The contribution of agricultural landscapes to local development and regional competitiveness – an Analytical Network Process (ANP) in selected European Union and Candidate countries’ study regions

Schaller, Lena; Kantelhardt, Jochen; Fedrigotti, Valérie Bossi; Targetti, Stefano; Viaggi, Davide; Ariaza, Manuel; Bal, Tufan; Giray, F. Handan; Häfner, Kati; Kart, Çağla Örmeci; Majewski, Edward; Malak-Rawlikowska, Agata; Nikolov, Dimitre; Paoli, Jean-Christophe; Piorr, Annette; Ungaro, Fabrizio; Verburg, Peter; Villanueva, A.J.; Zanten, Boris van; Zasada, Ingo

The contribution of agricultural landscapes to local development and regional competitiveness – an Analytical Network Process (ANP) in selected European Union and Candidate countries’ study regions

2017

Agricultural landscapes are important elements of European culture. There is an increasingrecognition that agricultural landscapes represent economic assets; not only because of theproduction of agricultural commodities, but also by offering significant opportunities for thesocioeconomic development of rural areas. However, in literature there is no clear evidence ofwhich causal relationships exist between the valorisation of landscapes and the creation ofsocioeconomic benefits. The objective of this paper is to assess causal connections betweenactors, the goods provided in agricultural landscapes, the socioeconomic benefits created bythese goods and the contribution of such benefits to regional competitiveness, using anAnalytical Network Process supported by qualitative stakeholder validation. Networkevaluation is done on basis of a stakeholder panel exercise conducted in 9 rural Europeanstudy regions, which are all coping with different basic natural and social conditions. Theresults show, that various elements impact on the system of landscape valorisation. It can beseen that agricultural production still plays a key role in the relations between landscape andrural development; however the exercise also shows, that public goods lead to socioeconomicbenefits and that differing regional conditions influence the importance of single elementsplaying a role in the system.

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