the connection of the
various activities that take place in a landscape. In the context of this chapter, we
consider that multifunctional landscapes support different activities in the same plot
of land (e.g. both agriculture and tourism). This position is different from the litera-
ture of rural sociologists (Van der Ploeg and Roep
2003
, e.g.) who consider that
several activities can take place at landscape scales but are distinct on each plot of
land (for us, this would be pluri-activity).
To elaborate, a given area can be devoted to diverse but single-function land use
types, like croplands, woodlands, recreational areas; in this area, several activities
are possible, like farming, wood production or tourism (in the recreation areas). But
the large paths that cross the productive woods are built for trucks where tourism
would prefer networks of small lanes. In the farmland area, the fields are fenced,
the old lanes have been ploughed and the hedges are not part of the productive
system and thus poorly kept. The recreational areas look like tourists would derive
amenity value from them but are not related to the cultural heritage of the area and
their access is controlled. The different activities are not connected to each other:
this is pluri-activity. By contrast, a multifunctional landscape may supply farm
outputs along with tourism services on multifunctional farms. Of course, tourism
services can also be supplied by activities other than farming, wood and genetic
biodiversity in multifunctional forests and have a cultural value because of the
scenery that includes fields amidst diverse forests, along with the existence of animal
species that need forests margins close to open fields.
Thus, we focused our analysis on multifunctionality (and not on pluri-activity)
and we argue that the analysis of jointness has to be performed either between
functions, or processes or goods and services produced but without crossing
these different levels. As a consequence, the analysis of jointness at the farm
level will consider jointness between the supply of commodity and non-commodity
outputs.
Towards Indicators of Multifunctionality
Determining indicators of multifunctionality (based on the jointness definition)
includes three important and sequential steps:
-
Step 1: identification of jointness
-
Step 2: qualitative assessment of jointness
-
Step 3: quantitative assessment of jointness
