Designation, Incentivisation and Farmer Participation—Exploring Options for Sustainable Rural Landscapes

This paper explores how policies, management practices and farmer participation can help shape resilient and sustainable rural environments. The key elements of the paper draw together policy initiatives on land designation for conservation, action-based and results-based agri-environment programmes, and locally led and inclusive partnership models. In doing this, the paper explores ways to address environmental decline, while also allowing farmers to farm and for management practices to be developed that farmers can readily endorse. The paper draws from empirical evidence gathered from two case studies in West Ireland. These studies include in-depth interviews, consultations with key stakeholders and an exploration of policy and other documentation associated with the management of rural landscapes. What emerges from the discussion and the field evidence is that, while there can be discontent, even disillusionment with some practices, there are models of great promise evolving. In particular, the research identifies the importance of enabling a space in which a farmer’s knowledge and expertise have due prominence and where they are afforded recognised input in the schemes being developed and promoted. The conclusion of the paper suggests that, while impacts vary, it is clear that combining forces from top-down and bottom-up, allied to locally led decision-making input, provides the Special Areas of Conservation combination whereby landscapes can be both farmed and protected.