Working for the environment: farmer attitudes towards sustainable farming actions in rural Wales, UK

Follett, Elizabeth ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9993-5313, Davis, Lorna, Wilson, Catherine ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7128-590X and Cable, Jo ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8510-7055 2024. Working for the environment: farmer attitudes towards sustainable farming actions in rural Wales, UK. Environment, Development and Sustainability 10.1007/s10668-024-04459-y

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Abstract

Recognition of land management impacts on water quality and flooding, and climate change-induced increases in storm intensity and flood risk, have led to interest in farmer provision of ecosystem services alongside food production. However, pathways for practical design and funding of agroecological interventions are less well understood. Effective design and implementation of sustainable farming initiatives have been linked to human-centred aspects including stakeholder engagement and provision of social and economic co-benefits. To obtain information on Welsh farmer perspectives on sustainable farming actions and aid development of agroecological policy and design guidance, Welsh farmer perspectives on sustainable farming were obtained through discussion, online polls, and questionnaires. Participant-identified barriers to action included incorporation of return on initial time and cost investment in long-term farm budgets, occurrence of extreme weather events, and tenanted land. Decision-making processes were rooted in community discussion to balance perceived needs of the land and farm business, with communication preferences expressed for bilingual farm advice provision and support of farmer-to-farmer knowledge transfer pathways. In addition to responding to research questions, participants identified interdependent components of economic, social, cultural, and environmental sustainability necessary to achieve positive environmental outcomes, and expressed environmentally oriented farming identities linked to environmental guardianship and caretaking. Design of tree-planting schemes was discussed as an example of this interlinkage, with positive attitudes expressed for land sharing at small spatial scales, but not at the whole-farm scale.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Published Online
Status:	In Press
Schools:	Engineering Biosciences
Publisher:	Springer
ISSN:	1573-2975
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	22 February 2024
Date of Acceptance:	20 December 2023
Last Modified:	23 Feb 2024 12:30
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/166461

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