Transcript The Future of Rural Land Use - Rural Economy and Land Use

The Future of Rural Land Use
Philip Lowe
Director, UK Research Councils’ Rural Economy
and Land Use Programme
4 June 2009
www.relu.ac.uk
RELU is promoting interdisciplinary research collaborations to
advance understandings of the social, economic, environmental and
technological challenges facing agriculture and rural areas
 Committed to interdisciplinary research
between social and natural sciences
 UK venture involving Economic and Social
Research Council, Biotechnology and
Biological Sciences Research Council and
Natural Environment Research Council (plus
Defra and SEERAD)
Looking back….
WW2 and after
Productivism
1970s/80s
1990s onwards
Post-productivism?
2008: did we enter a new era?
End looms for era of cheap food The Times, 31 July 2007
Global food crisis looms as climate change and fuel shortages
bite The Guardian, 3 November 2007
Echoes of Britain's wartime Dig for Victory as community
gardens gain ground The Observer, 10 August 2008
Millions of families face soaring food bills Daily Mail, 12th
August 2008
Production at any cost or smart production?
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Production is one of a number
of ecosystem services
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Increasing production involves
trade-off combining
economic/ecological efficiency
(Eco/eco efficiency)
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Climate change is thrown
into the mix
Responding to climate change
Strategic Land Use – meeting the challenges
• Tackling such competing
priorities requires a flexible and
strategic land use
policy
• There are significant
opportunities (the new
environmental consciousness,
CAP reform, a plethora of policy
instruments)
Relu’s contribution to land use policy to date
2006 Experts and stakeholders contributing to design and process of the programme
2007-2010 Interdisciplinary projects investigating land and water research questions
2008 Two land use policy analysts attached to the programme
2008 The Great Land Use Debate launched
2009 Two land use reports published
2009 Regional events during Science Week
The Future of Rural Land Use 4 June 2009
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To present key challenges,
To explore cross-cutting concepts
To give hands-on demonstrations of cutting-edge methodologies
To provide a forum for discussion and debate
To feed key findings and issues for government into policymaking