Concilier logiques d’éleveurs, entretien du territoire et viabilité des pratiques agricoles : l’exemple d’une filière viande régionale en Valais (Suisse)

The multifunctionality of Swiss agriculture is well recognized and is written into the Federal Constitution. Rural landscape maintenance is one of these public functions but it is challenged by high forest expansion. Within this context, the interdisciplinary PASTO project tested new beef production practices that should both help maintain the landscape and create added value for the local economy. A typology of the Hérens cattle breeders of the Valais was established. The landscape maintenance and marketing practices of the different breeder groups are very different. The public policy instruments are translated by the social representations and motivations of the breeders and result in heterogenous spatial impacts. The question is if the establishment of a regional meat chain with landscape objective can represent a harmonization tool that may give a shared meaning and objectives to the existing heterogenous practices and a more coherent spatial and territorial impact.