Current agri-environmental schemes for reconciling agricultural production with biodiversity conservation are proving ineffective Europe-wide, increasing interest in results-based schemes (RBSs). We describe here the French "Flowering Meadows" competition, rewarding the "best agroecological balance" in semi-natural grasslands managed by livestock farmers. This competition, which was entered by about a thousand farmers in 50 regional nature parks between 2007 and 2014, explicitly promotes a new style of agri-environmental scheme focusing on an ability to reach the desired outcome rather than adherence to prescriptive management rules. Building on our experience in the design and monitoring of the competition, we argue that the cornerstone of successful RBSs is a collective learning process in which the reconciliation of agriculture and environment is reconsidered in terms of synergistic relationships between agricultural and ecological functioning. We present the interactive, iterative process by which we defined an original method for assessing species-rich grasslands in agroecological terms. This approach was based on the integration of new criteria, such as flexibility, feeding value, and consistency of use, into the assessment of forage production performance and the consideration of biodiversity conservation through its functional role within the grassland ecosystem, rather than simply noting the presence or abundance of species. We describe the adaptation of this methodology on the basis of competition feedback, to bring about a significant shift in the conventional working methods of agronomists and conservationists (including researchers).The potential and efficacy of RBSs for promoting ecologically sound livestock systems are discussed in the concluding remarks, and they relate to the ecological intensification debate.
Recent evaluations of agri-environmental schemes have questioned the effectiveness of using management prescriptions to achieve intended outcomes. This paper explores an alternative approach to the delivery of biodiversity objectives to French farmers. It presents an analysis of an innovative collaborative programme focusing on ecological results rather than management prescriptions. In particular, the argumentation to which this new focus has given rise within the community of nature managers is examined. It reveals the re-shaping of the notion of grassland habitats which has been carried out by innovators and has allowed a reconciliation of biodiversity conservation goals with farmers' work and values. In this sense, the 'Flowering Meadows' programme combines the creation of a public good with the generation of a public for that good. The effectiveness and potential of the result-based approach are discussed, with emphasis given to the design of the outcome and possible future policy developments.
This article examines the contentious issue of the coexistence of cheese made from raw milk and cheese made from pasteurised milk in areas of protected designation of origin (PDOs). The French PDO system is held to be the benchmark of the international system of geographical indications (GIs). Drawing on the multi-level perspective framework of socio-technical transitions, we conceptualise PDO cheeses as a "niche" nested within a dominant regime that promotes pasteurisation as the standard technology to control pathogens in milk. Careful examination of statistical data and the specifications for PDO cheeses shows that raw milk is experiencing an upturn in domestic production, which we relate to the reinforcement of the regulatory frameworks governing protection of GIs. We investigate more fully the steady increase in raw milk use by studying two contrasting cases of PDO cheeses (Saint-Nectaire and Ossau-Iraty), in which the confrontation between technologies is internalised. Analysis of local innovation pathways highlights a series of key decisions that strengthen the position of raw milk from the farm to the marketplace, namely grass-feeding, limiting herd productivity, technology-specific identification marks, and redistribution of decision-making power among stakeholders. Regulatory mechanisms that counterbalance the pressures of the regime by strategic management of the "terroir" niche are identified and discussed. We argue that shifting the focus from niche/regime interaction towards the internal dynamics of niches sheds light on the conditions of a coexistence of apparently antagonistic models of production in agri-food networks.
A major challenge for livestock farming systems (LFSs) is to reconcile production with the management of natural resources, especially biodiversity and ecosystem services. Based on a review of research conducted on grassland-and rangeland-based LFSs, this paper addresses this challenge by analysing biodiversity as a product of and a key resource for LFSs. Although most studies reveal antagonisms between biodiversity and production, our findings show that it is possible to move towards synergies. The literature review sheds light on five points: (i) moving beyond an antagonistic view of biodiversity and production by considering biodiversity as a resource requires new criteria for biodiversity categorization from a taxonomic view to a functional one; (ii) functional biodiversity (both domestic and wild) considered as a resource provides beneficial properties (e.g. stability and resilience) to LFSs; (iii) links between production and biodiversity cannot be simply summarized as having a negative impact of production intensity as management practices have various impacts on the different components of biodiversity; (iv) impact assessment studies linking management of LFSs and biodiversity reveal complex multi-level interactions between grassland or rangeland management and biodiversity; (v) a large range of management options are available to move towards biodiversitybased LFSs. We conclude that future research should address the challenge of collective management of wild biodiversity at higher levels of organization (landscapes, territories, etc.) and that such collective management would greatly benefit from the experience of domestic biodiversity.
À la veille de l'installation du protectorat français au Maroc, la population marocaine mange peu de poisson et l'industrie de la pêche n'est pas développée. Aujourd'hui, le Maroc est le premier exportateur mondial de sardines en conserve. Cet article s'attache à comprendre comment les industriels français, en lien avec l'administration du protectorat, ont réussi à transformer le système productif marocain au nom d'un acte « civilisateur » et ceci en utilisant la main d'oeuvre du pays sans toutefois l'associer aux projets. Ils n'ont cependant pas réussi à faire de la société marocaine un débouché pour sa propre production, presque exclusivement destinée à l'exportation.
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