Resumen de Pastoral and silvopastoral systems in the mediterranean: a social-ecological approach to promote ecosystem service provision and resilience
Pastoral and silvopastoral systems (SPS) exemplify the complex and dynamic relationships between people and nature. Their ongoing decline in the Mediterranean contrasts with their crucial role in biodiversity conservation and the provision of multiple ecosystem services (ES). Revitalizing these social-ecological systems requires a holistic and cross-disciplinary approach, integrating diverse sources of knowledge. The overall objective of this thesis is to address the sustainability of pastoral and SPS in the Mediterranean to foster ecosystem service provision and resilience by adopting a multi-stakeholder and multi-methodological perspective.
The four scientific papers integrating this thesis adopt a broad set of theoretical and methodological approaches from a social-ecological perspective. These rely upon three case studies in mountain and mid-mountain areas in the north-eastern of Spain, to assess: i) the livelihood resilience of pastoral households applying the latent class analysis, ii) the contribution of silvopastoral management practices (SMP) to the provision of ES through a Delphi survey, iii) consumers¿ preferences for meat from these systems associated with the provision of wildfire prevention services using a discrete choice experiment and, iv) the shared understanding of stakeholders on the factors, drivers, and dynamics shaping silvopastoralism by means of fuzzy cognitive mapping.
In the Pyrenean region of Pallars, we identify five livelihood strategies showing different degrees of adaptive capacity. Farm households either intensified production, relied upon external sources of income from pensions or pursued various diversification pathways based on additional off-farm work, rural tourism activities, or added-value production. Moreover, we identify highly multifunctional SMP such as silvicultural treatments and transversal practices that generate multiple synergies and contribute to delivering bundles of ES, while other SMP resulted very effective in promoting one or a few ES but might produce some trade-offs. Findings highlight the higher preference of beef and lamb consumers for nearby production distances, followed by targeted grazing and forest grazing, while the length of the grazing period seems to be less relevant, which could support the design of innovative labels. Our work unveils that beyond the generalized decrease of silvopastoralism and its coupled provision of wildfire prevention services in the Mediterranean, there are key differences across territories that should be targeted by tailored policies. Climate change and the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) were identified as the main exogenous drivers restricting forest grazing while technological innovations can act as a catalyzer for increasing this activity. Finally, by integrating multiple stakeholders and combining a broad set of complementary approaches, this thesis draws several policy recommendations to improve the sustainability of pastoral and SPS in the Mediterranean.
