Trust Versus Content in Multi-functional Land Management: Assessing Soil Function Messaging in Agricultural Networks

Growing sustainability demands on land have a high knowledge requirement across multiple scientific domains. Exploring networks can expose opportunities for targeting. Using mixed-methods combining social network analysis (SNA) and surveys, networks for key soil functions in case studies in Germany,...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Environmental management (New York) 2022-06, Vol.69 (6), p.1167-1185
Main Authors: O’Sullivan, Lilian, Leeuwis, Cees, de Vries, Linde, Wall, David P., Heidkroß, Talke, Madena, Kirsten, Schulte, Rogier P. O.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Agriculture
Aquatic Pollution
Atmospheric Protection/Air Quality Control/Air Pollution
Case studies
Conservation of Natural Resources
Earth and Environmental Science
Ecology
Environment
Environmental governance
Environmental Management
Environmental Policy
Farm management
Farmers
Farms
Forestry Management
Governance
Land management
Land trusts
Land use planning
Management
Messages
Nature Conservation
Network analysis
Scientific knowledge
Social network analysis
Social networks
Social organization
Soil
Soils
Sustainability
Sustainability management
Trust
Waste Water Technology
Water Management
Water Pollution Control
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Summary:Growing sustainability demands on land have a high knowledge requirement across multiple scientific domains. Exploring networks can expose opportunities for targeting. Using mixed-methods combining social network analysis (SNA) and surveys, networks for key soil functions in case studies in Germany, Ireland and the Netherlands are explored. We find a diversity of contrasting networks that reflect local conditions, sustainability challenges and governance structure. Farmers were found to occupy a central role in the agri-environmental governance network. A comparison of the SNA and survey results indicate low acceptance of messages from many central actors indicating scope to better harness the network for sustainable land management. The source of the messages was important when it came to the implementation of farm management actions. Two pathways for enhanced farmer uptake of multi-functionality are proposed that have wider application are; to increase trust between farmers and actors that are agents of multi-functional messages and/or to increase the bundling or multi-functionality of messages (mandate) of actors trusted by farmers.
ISSN:0364-152X
1432-1009
DOI:10.1007/s00267-022-01647-2