Spontaneous reforestation of fallow land as assessed by locals and tourists

Spontaneous reforestation in Switzerland Photo: G. Rutherford (WSL)

One of the main arguments for handing out agricultural subsidies in Swiss mountainous areas is the conservation of traditional landscapes. The tax-payers will only accept this costly policy if they really experience land abandonment and reforestation negatively.

To find out what people think about land abandonment we conducted qualitative in-situ-interviews as well as standardised questionnaires and photo-experiments. It was found that land abandonment is assessed negatively primarily if it results in vast homogeneous forest patches, whereas a mosaic of open land and woodland is favoured. Thus, from the point of view of landscape preference, it can be concluded that planning measures should prevent old-field succession primarily in those cases, where spontaneous reforestation might result in vast homogeneous forest patches.

Publications

Online

• Hunziker, M. & Buchecker, M., 1999: Bedürfnisorientierte Landschaftsentwicklung im Gebirgsraum ? Ergebnisse sozialwissenschaftlicher Untersuchungen. Forum für Wissen 1999/2 >>>
  
• Hunziker, M., 2000: Einstellungen der Bevölkerung zu möglichen Landschaftsentwicklungen in den Alpen, Birmensdorf, Eidg. Forschungsanstalt WSL. 157 S. >>>
• Kienast, F., Hunziker, M., 1997: Vom Photoexperiment zur Karte der Schönheit von Landschaften. Informationsblatt des Forschungsbereiches Landschaft 34: 1-3. >>>

Other key references

• Hunziker, M. & Kienast, F. 1999: Impacts of changing agricultural activities on scenic beauty - a prototype of an automated rapid assessment technique. Landscape Ecology 14: 161-176.
  
• Hunziker, M., 1995: The Spontaneous Reafforstation in Abandoned Agricultural Lands: Perception and Aesthetical Assessement by Locals and Tourists. Landscape and Urban Planning 31: 399-410
  
• Hunziker, M., 1994: Wiederbewaldung von Brachflächen - ein Verlust für das Landschaftserlebnis? Cratschla 2/1/1994: 34-39
  
• Hunziker, M., 1993: Wenn Wiesen zu Wald werden... ein Verlust für das Landschaftserlebnis? Inf.bl. Forsch.bereich Landsch. WSL 18: 1-2

Contact

• Marcel Hunziker