BioScene
Scenarios for reconciling biodiversity conservation with declining agricultural use in the mountains of Europe: Socio-economic part of the Swiss case study
The overall aim of BioScene, an interdisciplinary EU-research project with participants from seven countries, is to investigate the implications of agricultural restructuring and decline for biodiversity conservation in Europe's mountain areas. This objective will be achieved through case study analysis of the biodiversity processes and outcomes of different scenarios ('BioScenes') of agricultural change in contrasting European countries. The region of Sursés has been chosen as the Swiss case study area. The project involves researchers focussing on landscape-ecological modelling, socio-economic investigations and sustainability appraisal. Socio-economic research related to the case study areas deals with the following tasks:
- Analysis of agricultural, regional and nature conservation policies
- Development of narratives summarising recent changes in agriculture, landscape and biodiversity, and conceptualisation of scenarios of future changes
- Participatory appraisal of narratives and scenarios in stakeholder workshops
- Economic analysis of the scenarios
- Developing policy recommendations
Project details
Project duration
2002 - 2005
