The farmer as a landscape steward: Comparing local understandings of landscape stewardship, landscape values, and land management actions.
We develop a landscape stewardship classification which distinguishes between farmers' understanding of landscape stewardship, their landscape values, and land management actions. Forty semi-structured interviews were conducted with small-holder (<5 acres), medium-holders (5-100 acres), and large-holders (>100 acres) in South-West Devon, UK. Thematic analysis revealed four types of stewardship understandings: (1) an environmental frame which emphasized the farmers' role in conserving or restoring wildlife; (2) a primary production frame which emphasized the farmers' role in taking care of primary production assets; (3) a holistic frame focusing on farmers' role as a conservationist, primary producer, and manager of a range of landscape values, and; (4) an instrumental frame focusing on the financial benefits associated with compliance with agri-environmental schemes. We compare the landscape values and land management actions that emerged across stewardship types, and discuss the global implications of the landscape stewardship classification for the engagement of farmers in landscape management.
Department of Geosciences and Natural Resource Management, University of Copenhagen, Rolighedsvej 23, 1958, Frederiksberg C, Denmark. chris.raymond@enviroconnect.com.au.|Barbara Hardy Institute, University of South Australia, PO Box 190, Stirling, SA, 5152, Australia. chris.raymond@enviroconnect.com.au.
Christopher M
CM
Raymond
Institute of Social Sciences in Agriculture, Chair of Societal Transition and Agriculture, University of Hohenheim, Schloss Museumsflügel, 70599, Stuttgart, Germany. claudia.bieling@uni-hohenheim.de.
Claudia
C
Bieling
Department of Geosciences and Natural Resource Management, University of Copenhagen, Rolighedsvej 23, 1958, Frederiksberg C, Denmark. ncf@ign.ku.dk.|Department of Geography and Geology, University of Turku, 20014, Turku, Finland. ncf@ign.ku.dk.
Nora
N
Fagerholm
Environmental Change Institute, Oxford University Centre for the Environment, South Parks Road, Oxford, OX1 3QY, UK. berta.martin@uam.es.|Social-Ecological Systems Laboratory, Department Ecology, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, C/Darwin, 2, Madrid, Spain. berta.martin@uam.es.
Berta
B
Martin-Lopez
Department of Geosciences and Natural Resource Management, University of Copenhagen, Rolighedsvej 23, 1958, Frederiksberg C, Denmark. tobias.plieninger@ign.ku.dk.
Tobias
T
Plieninger
D000383:Agriculture; D003247:Conservation of Natural Resources / Q000191:economics / Q000379:methods*; D003657:Decision Making; D004739:England; D000067565:Farmers
Conservation behavior; Environmental management; Pro-environmental behavior; Production behavior; Social values