Towards multifunctional agricultural landscapes in Europe (TALE)

The overall aims of TALE are (1) to disentangle and quantify the multifaceted links between agricultural production, biodiversity and ecosystem services (ESS) in different European landscapes and (2) to provide a learning environment that supports design and evaluation of policy options particularly regarding the CAP that can help to reconcile conflicting demands, namely the production of agricultural commodities while at the same time ensuring ESS provision and biodiversity conservation. The project addresses the effects of different land use structures and land use intensities in a set of agricultural landscapes using selected site-specific measures of biodiversity and ESS indicators. Main aspects include the identification of (a) synergies and quantitative trade-offs between ESS, biodiversity and agricultural production at different scales; (b) how agricultural production, ESS supply and biodiversity conservation, as well as the synergies and trade-offs between them, might change under different scenarios representing various land use strategies, climate change conditions and objectives across scales; (c) those land management strategies and policy instruments that could help to reduce trade-offs between ESS and biodiversity conservation in the different regions. The main tasks of BOKU-INWE in TALE are to conduct the Austrian case study in the Mostviertel region and to manage work package (WP) 3 on the stakeholder involvement and scenario development. WP 3 involves relevant stakeholder groups within the study areas and analyses expectations and perceptions on policies as well as biodiversity and ESS objectives. This is the base for the development of specific land use scenarios. In the Austrian case study BOKU-INWE will develop and run biophysical and statistical models linked to optimisation algorithms to be used to evaluate land use driven trade-offs between biodiversity, ESS and other environmental targets. BOKU-INWE will collect and process data, develop models within WP 4 and run those models based on the scenarios from WP3. This is in close cooperation to all other case studies in WP 4 and includes sharing of knowledge on existing models (e.g. the bio-physical process model EPIC, the economic land use optimization models FAMOS, FAMOS[space] and PASMA) and developing new approaches. Results of the case study will be integrated through the development of a learning environment that serves as a platform for integration and exchange between partners and stakeholders during the project.

TALE developed participatory quantitative land use scenarios in five European case study regions namely in Austria, Germany, Spain, Switzerland and The Netherlands. The case study approach aimed at covering the high diversity of geographic and agronomic conditions and different socio-political settings in Europe. The scenarios depict the land use strategies of land sparing and land sharing, which have been rather theoretical concepts so far with limited empirical and participatory foundation. Thereby, a land sharing strategy aims at merging extensive production with biodiversity protection in the same landscape. A land sparing strategy aims at separating nature protection from land-based production. It favors intensive management in order to spare land for nature reserves without production. Due to a joint design standard, the scenarios and their ratings by regional stakeholders are comparable among the case studies and allow studying the impacts of heterogeneous bio- physical and socio-economic framework conditions on land use outcomes. For Austria the Mostviertel has been chosen as case study. Three contrasting land use scenarios are available with a spatial resolution of 1 km. Future land use and climate change will have diverse impacts on biodiversity and ecosystem services i.e. the goods and services humans receive from natural and managed ecosystems. In TALE, we developed integrated land use models to assess these impacts and to quantify trade-offs between multiple ecosystem services and states of biodiversity. The spatially explicit land use scenarios became input to these models. The quantified trade- offs fueled discussion about the relevance of ecosystem services and biodiversity protection in the regions. Stakeholders also discussed whether particular land use developments are preferable or likely, which interestingly led to fundamentally different outcomes in the case study regions. The joint analysis of land use policy instruments in TALE revealed innovative tools towards achieving preferred land use states. The research team from BOKU was responsible for the strategically important work package on stakeholder and scenario processes. It developed participation and scenario procedures and managed the synthesis of results and conclusions from both processes. The project results are practically relevant for a number of reasons. For example, the land use and climate change scenarios are a product in itself and can support spatial planning processes and strategic decision making in the case study regions. In combination with the trade-off analysis, informed discussion about preferred future land use states become possible. The participating stakeholders from regional experts to staff from national administration benefit from the exchange of ideas and training in thinking out of the box.