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

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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.