Linking places and processes for sustainability: Social-ecological dynamics and value chains of Mediterranean landscape products

在生物和粮食多样性的全球热点地中海区域，农业景观变化（如农业集约化、土地放弃）是一个主要的可持续性问题。农业景观的变化——尽管出现在地方层面——越来越多地受到全球相互关联的市场的推动。这些遥远联系的复杂性对可持续性构成了威胁和机遇。在如何确定不同层次、问题和地点的可持续景观管理的模式、权衡和选择方面，普遍存在着巨大的知识差距。拟议研究的总体目标是确定优质景观产品（软木、核桃、栗子、无花果）价值链中的杠杆点，以支持向可持续景观管理的过渡，考虑到规模和用户之间的社会和生态权衡。这项研究分为三个项目。项目1提供了一个基于地点的视角，它涉及行动者网络、生态系统服务和景观变化。项目2开发了一种价值链方法，重点关注货物、金融资源和信息的流动。中心成果将在项目3中汇集，整合所有项目成果并确定可持续景观管理的关键杠杆点。这些项目将有一个比较研究设计。多尺度分析的起点将是西地中海盆地四个不同的生产者景观：葡萄牙的阿连特茹和摩洛哥的马莫拉（软木农林业）以及西班牙的加塔赫德斯和摩洛哥的高阿特拉斯（混合农牧业）。该研究将比较：(a)在地中海盆地南部和北部两种不同景观中的每种景观产品；(b)一种景观产品主要代表全球长距离价值链（软木）和一些（核桃、栗子、无花果）代表中短途价值链。要探索的首要假设是，景观产品使消费者能够与生产者景观建立联系，并通过价值链上的商品、投资和信息的多重流动来实现社会生态景观特征的增值。

In the Mediterranean region – a global hotspot of biological and food diversity – agricultural landscape change (e.g., agricultural intensification, land abandonment) is a major sustainability concern. Agricultural landscape changes– though appearing at local levels – are increasingly driven by globally interconnected markets. The complexity of these distant connections poses threats and opportunities to sustainability. Substantial knowledge gaps prevail on how to identify patterns, trade-offs and options for sustainable landscape management across different levels, issues and places. The overall objective of the proposed research is to identify leverage points in the value chains of quality landscape products (cork, walnuts, chestnuts, figs) that support a transition to sustainable landscape management, accounting for social and ecological trade-offs across scales and users. The research is organized into three projects. Project 1 provides a place-based perspective that is referring to actor networks, ecosystem services, and landscape change. Project 2 develops a value chain-approach, focusing on flows of goods, financial resources, and information. The central outcomes will be brought together in Project 3, integrating all project results and determining key leverage points for sustainable landscape management. The projects will have a comparative study design. The starting point of the multi-scale analyses will be four distinct producer landscapes in the Western Mediterranean Basin: Alentejo / Portugal and Maamora / Morocco (cork agroforestry) and Gata-Hurdes / Spain and High Atlas / Morocco (mixed farming and pastoralism). The research will compare: (a) each landscape product in two contrasting landscapes, one in the Southern and one in the Northern part of the Mediterranean Basin; and (b) one landscape product that represents predominantly global, long-distance value chains (cork) and some (walnuts, chestnuts, figs) that stand for short- to mid-distance value chains. The overarching hypothesis to be explored is that landscape products empower consumers to connect to producer landscapes and to valorise social-ecological landscape characteristics through multiple flows of goods, investment, and information along value chains.