Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
A very important change in the three initiatives was the strengthened process of
collaboration and networking. Partnerships built new bridges between actors with different
interests, which resulted in collective action and boosted innovation. Strong horizontal
networking was created in the French and Portuguese initiatives, integrating multi-level
actors (from local to regional and even national in the French case). The networks
facilitated exchange of information, knowledge and experience; built skills to help actors
participate in decision-making processes; and increased trust and confidence.
During the transition new bridges were created between the agri-food regime and sub-
regimes through activities such as recreation (France) and rural tourism (Bulgaria). In the
Portuguese case, no new bridges were created at this level as Mediterranean Wild
Resources traditionally had links to agri-food and forestry regimes, and with amenities
provision (for example tourism and trekking) and biodiversity conservation. Subsequently,
in adapting farming systems to multifunctionality, an important institutional anchorage has
occurred: farmers' identities were challenged and changed. French farmers involved in the
transition remained food producers but also shifted to being landscape managers;
Portuguese producers also remained producers but seemed to perceive themselves more as
agricultural entrepreneurs and/or service providers exploring high quality innovati ve
products and services. Bulgarian farmers remained as commodity producers revealing,
nevertheless, a trend towards increased enterprise and a shift towards becoming service
providers.
Moreover, the comparison shows that there are common features in all three initiatives
that counter trends embedded in the dominant regimes. All three challenged the
homogenization of production structures and of products, through diversification and
multifunctional agricultural activities. Intensification was reduced (or at worst not
increased) and the proportion of young people involved, or interested, increased counter to
the trend of ageing in the rural and farming population.
All of the above changes have reinforced the transition towards multifunctionality of
HNVF in the three areas, related to conservation of biodiversity and landscape quality
combined with the need to sustain livelihoods and diversify agricultural activities. These
changes created potential opportunities to secure new sources of income and employment
but in a balanced, place-based model of territorial management in which landscape and
local communities and their ways of life were prioritized.
Following this search for place-based solutions for balanced territorial development
and new meanings of farming, another key factor which encourages the transition to HNVF
is public demand for traditional quality food products. This leads to the evolution of
marketing behaviour and activities, and the use of local certification schemes. The
initiatives facilitate mechanisms through which farmers initiate direct sales, shortening the
producer-consumer chain. Farmers become more flexible and have choice in planning and
realizing their sales, seeking the best conditions and reducing their dependence on
intermediaries. Currently, the three initiatives have succeeded in increasing local
knowledge and know-how, reinvigorating awareness of quality local products and enabling
responses to new consumer demand.
Furthermore, in the three case study areas, the development of HNVF and quality
product marketing has been combined with local heritage and biodiversity protection
through rural tourism activities. Diversification to such activities (e.g. gastronomy, nature-
use activities) expands the promotion of regional/local heritage and contributes to the
multifunctional characteristics of these rural areas.
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