Analysing the maintenance and establishment of orchard meadows at farm and landscape levels applying a spatially explicit integrated modelling approach

Abstract

Landscape elements can enhance the ecological and social value of agricultural landscapes. Orchard meadows are traditional landscape elements in Central Europe, but have deteriorated for decades due to their adverse economic effects. We apply an integrated modelling framework to assess the farm profitability of orchard meadows as well as the effectiveness of measures in the Austrian agri-environmental programme to maintain existing and establish new sites. The model results indicate that current market prices for fruits and harvest productivity levels are not sufficient to support the maintenance of existing sites. The model results also indicate that the agri-environmental measures are effective in maintaining orchard meadows, but are insufficient to make all existing sites profitable or support further establishments. Consequently, alternative policy options will aim at increasing harvest efficiencies (e.g. harvest mechanisation co-operatives), at adding value to orchard fruits (e.g. fruit processing options), and at reducing labour costs by improving seasonal labour availability.landscape structure assessment, landscape element analysis, integrated modelling analysis, orchard meadows (streuobstwiesen), Austria, cultural landscapes,

The current status of orchard meadows in Central Europe: Multi-source area estimation in Saxony (Germany) and the Czech Republic

“…If used, a more effective fruit production or new management practices such as cultivation of energy crops in the understorey, can lead to sustainability and the expansion of orchard meadows. (Schönhart et al, 2011;Plieninger et al, 2013).…”

“…The English term 'orchard meadow' started to be used by researchers from German-speaking areas who were trying to find an equivalent for the word Streuobstwiese 1 (Ohnesorge et al, 2015;Schönhart et al, 2011;Steffan-Dewenter and Leschke, 2003). Another term we can encounter in English-language-based scientific literature is a 'traditional orchard', used in studies from Poland, Slovakia or the Czech Republic (Horak, 2014;Kajtoch, 2017;Špulerová et al, 2015;Žarnovičan et al, 2017).…”

“…Despite a certain level of public support for the managers of orchard meadows, it is not enough to guarantee a sustainable maintenance of current plots, and woefully insufficient for the establishment of new plots, as was shown in Lower Austria (Schönhart et al, 2011) and the Dresden area (Ewert, 2018). There have been measures proposed directly for improving orchard meadow policies, such as adding orchard meadows to the habitat list of Annex 1 (92/43/CEE Directive) (Kajtoch, 2017), or increasing premiums within the framework of the Agri-Environmental Policy (Schönhart et al, 2011).…”

“…Despite a certain level of public support for the managers of orchard meadows, it is not enough to guarantee a sustainable maintenance of current plots, and woefully insufficient for the establishment of new plots, as was shown in Lower Austria (Schönhart et al, 2011) and the Dresden area (Ewert, 2018). There have been measures proposed directly for improving orchard meadow policies, such as adding orchard meadows to the habitat list of Annex 1 (92/43/CEE Directive) (Kajtoch, 2017), or increasing premiums within the framework of the Agri-Environmental Policy (Schönhart et al, 2011). Some authors have suggested new management practices: for example, increasing harvest efficiency by shared mechanisation; providing an added value to the fruit by processing it (Schönhart et al, 2011); introducing the cultivation of energy crops in the understorey; and intensifying the processing of fruit into juices (Plieninger et al, 2013).…”

Long-Term Socio-Ecological Research in Practice: Lessons from Inter- and Transdisciplinary Research in the Austrian Eisenwurzen

“…Interdisciplinary approaches such as environmental history (SFS), social ecology (LUBIO, Reichraming), or agronomy (CC-ILA) are adopted successfully and continuously in the Eisenwurzen LTSER platform. Interdisciplinary projects investigate processes in ecosystems and society at a uniform spatio-temporal scale, addressing issues such as pre-industrial sustainability problems of land use and land management [41], the causes of farmers' decision-making and their effects on landscape and ecosystem features [38], or potential sustainable climate change mitigation and adaptation strategies in extensive farming [42]. The strength of these approaches is their capability to analyse causal relations between heterogeneous types of drivers and impacts, risks, vulnerabilities, and resilience.…”