IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/agisys/v167y2018icp10-16.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

A novel agroecosystem: Beef production in abandoned farmland as a multifunctional alternative to rewilding

Author

Listed:
  • Hall, Stephen J.G.

Abstract

In much of Europe policy is challenged by the abandonment of crop and pasture land and its replacement by natural forest regrowth. Rewilding is one option. An alternative, multifunctional, strategy is extensive beef farming coupled with carbon storage in herbage and naturally regenerating trees. An economic model is developed in the context of Estonia, where many of the constraints and opportunities relating to natural forest regrowth are in particularly sharp focus, but the approach will be widely applicable. Production of niche market beef, carbon sequestration, and other ecosystem services can proceed in parallel. A novel concept of support payments is proposed. Net present value assessment, with cash credits for carbon storage, demonstrates that the model is viable. A 100 ha tract of abandoned land, stocked with 35 beef cows, would produce beef profitably. Provisioning, regulating and cultural ecosystem services would be delivered, including a net storage of carbon, and rural regeneration would be promoted. The study provides further scientific underpinning for a policy discussion on abandoned land, which represents a growing proportion of Europe's land area. Extensive beef production is compatible with net carbon storage and can provide sustainable ecosystem services together with rural regeneration.

Suggested Citation

  • Hall, Stephen J.G., 2018. "A novel agroecosystem: Beef production in abandoned farmland as a multifunctional alternative to rewilding," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 167(C), pages 10-16.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:agisys:v:167:y:2018:i:c:p:10-16
    DOI: 10.1016/j.agsy.2018.08.009
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0308521X18302026
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.agsy.2018.08.009?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Bryngelsson, David & Wirsenius, Stefan & Hedenus, Fredrik & Sonesson, Ulf, 2016. "How can the EU climate targets be met? A combined analysis of technological and demand-side changes in food and agriculture," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 152-164.
    2. Põllumäe, Priit & Korjus, Henn & Paluots, Teele, 2014. "Management motives of Estonian private forest owners," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 8-14.
    3. Alcantara, Camilo & Kuemmerle, Tobias & Baumann, Matthias & Bragina, Eugenia V & Griffiths, Patrick & Hostert, Patrick & Knorn, Jan & Müller, Daniel & Prishchepov, Alexander V & Schierhorn, Florian & , 2013. "Mapping the extent of abandoned farmland in Central and Eastern Europe using MODIS time series satellite data," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 8(3), pages 1-9.
    4. Morel, Kevin & Farrié, Jean-Pierre & Renon, Julien & Manneville, Vincent & Agabriel, Jacques & Devun, Jean, 2016. "Environmental impacts of cow-calf beef systems with contrasted grassland management and animal production strategies in the Massif Central, France," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 144(C), pages 133-143.
    5. Gavrilova, Olga & Vilu, Raivo, 2012. "Production-based and consumption-based national greenhouse gas inventories: An implication for Estonia," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 161-173.
    6. Peringer, Alexander & Gillet, François & Rosenthal, Gert & Stoicescu, Ioana & Pătru-Stupariu, Ileana & Stupariu, Mihai-Sorin & Buttler, Alexandre, 2016. "Landscape-scale simulation experiments test Romanian and Swiss management guidelines for mountain pasture-woodland habitat diversity," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 330(C), pages 41-49.
    7. Ilya Gelfand & Ritvik Sahajpal & Xuesong Zhang & R. César Izaurralde & Katherine L. Gross & G. Philip Robertson, 2013. "Sustainable bioenergy production from marginal lands in the US Midwest," Nature, Nature, vol. 493(7433), pages 514-517, January.
    8. Mark Lapping, 1993. "The land reform in independent Estonia: Memory as precedent — Toward the reconstruction of agriculture in Eastern Europe," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 10(1), pages 52-59, December.
    9. Holman, I.P. & Brown, C & Janes, V & Sandars, D, 2017. "Can we be certain about future land use change in Europe? A multi-scenario, integrated-assessment analysis," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 151(C), pages 126-135.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Chong Jiang & Wei Song, 2021. "Degree of Abandoned Cropland and Socioeconomic Impact Factors in China: Multi-Level Analysis Model Based on the Farmer and District/County Levels," Land, MDPI, vol. 11(1), pages 1-25, December.
    2. Põllumäe, Priit & Lilleleht, Ando & Korjus, Henn, 2016. "Institutional barriers in forest owners' cooperation: The case of Estonia," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 65(C), pages 9-16.
    3. Fleck, Ann-Katrin & Anatolitis, Vasilios, 2023. "Achieving the objectives of renewable energy policy – Insights from renewable energy auction design in Europe," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 173(C).
    4. Zhen, Wei & Qin, Quande & Miao, Lu, 2023. "The greenhouse gas rebound effect from increased energy efficiency across China's staple crops," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 173(C).
    5. David Bryngelsson & Fredrik Hedenus & Daniel J. A. Johansson & Christian Azar & Stefan Wirsenius, 2017. "How Do Dietary Choices Influence the Energy-System Cost of Stabilizing the Climate?," Energies, MDPI, vol. 10(2), pages 1-13, February.
    6. Fabra-Crespo, M. & Rojas-Briales, E., 2015. "Comparative analysis on the communication strategies of the forest owners' associations in Europe," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 20-30.
    7. Oriana Gava & Fabio Bartolini & Francesca Venturi & Gianluca Brunori & Angela Zinnai & Alberto Pardossi, 2018. "A Reflection of the Use of the Life Cycle Assessment Tool for Agri-Food Sustainability," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(1), pages 1-16, December.
    8. Morena Bruno & Marianne Thomsen & Federico Maria Pulselli & Nicoletta Patrizi & Michele Marini & Dario Caro, 2019. "The carbon footprint of Danish diets," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 156(4), pages 489-507, October.
    9. McGee, M. & Lenehan, C. & Crosson, P. & O'Riordan, E.G. & Kelly, A.K. & Moran, L. & Moloney, A.P., 2022. "Performance, meat quality, profitability, and greenhouse gas emissions of suckler bulls from pasture-based compared to an indoor high-concentrate weanling-to-beef finishing system," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 198(C).
    10. Stefan Arens & Sunke Schlüters & Benedikt Hanke & Karsten von Maydell & Carsten Agert, 2020. "Sustainable Residential Energy Supply: A Literature Review-Based Morphological Analysis," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(2), pages 1-28, January.
    11. Dimitrios P. Platis & Christos D. Anagnostopoulos & Aggeliki D. Tsaboula & Georgios C. Menexes & Kiriaki L. Kalburtji & Andreas P. Mamolos, 2019. "Energy Analysis, and Carbon and Water Footprint for Environmentally Friendly Farming Practices in Agroecosystems and Agroforestry," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(6), pages 1-11, March.
    12. Liu, Guilin & Mai, Jianfeng, 2022. "Habitat shifts of Jatropha curcas L. in the Asia-Pacific region under climate change scenarios," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 251(C).
    13. Pierre-Marie Aubert & Baptiste Gardin & Élise Huber & Michele Schiavo & Christophe Alliot, 2021. "Designing Just Transition Pathways: A Methodological Framework to Estimate the Impact of Future Scenarios on Employment in the French Dairy Sector," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 11(11), pages 1-19, November.
    14. Xiong, Wei & Balkovič, Juraj & van der Velde, Marijn & Zhang, Xuesong & Izaurralde, R. César & Skalský, Rastislav & Lin, Erda & Mueller, Nathan & Obersteiner, Michael, 2014. "A calibration procedure to improve global rice yield simulations with EPIC," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 273(C), pages 128-139.
    15. Naseri, Hakim & Parashkoohi, Mohammad Gholami & Ranjbar, Iraj & Zamani, Davood Mohammad, 2021. "Energy-economic and life cycle assessment of sugarcane production in different tillage systems," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 217(C).
    16. Su, Bin & Ang, B.W., 2014. "Input–output analysis of CO2 emissions embodied in trade: A multi-region model for China," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 114(C), pages 377-384.
    17. Chao Dong & Gengxing Zhao & Yuanwei Qin & Hong Wan, 2019. "Area extraction and spatiotemporal characteristics of winter wheat–summer maize in Shandong Province using NDVI time series," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 14(12), pages 1-19, December.
    18. Mosnier, Claire & Duclos, Anne & Agabriel, Jacques & Gac, Armelle, 2017. "Orfee: A bio-economic model to simulate integrated and intensive management of mixed crop-livestock farms and their greenhouse gas emissions," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 157(C), pages 202-215.
    19. Oriana Gava & Fabio Bartolini & Francesca Venturi & Gianluca Brunori & Alberto Pardossi, 2020. "Improving Policy Evidence Base for Agricultural Sustainability and Food Security: A Content Analysis of Life Cycle Assessment Research," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(3), pages 1-29, February.
    20. Wu, Jy S. & Tseng, Hui-Kuan & Liu, Xiaoshuai, 2022. "Techno-economic assessment of bioenergy potential on marginal croplands in the U.S. southeast," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 170(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:agisys:v:167:y:2018:i:c:p:10-16. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/agsy .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.