Protection of fringe farmland
Farmland on the edges of cities is under pressure from urban expansion. Such growth permanently removes prime agricultural land from production, severely threatening agricultural sustainability. The EU-funded MARSUPIA (A multifunctional agriculture for sustainable peri-urban areas) project assessed and compared the respective impacts of two sets of policies intended to protect such agricultural areas. The policies, which differ substantially, originated from Canada’s Ontario Greenbelt and the Toulouse InterSCoT in France. The Greenbelt Plan is a top-down provincial government initiative intended to strengthen existing legislation on farmland protection. The French case is a bottom-up approach, where more than 400 local municipalities pooled resources to strengthen local policies and to support regional cooperation. Project researchers compared the two cases using mixed methods. The process involved a two-step protocol, first involving qualitative analysis of farmers’ investment decision-making, followed by quantitative econometric analyses. The latter was intended to strengthen the project’s conclusions. In the Canadian case, results highlighted various threats and opportunities that decision-makers need to consider to achieve the desired protection of agricultural land. The team concluded that preservation is insufficient, and that the situation involves progressive dismantlement of the agricultural value chain. Results from the French case also highlighted threats and opportunities of which decision-makers should be aware. The team concluded that the regional action is insufficiently coordinated. A conflict exists between rural community organisations and urban planners who make decisions without consultation. Researchers determined that neither system works very effectively. Although the Canadian system results in better land protection, the agricultural value chain is being increasingly devalued; hence, land protection alone is insufficient. In the French case, planning authorities lack sufficient expertise to make decisions affecting the agricultural sector. The diverging views must be confronted and reconciled, leading to greater coordination. The MARSUPIA team further concluded that a common interest in preservation of agricultural land has at least resulted in growing awareness of the crisis. Researchers recommended that farmland be granted the status of commons. The project’s highlighting of issues facing two different systems of land preservation helped to resolve conflicts and produce more effective management.
