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The importance of a social perspective on the relationships between humans and nature has longbeen acknowledged. The field of social-ecological systems research in particular is striving toachieve a holistic understanding of human-nature relationships by balancing social andecological perspectives. Here I sought to develop a social understanding of the Saxon area inCentral Romania, by exploring aspects of human-nature relationships as seen from theperspective of local people. To this end, I employed the concepts of social-ecological systems(SES), ecosystem services (ES) and cultural landscapes to assess perceptions of locals throughempirical case studies.I first conducted a literature review to acquire an overview of a particular type of human-naturerelationship mediated by non-consumptive use and non-use values (“cultural ecosystemservices”). Second, to isolate and address the interaction from the social system to the ecologicalsystem, I investigated the different ways locals perceived the role of landscapes in SouthernTransylvania. I conceptually mapped these landscape preferences by revealing their potentialland use and management implications. Third, to approach the human-nature relationship fromthe ecological system to the social system, I studied the flow of ES to disaggregated humanbeneficiaries. Specifically, I studied which factors, beyond ecosystem processes and functions,influenced nature derived human well-being from the perspective of potential beneficiaries. Iconceptualised the mediating role of a range of contextual factors underpinning the currentdistribution of ES, with regard to the relation between ES and human well-being. Fourth, inorder to explore an example of bidirectional human-nature relationship, I studied the particularcase of human-carnivore coexistence and the suite of mechanisms shaping it.Despite building throughout this thesis a more complex and in-depth understanding of the humandimensions of the studied system, I chose four main cross-cutting themes to explain the human-nature connection in Southern Transylvania. These four themes may serve as pillars of a sociallyminded understanding, as well as potential research and policy foci. First, the values held bylocals are key for understanding the endemic human-nature relationships and should not beoverlooked in future social-ecological assessments or policy interventions. Second, the culturallandscape of Southern Transylvania is both a physical and virtual space of social-ecologicalinteraction fostering human-nature experiences and social-ecological knowledge integration.Third, the identified diversity of the social system in terms of landscape aspirations and ESbeneficiaries is expanding the range of human-nature connections, but at the same time, may infuture be a source of conflict or disconnection if not managed appropriately. Finally, small-scalefarmers, through their interactions with the land and resultant belief system, play a major role inmaintaining the human-nature relationships, but their values and lifestyle are threatened.
Traditional farming landscapes have been created in coexistence of rural dwellers and local ecosystems over long time spans, and can be considered tightly coupled ´social-ecological systems´ (SES). Since these landscapes typically embody exceptionally high levels of biological diversity and multiple socio-cultural values, their protection is critical from a sustainability perspective. Due to the pressures of globalization and social change, however, rural livelihoods and farmland biodiversity are at risk. While the focus of research is often on the Southern hemisphere, there are traditional farming landscapes in the former socialist countries of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) which are equally affected by rapid change, and thus deserve particular attention. Since the institutional breakdown of socialism in 1989, the CEE states have not only been confronted with an unprecedented socio-economic and environmental transition. Their integration into the multi-level governance regime of the European Union (EU) further resulted in the transformation of decision-making structures and competition within the EU common market. In light of the profound changes traditional farming landscapes of Central and Eastern Europe are confronted with, they serve as a valuable source of learning about the institutional design necessary to harmonize socio-economic development and biodiversity conservation within regional social-ecological systems worldwide. This thesis is the result of an in-depth analysis of one traditional farming landscape of Central and Eastern Europe, namely Southern Transylvania (Romania). Based on empirical research involving diverse stakeholder groups, this thesis assessed the impact of EU policy on the area, the institutional features characterizing local-level governance in Southern Transylvania, and the barriers and bridges towards sustainable rural development. This thesis finds that while rural dwellers are highly dependent on smallholder farming and local ecosystems for their livelihoods, Southern Transylvania is currently confronted with a range of structural development barriers. These are likely to be exacerbated by a governance system consisting of historically grounded ´elite social networks´, and by EU policies which often do not fit rural realities. The findings of this dissertation underline that entrenched informal institutions, political will, and historical legacies play a critical role for the governance of traditional social-ecological systems since these ´social system features´ do not only mediate how external policies act on the local level. They may further restrict local adaptive and innovation capacities which, however, are critical for the transformation towards sustainable development. This thesis further finds that there are no blueprint solutions for the design of rural development strategies. Instead, (supra-) national policies should take better account of local socio-economic and cultural particularities.
Traditional farming landscapes typically support exceptional biodiversity. They evolved as tightly coupled social-ecological systems, in which traditional human land-use shaped highly heterogeneous landscapes. However, these landscapes are under severe threats of land-use change which potentially pose direct threats to biodiversity, in particular through land-use intensification and land abandonment. Navigating biodiversity conservation in such changing landscapes requires a thorough understanding of the drivers that maintain the social-ecological system. This dissertation aimed to identify system properties that facilitate biodiversity conservation in traditional farming landscape, focusing specifically on birds and large carnivores in the rapidly changing traditional farmland region of Southern Transylvania, Romania. In order to identify these properties, I first examined the effects of local and landscape scale land-use patterns on birds and large carnivores and how they may be affected by future land-use change (Chapters II-V). Second, to gauge the role of particular traditional land-use elements for biodiversity I focused on the conservation value of traditional wood pastures (Chapters VI-VIII). Third, I took a social-ecological systems approach to understand how links between the social and ecological parts of the system affect human-bear coexistence (Chapters IV and IX). Bird diversity was supported by the broad gradients of woody vegetation cover and compositional heterogeneity. Land-use intensification, and hence the loss of woody vegetation cover and homogenization of land covers, would thus negatively affect biodiversity. This was especially evident from predictions on the distribution of the corncrake (Crex crex) in response to potential future land cover homogenization. Here, a moderate reduction of land cover diversity could drastically reduce the extent of corncrake habitat. Further results showed that the brown bear (Ursus arctos) would mainly be affected by land-use change through the fragmentation of large forest blocks, especially if land-use change would reduce habitat connectivity to the presumed source population in the Carpathian Mountains. Moreover, this dissertation revealed that large carnivores (brown bear and wolf, Canis lupus) may have important and often ignored roles in structuring the ecosystem of traditional farming landscapes by limiting herbivores. Wood pastures were found to have a high conservation value. The combination of low-intensity used grasslands with old scattered trees provided important supplementary habitat for different forest species such as woodpeckers and the brown bear. Worryingly, current management of wood pastures differed from traditional techniques in several aspects, which may threaten their persistence in the landscape. The majority of people had a positive perception on human-bear coexistence. The use of traditional sheep herding techniques combined with the tolerance of some shepherds to occasional livestock predation facilitated coexistence in a region where both carnivores and livestock are present. More generally, the genuine links between people and their environment were important drivers of people´s positive views on coexistence. However, perceived failures of top-down managing institutions could potentially erode these links and reduce people´s tolerance towards bears. Through the consideration of two different animal taxa, this dissertation revealed six important system properties facilitating biodiversity conservation in traditional farming landscapes. Similar proportions of the main land-use types (arable land, grassland, and forests) support species richness at the regional scale possible through habitat connectivity and continuous spill-over between land-use types. Heterogeneous landscapes can further support biodiversity through complementation and supplementation of habitat at the landscape scale. Gradients of woody vegetation cover and heterogeneity, supported biodiversity at both local and landscape scales possibly through the provision of a wide range of resources. The heterogeneous character of the landscape is tightly linked to traditional land-use practices, which also maintain specific traditional land-use elements and facilitate human-carnivore coexistence. Top-down limitation of large carnivores on herbivores possibly enhances vegetation growth and tree regeneration. The genuine links between humans and nature support human-bear coexistence, and these links may form the core of people´s values and sustainable use of natural resources.