Unit for Human Geography, Department of Economy and Society, University of Gothenburg, P.O. Box 625, 405 30 Gothenburg, Sweden.
Biogeography and Geomatics, Department of Physical Geography, Stockholm University, 106 91 Stockholm, Sweden.
J Environ Manage. 2018 Apr 15;212:228-235. doi: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2018.02.004. Epub 2018 Feb 22.
Wood pastures are some of the most species-rich environments found in Europe and therefore essential habitats for biodiversity conservation. Society also puts faith in multiple values of trees, ranging from climate change mitigation to socio-cultural traditions. Therefore, the seemingly arbitrary tree density limit for pasture environments imposed by the EU through its Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) threatened both biological and societal values. In this study on farmers' perspectives, we target the effects of the CAP tree density limit on management of wood pastures in a low-intensively managed agricultural landscape of southern Sweden. The case of simplifying nature by using simple number limitations was used as an entry point in semi-structured, open-ended, interviews with farmers and officials about their view on trees and pasture management in relation to policy directives. The interviews showed that the policy incentive shifted the management focus from grazing quality to the number of trees and that farmers are willing to cut in order to get subsidies and timber revenues, however not unreflectingly. Farmers had high knowledge about the wide ranging social, cultural and natural values of trees, and are often themselves as good regulators of tree management as policies intend to be. Our study reveals many difficulties in managing the complex relations within landscapes with simplified legal measures, opening up for further discussion about improving policy instruments to preserve both social and biological values of wood pastures. However, although the tree density limit has been criticised on many points related to biodiversity conservation, this study shows that other values linked to pasture trees, e.g. the aesthetic values and their importance as shelter for grazing animals, could be an argument to actually keep the focus on trees as indicators of pasture management quality. We suggest that trees in general and wood-pastures in particular therefore are good starting points, or boundary-objects, for collaboration between production and conservation interests of farming and environmental management.
林地是欧洲物种最丰富的环境之一，因此是生物多样性保护的重要栖息地。社会也对树木的多种价值寄予厚望，从减缓气候变化到社会文化传统。因此，欧盟通过其共同农业政策（CAP）对牧场环境强加的看似任意的树木密度限制，威胁到生物和社会价值。在这项针对农民观点的研究中，我们针对 CAP 树木密度限制对瑞典南部低强度管理农业景观中林地管理的影响进行了研究。通过简单的数字限制来简化自然的案例被用作切入点，在与政策指令相关的、针对农民和官员的关于树木和牧场管理的半结构化、开放式访谈中使用。访谈表明，政策激励将管理重点从放牧质量转移到树木数量上，并且农民愿意砍伐树木以获得补贴和木材收入，但并非不加思考。农民对树木的广泛的社会、文化和自然价值有着很高的认识，并且往往像政策所意图的那样，自己也是树木管理的良好管理者。我们的研究揭示了在简化的法律措施下管理景观中复杂关系的许多困难，为进一步讨论如何改进政策工具以保护林地的社会和生物价值开辟了道路。然而，尽管树木密度限制在与生物多样性保护相关的许多方面受到批评，但这项研究表明，与牧场树木相关的其他价值，例如美学价值及其作为放牧动物栖息地的重要性，可能是实际关注树木作为牧场管理质量指标的论据。因此，我们建议，树木总体上和林地特别是，是农业和环境管理的生产和保护利益之间合作的良好起点或边界对象。
