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  • Perspective
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Landscape products for sustainable agricultural landscapes

Nature Food volume 3, pages 814–821 (2022)Cite this article

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Abstract

Landscape products link to low-input practices and traditional ecological knowledge, and have multiple functions supporting human well-being and sustainability. Here we explore seven landscape products worldwide to identify these multiple functions in the context of food commodification and landscape sustainability. We show that a landscape products lens can improve food systems by fostering sustainability strategies and standards that are place-sensitive, and as such can mitigate conflicts related to food production, social justice and the environment. Co-management strategies and information policies, such as certification, labelling, product information and raising of awareness could accelerate, incentivize and catalyse actions to support landscape products in the context of sustainability strategies.

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Fig. 1: Elements of landscape products.
Fig. 2: Location and description of the seven case studies.
Fig. 3: Multiple functions of landscape products.
Fig. 4: Key needs and actions for policy and practice.

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Data availability

All data related to the seven cases used as empirical evidence in this Perspective can be found in the Supplementary Information.

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Acknowledgements

The research here presented is part of the LANDSCAPE CHAINS project funded by the German Research Foundation, DFG, through grant number 426675955. We acknowledge the important contribution to this research of the local communities, authorities and partners from the seven case studies. We thank M. Reinhard-Kolempas for her contribution to the case study descriptions included in the Supplementary Information. All figures have been designed by J. Traudes, www.have-a-look.de. The following co-authors acknowledge individual support of their research: T.P.: German Research Foundation (DFG) through the Sustainable Food Systems Research Training Group (RTG 2654). J.M.-R.: FCT—Foundation for Science and Technology (Portugal) under the project UIDB/05183/2020. U.D.: MAVA Foundation (grant number 20009). O.S.: Japan Science and Technology Agency, e-Asia JRP, ‘Integration of traditional and modern bioproduction systems for a sustainable and resilient future under climate and ecosystem changes (ITMoB)’. J.L.: US National Science Foundation (grant number 1924111) and Michigan AgBioResearch. T.K., T.D.: MAVA Foundation through the Terra Lemnia project, M6 OAP 2017-2022 on Cultural Landscapes. C.Q.-S.: European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie Action (MSCA) grant agreement number 101031168.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Agricultural Economics and Rural Development, University of Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany

    María García-Martín & Tobias Plieninger

  2. Research Unit Land Change Science, Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL, Birmensdorf, Switzerland

    María García-Martín & Peter H. Verburg

  3. Department of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA

    Lynn Huntsinger

  4. Instituto de Geografía, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico City, Mexico

    María José Ibarrola-Rivas

  5. Institute for Sustainable Economic Development, Department of Economics and Social Sciences, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna, Austria

    Marianne Penker

  6. High Atlas Cultural Landscapes Programme, Global Diversity Foundation, Canterbury, UK

    Ugo D’Ambrosio

  7. Mediterranean Institute for Nature and Anthropos, MedINA, Athens, Greece

    Thymios Dimopoulos

  8. Department of Forest & Rangeland Stewardship, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO, USA

    María E. Fernández-Giménez

  9. Department of Geography, University of the Aegean, Mytilene, Greece

    Thanasis Kizos

  10. Landscape Management and Dynamics Research Group, Mediterranean Institute for Agriculture, Environment and Development, University of Évora, Évora, Portugal

    José Muñoz-Rojas

  11. Institute for Global Environmental Strategies, Hayama, Japan

    Osamu Saito

  12. Department of Geography and GeoSyntheSES Lab, Programs in Rural Sociology and Ecology, Pennsylvania State University, State College, PA, USA

    Karl S. Zimmerer

  13. Centre for Functional and Evolutionary Ecology (CEFE), University of Montpellier, Montpellier, France

    Karl S. Zimmerer

  14. Faculty of Sustainability, Leuphana University of Lüneburg, Lüneburg, Germany

    David J. Abson

  15. Center for Systems Integration and Sustainability, Department of Fisheries and Wildlife, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, USA

    Jianguo Liu

  16. Faculty of Organic Agricultural Sciences, University of Kassel, Witzenhausen, Germany

    Cristina Quintas-Soriano, Irene Holm Sørensen & Tobias Plieninger

  17. Departamento de Biología y Geología, Centro Andaluz para la Evaluación y Seguimiento del Cambio Global, University of Almeria, Almeria, Spain

    Cristina Quintas-Soriano

  18. Environmental Geography Group, Institute for Environmental Studies (IVM), Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    Peter H. Verburg

Authors
  1. María García-Martín
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  2. Lynn Huntsinger
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  7. María E. Fernández-Giménez
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  9. José Muñoz-Rojas
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  12. David J. Abson
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  13. Jianguo Liu
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  14. Cristina Quintas-Soriano
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  15. Irene Holm Sørensen
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  16. Peter H. Verburg
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  17. Tobias Plieninger
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Contributions

All authors have contributed to this Perspective through an iterative process of several online workshops and meetings from September 2020 to July 2021, where the idea of the paper was defined, discussed and revised. T.P. provided the original idea and M.G.-M. has coordinated the process. J.M.-R., K.S.Z., M.J.I.-R., M.E.F.G., O.S., T.K., T.D. and U.D. have each contributed a case study.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to María García-Martín or Tobias Plieninger.

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Nature Food thanks Lisanne Hölting, Joachim Maes and Albert Norström for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

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Supplementary Boxes 1–7 and Supplementary Cases 1–7.

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García-Martín, M., Huntsinger, L., Ibarrola-Rivas, M.J. et al. Landscape products for sustainable agricultural landscapes. Nat Food 3, 814–821 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43016-022-00612-w

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