European Centre for Nature Conservation

<strong class="journal-contentHeaderColor">Abstract.</strong> Olive groves are a defining feature of the Mediterranean landscape, economy, and culture. However, this keystone agroecosystem is under severe threat from soil erosion, a problem exacerbated by the region's unique topographic, climatic conditions and agricultural practices. Although soil erosion in olive groves has been extensively studied, significant uncertainties remain due to the high variability of scales and measurement methods. Knowledge gaps persist regarding the average soil loss rates and runoff coefficients as well as the effects of different management approaches and the influence of triggering factors on soil erosion rates. So far, an effort to quantify this effect on Mediterranean olive cultivation has not been made comprehensively. Therefore, the aim of this literature review is to discern clearer patterns and trends that are often obscured by the overall heterogeneity of the available data. By systematically analysing the data according to measurement methodology, this review provides clear answers to these knowledge gaps and reveals a consistent narrative about the primary drivers of soil loss. While natural factors like topography, rainfall intensity and soil properties establish a baseline risk, this review shows that agricultural management, particularly the presence of groundcovers, is the pivotal factor controlling soil degradation. The long-standing debate on erosion severity is largely reconciled by the finding that reported rates are highly dependent on the measurement methodology, and hence on the spatial and temporal scale. Conservation practices consistently reduce soil loss by more than half, an effect far more pronounced for sediment control than for runoff reduction. Ultimately, the path to sustainability requires a shift away from conventional tillage and bare-soil management towards the widespread adoption of vegetation/groundcover, driven by effective policies and a commitment to multi-scale and multi-proxy research to improve predictive models.

Abstract. Olive groves are a defining feature of the Mediterranean landscape, economy, and culture. However, this keystone agroecosystem is under severe threat from soil erosion, a problem exacerbated by the region's unique topographic, climatic conditions and agricultural practices. Although soil erosion in olive groves has been extensively studied, significant uncertainties remain due to the high variability of scales and measurement methods. Knowledge gaps persist regarding the average soil loss rates and runoff coefficients as well as the effects of different management approaches and the influence of triggering factors on soil erosion rates. So far, an effort to quantify this effect on Mediterranean olive cultivation has not been made comprehensively. Therefore, the aim of this literature review is to discern clearer patterns and trends that are often obscured by the overall heterogeneity of the available data. By systematically analysing the data according to measurement methodology, this review provides clear answers to these knowledge gaps and reveals a consistent narrative about the primary drivers of soil loss. While natural factors like topography, rainfall intensity and soil properties establish a baseline risk, this review shows that agricultural management, particularly the presence of groundcovers, is the pivotal factor controlling soil degradation. The long-standing debate on erosion severity is largely reconciled by the finding that reported rates are highly dependent on the measurement methodology, and hence on the spatial and temporal scale. Conservation practices consistently reduce soil loss by more than half, an effect far more pronounced for sediment control than for runoff reduction. Ultimately, the path to sustainability requires a shift away from conventional tillage and bare-soil management towards the widespread adoption of vegetation/groundcover, driven by effective policies and a commitment to multi-scale and multi-proxy research to improve predictive models.

Purpose Although networked hospitality businesses as Airbnb are a recent phenomenon, a rapid growth has made them a serious competitor for the hospitality industry with important consequences for tourism and for tourist destinations. The purpose of this paper is to analyse the nature of the phenomenon, its potential further development in the next five years and the impact this developments will have on tourism, on hotels and on city destinations. Design/methodology/approach A literature study, combined with scenario workshops and a Delphi panel, were used to map current trends and uncertainties. With this input, future scenarios were elaborated using the Global Business Network (“scenario cross”) method. Findings Network platforms as Airbnb are often classified under something called the “Sharing Economy”, a denomination that obscures their true nature. Airbnb is a challenging innovation to which traditional hospitality will have to respond. Its impact has at the same time led to a call for regulatory policies. The definition of these policies and the evolution of tourism are variables that determine future scenarios. Attempts to ban the phenomenon mean a disincentive to innovation and protect oligopolistic markets; more receptive policies may have the desired results if tourism grows moderately but in booming destinations they may lead to a harmful commercialization. Originality/value Until now, Airbnb has been described in conceptual studies about the so-called “Sharing economy”, or more recently in empirical studies about isolated effects of holiday rentals. This paper contextualizes the evolution of networked hospitality and seeks to synthesize the sum of its impacts, thus enabling businesses and local governments to define positions and strategies.

Local action for biodiversity is essential to ensure better conservation status for biodiversity and maintain ecosystem services. In many places the rich biodiversity is still relatively untouched and represents an outstanding asset for local sustainable development. The loss of biodiversity occurs mainly because of rapid changes in land use, urban sprawl, infrastructure development, acidification, eutrophication, desertification, overexploitation, intensification of agriculture, tourism development and climate change. There is a clear need for a more flexible, people-oriented and visionary approach for sustainable use of biodiversity resources. This article concerns “Local Biodiversity Action Plans”, which provide a comprehensive and integrated approach to biodiversity and ecosystem services for the sustainable development of rural municipalities and their local communities. Although biodiversity action planning is not a new concept, bringing a plan to life has significant societal benefits with innovative solutions to help biodiversity conservation while entailing close interaction of science, policy and society. This approach was developed together with project partners and local communities in selected regions of the Western Balkans and it benefits from a range of stakeholders, including social and natural scientists, practitioners, elected representatives of the local communities and end users in the frame of a participatory approach. The conclusion of this article discusses the role of communication and outlines the critical success factors and the challenges ahead for the future.

Abstract We assessed the potential impacts of land‐use changes resulting from a change in the current biofuel policy on biodiversity in Europe. We evaluated the possible impact of both arable and woody biofuel crops on changes in distribution of 313 species pertaining to different taxonomic groups. Using species‐specific information on habitat suitability as well as land use simulations for three different biofuel policy options, we downscaled available species distribution data from the original resolution of 50 to 1 km. The downscaled maps were then applied to analyse potential changes in habitat size and species composition at different spatial levels. Our results indicate that more species might suffer from habitat losses rather than benefit from a doubled biofuel target, while abolishing the biofuel target would mainly have positive effects. However, the possible impacts vary spatially and depend on the biofuel crop choice, with woody crops being less detrimental than arable crops. Our results give an indication for policy and decision makers of what might happen to biodiversity under a changed biofuel policy in the European Union. The presented approach is considered to be innovative as to date no comparable policy impact assessment has been applied to such a large set of key species at the European scale.

Discovering appropriate ways of living in different landscapes has been the key to the rise of civilization. For millennia the development of human society has been a function of people’s capacity to control their landscape of origin, civilization being fundamentally rooted in and moulded according to physical landscape characteristics. The technologically and economically advanced societies of Mesopotamia, for example, thrived upon a knowledge base that was intrinsically linked to the challenges of managing the landscape’s complex and dynamic water systems. Mediterranean societies such as those of the Greeks and Romans, as well as most other more recent European cultures, have likewise been shaped by a variety of factors among which landscape characteristics are generally considered as highly influential. Failure to manage landscapes sustainably certainly appears to have been a key factor in the decline of many civilizations. Deforestation, desertification and salinization still threaten people’s livelihoods in many parts of the world today. Progress in the fields of science, technology and trade has deepened the divide between the service function of landscapes and a society’s overall socio-economic and environmental objectives. Large-scale and pervasive changes in landscape form and function are now achieved in a fraction of the time and effort necessary in the past. Maintaining cherished landscape features and traditional ways of rural life without fossilization and hardship presents a formidable challenge to policy-makers and planners.