Designing an Index to Reveal the Potential of Multipurpose Landscapes in Southern Africa

Emmanuel Torquebiau, Nathalie Cholet, Willem Ferguson and Philippe Letourmy
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Emmanuel Torquebiau: Centre de Coopération Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement (CIRAD), UR 102, 34398 Montpellier, France
Nathalie Cholet: Montpellier SUPAGRO, Avenue Agropolis, 34093 Montpellier, France
Willem Ferguson: Centre for Environmental Studies, University of Pretoria, Pretoria 0002, South Africa
Philippe Letourmy: Centre de Coopération Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement (CIRAD), UR 102, 34398 Montpellier, France

Land, 2013, vol. 2, issue 4, 1-21

Abstract: Multipurpose mosaic (“ecoagriculture”) landscapes can serve the purpose of land sharing to combine objectives of agricultural production and biodiversity conservation. Rewarding the people who shape and maintain those landscapes could act as a mechanism to generate added-value representing an indirect payment for ecosystem services. We investigated the feasibility of such an approach in two areas in Southern Africa differing in spatial configurations, history and socio-economic context. We designed and tested a composite index describing the state of each landscape in terms of ecoagriculture criteria (conservation, production, institutions and livelihood) and ecosystem services (provisioning, regulating and cultural services). The resulting index is made up of different sets of data each comprising 40 scores, obtained from stakeholders’ participatory interviews. Ecosystem services are in general assigned more importance than ecoagriculture criteria. In both cases, cultural services receive the highest scores, whereas the lowest ones are attributed to the livelihood and institutions in the Zimbabwean and South African sites, respectively. Index values reveal that the South African site, where there is more integration between land-use units, does better in terms of a landscape performing multiple functions. Provided relevant stakeholders are involved and a certification mechanism is developed, the landscape labelling index can be used to recognize and reward the value of outstanding rural landscapes.

Keywords: agriculture; biodiversity; certification; conservation; ecosystem services; label; land sharing; multifunctionality; South Africa; Zimbabwe (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q15 Q2 Q24 Q28 Q5 R14 R52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jlands:v:2:y:2013:i:4:p:705-725:d:30944

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