By Maria Kernecker, Nina Hagemann, Anna F. Cord, Julian Wendler, and Andrea Knierim
This Plain Language Summary is published in advance of the paper discussed. Please check back soon for a link to the full paper.
Farmers face a lot of pressure to manage their land so that it is achieves different goals – some that are framed as being in opposition to each other, like biodiversity conservation and agricultural production. In theory, the European Union’s Common Agricultural Policy is designed to support farmers in addressing both goals. Unfortunately, biodiversity has continued to decline throughout Europe. Some research suggests that one reason as to why biodiversity conservation measures have not been successful is that they do not address farmers’ values associated with the many relationships they are entangled in.
Our study aims to understand how farmers’ value their different relationships, and how their production and conservation practices embody relational values. This can tell us about how practice may strengthen farmers’ relationships with their land, wider society and their landscape, and if their practices align with farmers’ values. Such a perspective treats farmers not merely as detached decision-makers, but recognize their embeddedness in a place and community.
To explore how farmers value their relationships and how those values are embodied by practices that integrate production and conservation, we conducted interviews with 15 farmers in Saxony, Germany. Our in-depth interviews included farm tours and an adapted photovoice method.
We found that like previous research, longtermism, circularity, stewardship and autonomy are important to farmers in their relationships to their land and their landscape. Moreover, our findings suggested that frugality, gratitude and joy, reciprocity, circularity and holism, humility and sense of belonging were equally or even more important. These values are embodied by practices like establishing trees and hedges, integrating animals into farming, diverse rotations, and implementing set-asides. Importantly, the relational values that emerged from interviews encompass farmers’ relationships not only their land and landscape, but also with society. Together, our findings underline the importance of acknowledging the cultural significance of practices, in the way they may perpetuate values and relationships. As such, the re-framing of biodiversity conservation practices so that values are considered, may be more promising for biodiversity.
Relational Thinking 