Analyzing the Design Process of Farming Practices Ensuring Little Bustard Conservation: Lessons for Collective Landscape Management

Abstract

Effective solutions for integrating development of agriculture and conservation of biodiversity at a landscape scale remain to be identified. This article presents a case study on an intensively farmed French cereal plain, where the reintroduction of grasslands has been proposed to protect the Little Bustard, a threatened European bird species. Although this solution may seem trivial at first glance, we analyze the design reasoning from which it resulted in order to highlight the innovative paths it opened. We apply C-K theory, a design theory that distinguishes concepts (i.e., unknown proposals) from knowledge. Our analysis reveals the links between the production of scientific knowledge and the generation of various solutions. It also highlights that specifying the ecological functions of grasslands facilitates their management. In the cereal plain, some of these functions give grasslands the status of common goods. This consideration opens new possibilities for managing agricultural landscapes in a way that reconcile agriculture and conservation.

Keywords:

• agroecology
• collective action
• conservation
• design
• ecosystem services
• landscape
• Tetrax tetrax

Acknowledgments

The authors thank Egizio Valceschini and Laurent Lapchin for their useful comments at various stages of the case study. Many thanks to the different members of the research team Agripop (CEBC-CNRS). Over 17 years, many researchers, Master, and Ph.D. students have contributed to the global scientific reasoning, as well as data collection and analysis. The authors express their gratitude to the people interviewed in 2010 for their useful inputs. Thanks is extended to Emmanuel Torquebiau and Rodolphe Sabatier for the opportunity to contribute to this special issue. The comments of two anonymous reviewers helped to significantly improve the manuscript. Its language was improved by Luca Borger and Donald White. This study is part of the research program DIVA “Action Publique, Agriculture et Biodiversité” funded by the French Ministry for Ecology and Sustainable Development.