13 pages, During the 1990s, within the context of "corporate greening," New Zealand experienced exponential growth in organic farming and the institutionalising of a former fringe farming subculture. Organic farming practices, however, often result in landscapes that differ from those produced by the application of long-standing conventional land management systems. The resulting aesthetic poses a threat to the landscape tastes and senses of place of conservative farming communities. In this article we portray how social beliefs and practices find symbolic expression in the landscape, how they influence sense of place, and how their associated values are challenged by changes in traditional dominant landscapes.
Lessley, Billy V. (author), Phipps, Tim (author), Pitt, David G. (author), and Pitt: Professor and Chair of the Landscape Architecture Program, University of Minnesota; Phipps: Fellow, Resources for the Future's National Center for Food and Agricultural Policy, Washington, D.C.; Lessley: Professor of Agricultural and Resource Economics, University of Maryland
Format:
Journal article
Publication Date:
1988
Published:
USA: Madison, WI : University of Wisconsin Press.
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 85 Document Number: C05550
21 pages, Context: Honey bees provide multiple ecosystem services. Comparisons of coupled social-ecological systems (SES) can improve the understanding of the factors affecting honey bees and beekeeping. Objectives: Stressing the need for SES analyses, we explore beekeepers' perceived factors affecting bees and beekeeping, test the hypothesis that honey bee colony losses are associated to agricultural land use intensity, and discuss the role of beekeeping for rural development. Methods: We used as a case study the steep gradient in SES in Ukraine's Chernivtsi region with three strata: (i) traditional villages, (ii) intermediate and (iii) intensive agriculture. In each stratum, we analysed the social system using five open-ended focus groups. Regarding the ecological system, we analysed data about winter loss rate of honey bee colonies, number of colonies per beekeeper, the average amount of supplemental feeding, and proportion of beekeepers treating against Varroa mite. Results: Thirty-three themes were extracted, of which 73% concerned the social system at multiple levels of governance. The number of themes increased from the traditional stratum with higher winter colony losses to the intensive agriculture stratum with lower losses. This does not support the hypothesis that the intensive agriculture per se affect honey bees negatively. Conclusions: Social system factors dominate over ecological factors, and interact across scales. This requires systems analyses of honey bees and beekeeping. We see beekeeping as a social innovation enhancing stakeholders' navigation in social systems, thus supporting rural development in countries in transition like Ukraine.
