What are the possible solutions that would help remove barriers to landscape change and transition towards sustainable land management from the perspective of local stakeholders? In February 2023, we held the last round of Just Scapes participatory workshops.
For the past two years, we have been doing research focused on possible landscape and land management changes in the face of climate change from the perspective of local stakeholders in the south and east of Moravia. Some crucial topics, such as the complex land consolidation process, agricultural and green subsidies, or the role of large players, emerged as critical elements of land transformation (more on these topics here) . We have been using participatory workshops to meet with local stakeholders and discuss with them their views and opinions on this issue.
Participatory workshops 2.0
In February 2023, we held the second and last round of Just Scapes participatory workshops in four of our research localities. These workshops addressed the possible solutions that would help remove barriers to just landscape change and transition towards just sustainable land management from the perspective of local stakeholders. Together with participants, we discussed the possible changes in the landscape, land management and the policy system, and the proposed solutions.
Ideas for change
Together with the participants we addressed the most problematic issues concerning the current state of the landscape; the participants proposed ideas for possible change and solutions to some named problems. We focused on these topics on different scales: the individual, the municipality, the state, and society.
The most frequently mentioned topic on the individual and societal levels was the need for “promotion of public awareness” in society, especially school children. We discussed how to make teaching in schools more interesting so that children and young people get involved and more interested in land management and farming.
On the municipality level, we discussed how to promote and strengthen local food sovereignty by starting local food shops: a step strongly emphasised by locals. We also discussed other legislative and financial ways the municipality could promote landscape changes and how its activities could become more strongly linked with local green initiatives.
On the state level, the most burning topic was the state’s role in land management and possible landscape change. Locals from all the key stakeholder groups (members of local governments, farmers, winemakers, and locals) perceived the role of the state as troublesome, especially regarding the incentives and legislation that rarely reflect, in their perspective, their daily reality and the objective needs of the landscape. We discussed how this could be moderated or improved through better cooperation with and awareness-raising among office workers.
Next steps
Many more ideas were generated during the workshop. These ideas will be compared with the findings from the UK and France. The results will be used to produce an information booklet with recommendations for the government, which will be made available to all the participants and others at the end of this year.
SustainableCZ 
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