Resilient Agrarian Landscapes in Face of Changes: The Coevolutive Approach to Understand the Links Between Communities and Environmental Characters

Abstract

The paper focuses on a conceptual framework through analyses of the relationship that links and communities to their places and determines the capacity for resilience of those landscapes in the face of changes. The coevolutionary approach has been recognized as a key framework for understanding change in complex social–ecological systems and as a foundational concept for ecological economics (Costanza et al. in Introduction to ecological economics. St Lucie Press, Florida, 1997). The coevolutive approach describes as a dynamic relationship between environmental systems and social systems. Coevolution is different than mere co-dynamic change, in that at least one—social or environmental—system is evolving or changing through variation, selection and inheritance. This leads to the necessity of identifying the set of anthropic—or cultural—and natural—biological—relationships that influence change within these relationships, determining their destiny or, in other words, whether these landscapes are conserved or lost. The need to protect local resources, and conserve the functions that come from natural capital, determines processes that can be guaranteed in a more efficient and sustainable way by local communities. The paper discusses the conceptual hypothesis on a case study of the UNESCO Vineyard Landscapes, based on the Switzerland case of Lavaux. The research concludes with a view of adaptive management, aimed to the preservation of landscape values, while respecting the natural dynamics of the landscape evolution.