Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
rural areas by creating livelihoods for farmers and other local producers, multi -level
collaboration, partnership and territorial competitiveness. These are the means by which the
initiatives aim to generate new sources of income for local people and contribute to the
local economy, thereby supporting social and sustainable development.
Several common economic and social trends underlie these aims. The leading
economic sectors of the study areas are agriculture and food processing in Bulgaria; non -
food industry, commerce and services in France; and the service sector in Portugal. The
organization of agricultural business, farm size and farm structure also varies between the
three initiatives, as well as within the initiatives themselves. However, a common
contextual characteristic of these three case study areas is an ageing population. Therefore,
the participation of young farmers and new entrants (in the French initiative) are very
important both for the vitality of the territory and for the implementation of HNVF, its
associated measures and practices. The proportion of young people involved in the three
initiatives increased over time as they appear to have become more sensitive to issues of
environmental protection. Young people were also more attracted to the innovative
proposals, could adapt more readily to new ideas and were more willing to undertake new
initiatives and risks.
The anchoring process
Elzen
et al.
(2012) introduced the term 'anchoring' for emerging forms of linking, and
proposed that anchoring can occur in each of the three dimensions (technological, social,
and institutional) (see Darnhofer, this volume). The data show that all these forms of
anchoring have emerged in the case studies.
Social anchoring - networking
The MLP views transition as a non-linear and multi-actor process. In the case studies, we
observed various stakeholders/actors enmeshed at all levels in an interconnected, dynamic
and co-evolved manner. These actors were acting and interacting through different
production systems with institutions, regulations, negotiations, social norms, values and
consents. In the French and Portuguese cases, some of the stakeholders involved were
powerful regime actors.
Collaboration and networking were the most widespread forms of interaction in the
initiatives and a similar networking context was observed in all three case studies. On the
one hand, environmental actors and local officials sought solutions to conserve local
biodiversity and landscapes. On the other hand, in each region some farmers/producers
implemented farming practices and systems which allowed the conservation of local natural
resources and landscapes, often 'innovating with the old'. As a result, new relationships
between various actors with diverse interests have been built at different levels: local,
regional and national. In the French case, the first collaboration between actors took place
at the local level between new entrants looking for farmland and local mayors who were
struggling to prevent their municipal land from becoming fallow or developing into forest.
When agri-environmental measures were introduced (in the early 1990s) at the local level,
the network extended into the inter-municipal level thanks to local hybrid actors (a young
farmer, an agronomist/landscape manager who was also an elected local official, and two
civil servants in administrative bodies) who helped overcome some resistance at the local
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