This article aims to contribute to the reflection on sustainability in the field of Geographical Indications (GI). GIs are instruments for organizing collective action that have great interpretative flexibility. They are mobilized by a set of qualifying actors of differing natures, with diverse and sometimes divergent interests. For this reason, we focus on how the dimension of sustainability emerges from a collective learning process. Based on the approaches developed by Organization Studies, this article describes and analyzes the process of creating a GI for Sharr Cheese, a Balkan seasonal sheep pastoral cheese highly typical of a mountain range in Kosovo ◆ (◆ This designation is without prejudice to positions on status, and is in line with UNSCR 1244/1999 and the ICJ Opinion on the Kosovo declaration of independence.). The authors occupied an embedded research position in this learning process, from 2015 to 2019. The article describes boundary work carried out by the facilitators of collective action (brokers) within experimental spaces during the GI-building process. It analyzes how environmental accountability within the Sharr Cheese GI emerges from a strategic knowledge-brokering process and intensive institutional work.
Oil Revenues and the Agricultural Crisis.
Among developing countries, oil-producers rank first in terms of food deficit. Thanks to the two oil booms, these exporting economies had no problems solving traditional agricultural development problems, namely deficit financing and the insolvency of the internal market. But the massive inflow of oil revenues determines an economic development pattern that destabilizes rather than supports the agricultural sector. The state monopoly over oil revenues led to a new kind of patronage relationship that usually excluded the peasantry. The trends of oil economies in terms of inflation, the appreciation of the currency and the centralization of economic decision-making impede agriculture at the same time that the privatization of oil revenues squanders financial resources. The analysis of the agricultural situation of major oil-exporting countries leaves on pondering the usual interpretation of food- dependency in southern countries.
High Nature Value (HNV) farmlands currently retain most of the biodiversity associated with agricultural landscapes in Europe. In a time of globalized food systems, the social-ecological conditions to maintain these low-intensity and thus less productive HNV farming systems are difficult to meet. Halting the loss of HNV farmland requires fostering the socioeconomic viability of HNV farming systems that is compatible with social, cultural, and ecological values. Pursuing such viability calls for tailored actions to steer the development of HNV farming systems based on the strength of their local assets. Such a transformational learning process involves changing the territorial dynamic towards better integration of biodiversity at several levels of management (from farm to territorial level). Based on the description and analysis of ten HNV territories distributed across Europe, we explore how HNV innovation brokers can strategically engage with local actors to preserve the environmental characteristics of HNV farmland areas while improving their socioeconomic viability. The aim of this research is to improve the understanding of the range of approaches and strategies of innovation brokers to meet the challenges of HNV farmland conservation. The study analyzes the different innovation processes that took place in each area, concentrating on the engagement phase. Our results demonstrate that HNV farming situations across Europe are quite diverse from an agroecological and socioeconomic point of view. There are distinct conservation challenges and associated risks for each HNV farming context. The need for a strategic approach to HNV conservation at landscape-territory level is discussed. The key role of innovation brokers is highlighted, together with the need for a strategic approach to innovation brokerage, which is explicit in relation to territorial needs and the changes required. We demonstrate the importance of the landscape-territorial vision as an entry point for shaping HNV farming systems towards socially desirable scenarios.
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