A systematic review of European farmer and non-farmer attitudes towards landscapes, ecosystem services, and agricultural management practices: Implications for permanent grassland management

Permanent grassland (PG) is an important agricultural land use for the delivery of multiple ecosystem services (ES), including carbon sequestration, water quality protection, food production, habitat provision, and cultural activities. However, PG environments are threatened by sub-optimal management, cultivation, and abandonment that are influenced by context, land manager’s attitudes and societal demand for ES. Therefore, the perceptions and attitudes of key decision-makers (farmers) and other stakeholders (non-farmers, including citizens and consumers of the products of permanent grasslands, and ES) need to be understood to ensure the sustainability of PGs and the ES they provide. A systematic review of the literature identified 135 scholarly articles. Application of thematic analysis, allowed the organization, and synthesis of current research related to (different) stakeholder attitudes, and how these influence PG management and the delivery of ES. The results suggest that different stakeholders hold different views towards permanent grassland, with farmers in particular having to balance economic with other (potentially conflicting) drivers. The types of knowledge held by different groups of stakeholders, access to sources of information, as well as the influence of knowledge on behaviour; and environmental values (for example in relation to aesthetics or conservation of biodiversity) explained why certain motivations for attitudes and behaviours are held. A major gap, however, was identified in relation to PG as opposed to other types of landscape.


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The existence and management of permanent grasslands (PG) is key to the delivery of multiple 33 ecosystem services (ES) in Europe and elsewhere, including carbon sequestration, water protection, 34 food production and cultural activities [1][2][3][4]. Consequently, the preservation and sustainable 123 "permanent grassland" AND (attitude* OR opinio* OR willingness OR accept* OR prefer* OR 124 percept* OR belief OR trust OR valu*) 125 "rural landscape" AND "grassland" AND "citizen" AND (attitude* OR opinio* OR willingness 126 OR accept* OR prefer* OR percept* OR belief OR trust OR valu*) Overall, 11 search strings were used (see Appendix 1). The search was conducted on the 5th and 6th

Selection and screening of relevant studies
139 Peer reviewed journal articles were screened using a pre-defined set of exclusion criteria (see Figure   140 1). Papers before 1962 were excluded as this was before the advent of the EU Common Agricultural 141 Policy (CAP), which potentially has had very significant influence on land management and the 142 economic and social context of farming, and therefore on perceptions and decision-making in relation 143 to farming practice. Papers included were those that focused on empirical data collection (therefore 144 excluding literature reviews and theoretical pieces). In addition, the empirical data were required to 145 be socio-economic primary data, although hybrid studies of physical science data (e.g. climate data) 146 and social data were included.

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The results of the literature search were exported to a Mendeley library, and duplicates were 148 removed. Studies were then screened, in a two-stage process using a traffic light system derived and 149 verified amongst the research team (green = included; amber = uncertain, another team member to 150 review; and red = excluded). Ten % of the studies were cross checked for agreement in coding. First, the titles and abstracts were screened for relevance. Then the resultant (255) articles were read in 152 full. This process allowed the relevant articles to be analysed for themes and information, and to be 153 assessed against critical appraisal criteria (e.g. [56]), and to allow further screen for irrelevant studies.

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One hundred and thirty-five articles were eventually included in the thematic analysis. 155

Thematic Analysis
156 Full text articles were categorised and analysed using QSR Nvivo 12. For each article, basic information 157 was recorded including: location of the study (country), research problem or premise, target group 158 (e.g. livestock farmers), aims and objectives (the core purpose of the study), date or timespan of the 159 study (date when the data were collected), methods used (e.g. survey), and any critical appraisal 160 issues.

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Three broad themes were used to categorise data relating to the aims of the systematic review: 166 In relation to 'attitudes and perceptions', eight sub-themes were identified, each of which contained 167 up to 19 sub-categories, and up to 15 sub-sub-categories (Table 1). A similar pattern emerged for 168 'factors affecting attitudes', where 47 sub-categories were identified (again, some with sub-nodes 169 themselves). These codes were the initial, in-depth, coding, which aimed to capture the depth and 170 breadth of information within the studies. Codes were gradually assimilated into more coherent 171 themes through a process of analysis.
172   Raw materials were considered an important provisioning service. They were also associated in one study with self-sufficiency practices to obtain fodder, nuts and fruits from trees located near the farm ([64] -Spain).
Clean water was also considered an essential provisioning service but was not connected to any particular practice; instead, (lack of) clean water was always linked to pollution problems arising from intensive farming -France) argued that farmers feel closer to nature because they believe themselves to be the producers of nature, in the sense that they shape the landscape and make it productive. This relates to understanding of

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The study has also revealed factors of importance for influencing attitudes, including: