Land in transition

Abstract

Agricultural land abandonment is a widespread land use change in some regions of Europe. This change is driven by a complex interplay of ecological, socio-economic, and political factors, with rural depopulation as an important among them. Land abandonment is usually followed by natural forest regrowth (NFR), the establishment of secondary forest through natural succession. NFR contributed substantially to an increase in forest area in Europe since the 19th century, leading to a forest area decrease to an overall increase since then. The change from agricultural to forest land is embedded into large-scale societal and agricultural transitions that has far-reaching consequences for the local culture and identity of people and raises the questions if and how the land should be managed in future. Additionally, the trade-offs and opportunities for biodiversity and climate change objectives are under dispute at the political level, for instance regarding the loss of open landscapes, increase in wildfire occurrence but also increase in carbon sequestration through NFR. Despite the socio-political relevance, social science research on NFR is largely missing, which is needed to support land use governance linked to NFR. <br /> The thesis aims to contribute to the existing research gap by exploring the narratives voiced by different actor groups as well as the underlying ideas and values that are attached to NFR and how these shape the governance of NFR. The geographical focus of this empirical work is on Southwest Europe, a region where NFR plays an important role in landscape transition. Specifically, the research questions are addressed (1) what narratives of NFR are voiced by local actor groups managing and using the land, and (2) how NFR is discursively constructed by policy actors at the regional/national policy level in France and Spain. Additionally, the thesis aims to take an interdisciplinary perspective on trade-offs and opportunities of NFR to draw conclusions for the governance of NFR at the European scale. Therefore, the research question is assessed (3) what can be learned for the policymaking of NFR related to Europe’s restoration policy agenda from an interdisciplinary perspective. <br /> Regarding the first research question, we find three narratives at the local level: a rural fatalism narrative, a pro forest management narrative, and a pro nature narrative. In each narrative, NFR carries different symbolic meanings, spanning from representing a lost territory for the actors to a recovered land with new opportunities. Additionally, regional nuances in the narratives exist across our case studies, which depend on ecological and socio-economic contexts and shape the local perceptions of NFR. Regarding the second research question, we identify four competing narratives at the regional/national level: (1) extensive agriculture, (2) forestry, (3) landscape conservation, and (4) wilderness. While the extensive agriculture, forestry, and landscape conservation narratives rather conceive NFR as a problem to be tackled, the wilderness narrative highlights opportunities connected to NFR. Additionally, elements of an insignificance narrative are shared by some actors in France, which suggests that NFR should be ignored and there should be a focus on more relevant land use issues. The findings also suggest that there are no policy strategies specifically on NFR. Regarding the third research question, we assess that NFR has the potential to contribute to a restoration policy agenda in some regions, if local contexts and possible trade-offs are properly considered and managed. <br /> Overall, the findings show that there are three main governance pathways for NFR: (1) revert the land back to a use of extensive agricultural and cultural landscape conservation, 2) restore the land for forestry uses, or 3) restore the land for rewilding purposes. So far, especially opportunities of NFR have been remarkably overlooked by policymakers at national and EU level, for example for climate change mitigation and adaptation at the European scale. Given its spatial importance and a rising restoration policy agenda at the EU level, NFR will likely become more important for future policymaking in the EU. However, the findings also demonstrate that NFR is only one puzzle piece among many other land uses, especially in Mediterranean areas with mosaic landscapes. Given that NFR is embedded into a complex socio-political situation, governance approaches need to consider trade-offs and opportunities of NFR based on the local context and integrate them into a wider landscape perspective. Engaging in further research from the social sciences and across disciplines is necessary to further study NFR and its possible management and governance options.