Multifunctional Rural Land Management

The increasing demand for rural land and its natural resources is creating competition and conflicts. Many interested parties, including farmers, nature conservationists, rural residents and tourists, compete for the same space. Especially in densely populated areas, agriculture, recreation, urban and suburban growth and infrastructure development exert a constant pressure on rural areas. Because land is a finite resource, spatial policies which are formulated and implemented to increase the area allocated to one use imply a decrease in land available for other uses. As a result, at many locations, multi-purpose land use is becoming increasingly important. This notion of multi-purpose land use is reflected in the term 'multifunctionality'. This volume provides insights into viable strategies of sustainable management practices allowing multiple functions sustained by agriculture and natural resources in rural areas. It shows how the rural economy and policies can balance and cope with these competing demands and includes numerous case studies from Europe, North America and developing countries.

This book is a major contribution to the debate on future land development strategies, as well as helping to supporting land use decision making at all levels. Scientists from across Europe installed the Landscape Tomorrow network to prepare for upcoming challenges in research on sustainable land development. The book’s interdisciplinary perspective analyses, among other things, the general principles of land use multifunctionality and reports on a variety of success stories.

The increasing demand for rural land and its natural resources is creating competition and conflicts. Many interested parties, including farmers, nature conservationists, rural residents and tourists, compete for the same space. Especially in densely populated areas, agriculture, recreation, urban and suburban growth and infrastructure development exert a constant pressure on rural areas. Because land is a finite resource, spatial policies which are formulated and implemented to increase the area allocated to one use imply a decrease in land available for other uses. As a result, at many locations, multi-purpose land use is becoming increasingly important. This notion of multi-purpose land use is reflected in the term 'multifunctionality'.This volume provides insights into viable strategies of sustainable management practices allowing multiple functions sustained by agriculture and natural resources in rural areas. It shows how the rural economy and policies can balance and cope with these competing demands and includes numerous case studies from Europe, North America and developing countries.

New demands on landscapes and natural resources call for multifunctional approaches to land development. Tools are required to identify the effects of land management on landscape sustainability and to support the decision-making process on the multipurpose utilisation of landscape resources. Scientists from across Europe installed the "Landscape Tomorrow" network to be prepared for new challenges in research to sustainable land development in an international perspective. This publication analyses general principles of landscape multifunctionality, develops methods to assess the sustainability of agricultural and forestry land management and identifies strategies of sustainable land management. Moreover, it contributes to the scientific basis for future land development strategies and helps support land use decision-making on the political, planning and management level.

This open access book presents and discusses current issues and innovative solution approaches for land management in a European context. Manifold sustainability issues are closely interconnected with land use practices. Throughout the world, we face increasing conflict over the use of land as well as competition for land. Drawing on experience in sustainable land management gained from seven years of the FONA programme (Research for Sustainable Development, conducted under the auspices of the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research), the book stresses and highlights co-design processes within the “co-creation of knowledge”, involving collaboration in transdisciplinary research processes between academia and other stakeholders. The book begins with an overview of the current state of land use practices and the subsequent need to manage land resources more sustainably. New system solutions and governance approaches in sustainable land management are presented from a European perspective on land use. The volume also addresses how to use new modes of knowledge transfer between science and practice. New perspectives in sustainable land management and methods of combining knowledge and action are presented to a broad readership in land system sciences and environmental sciences, social sciences and geosciences. This book received the Gerd Albers Award. The prize is awarded by the International Society of City and Regional Planners (ISOCARP).

This book focuses on the theme of agricultural landscape stability and sustainable land management, including the ecosystem service values of agricultural landscapes, the development of multifunctional agricultural landscapes, protection of agricultural landscapes, reform of rural land ownership, comprehensive rural development, and remote sensing monitoring of agricultural landscapes.

This book comprehensively describes the major ecosystem services in dryland environments that are provided by typical land use, including forestland, grassland and farmland, using the Loess Plateau, Northwest China as an example. It offers extensive information on land policy, implementation and scientific evidence, and discusses the restoration of the degraded Loess Plateau environment, which that brings new challenges in the sustainable use of natural resources, in particular soil and water. It presents a transdisciplinary and up-to-date understanding of interlinkages and competition between different ecosystem services and illustrates benefit sharing among different users and stakeholders, land- management practitioners and local governments. It is a major contribution to the on-going debate on future land-development strategies and identifies areas where there is a need for more research. This book is a valuable resource for students, scientists and policy makers.

Public concern over land management has never been greater. This book provides a broad overview of the economics of rural land-use change, drawing attention to the meaningful role economic analysis can play in resolving public concern and supporting future, pro-active land management strategies in rural areas. The book's breadth distinguishes it from other recent texts, as it jointly offers rigorous treatments of theoretical and empirical models of rural land-use change and practical discussions of applications and relevant methods. Chapters are specifically designed to demonstrate the types of land-use questions economic analysis can answer, the types of methods that might be employed to answer these questions, and the types of public policy decisions that may be supported by such analysis. The book makes a significant contribution to contemporary land-use research, highlighting the key methodological and public policy issues that will be central to future research on the economics of rural land-use change.

This Article discusses how farms and ranches can adapt to meet consumer demand for outdoor activities like hunting, wildlife viewing, hiking, or simply enjoying the solace of spending time in rural places. These places hold breathtaking landscapes, but they are often privately owned, relatively inaccessible to the general public, and have not been managed to produce the ecosystem services that support these activities, despite strong evidence of consumer demand. Historically, farms and ranches have been managed for a single dominant use, undertaken wholly upon an individual's landholdings. Entering the emerging market for nature-based experiences requires that farms and ranches adapt from fragmented single-use businesses to multi-functional enterprises that cooperatively operate at larger spatial scales. This Article explains how lawyers can help farmers and ranchers make such a move. It uses existing private law and Ostrom's principles of collective action to illustrate how these communities should be designed. It also offers some preliminary thoughts on possible areas for legal reform that would facilitate the development of these enterprises. It also explores the relationships these enterprises have with the emerging local-food movement. As with traditional producers, the multi-functionality these institutions bring to individual farmers can be used as a diversification strategy for local-food producers. The income from these activities, in turn, helps stem the environmental consequences of using land for food production. In addition, the communities that may emerge within the foodshed and those that may emerge to support nature-based entrepreneurship are complimentary. Each may foster, and profit from, the sort of communitarian thinking that is necessary to the other, resulting in a more multi-functional and sustainable rural landscape.

Illustrated with empirical case studies from Europe, Africa and North America, this book provides an overview of the wide range of innovative methodologies, models and instruments currently being applied in the formation of and implementation of land management strategies. It examines techniques such as data acquisition, data modelling, the legal instruments of land management and structural theories and applications ranging from historic land use to current programmes of urban redevelopment. It then shows how these advance land management and development in practice.