The Future of Rural Land Use Philip Lowe

Director, UK Research Councils’ Rural Economy and Land Use Programme

4 June 2009

www.relu.ac.uk

RELU is promoting interdisciplinary research collaborations to advance understandings of the social, economic, environmental and

technological challenges facing agriculture and rural areas

Committed to interdisciplinary research between social and natural sciences

UK venture involving Economic and Social Research Council, Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council and Natural Environment Research Council (plus Defra and SEERAD)

Looking back….

1970s/80sWW2 and after 1990s onwards

Productivism Post-productivism?

2008: did we enter a new era?

End looms for era of cheap food The Times, 31 July 2007

Global food crisis looms as climate change and fuel shortages bite The Guardian, 3 November 2007

Echoes of Britain's wartime Dig for Victory as community gardens gain ground The Observer, 10 August 2008

Millions of families face soaring food bills Daily Mail, 12th August 2008

Production at any cost or smart production?

• Production is one of a number of ecosystem services

• Increasing production involves trade-off combining economic/ecological efficiency (Eco/eco efficiency)

• Climate change is thrown into the mix

Responding to climate change

Strategic Land Use – meeting the challenges

• Tackling such competing priorities requires a flexible and strategic land use policy

• There are significant opportunities (the new environmental consciousness, CAP reform, a plethora of policy instruments)

Relu’s contribution to land use policy to date

2006 Experts and stakeholders contributing to design and process of the programme

2007-2010 Interdisciplinary projects investigating land and water research questions

2008 Two land use policy analysts attached to the programme

2008 The Great Land Use Debate launched

2009 Two land use reports published

2009 Regional events during Science Week

The Future of Rural Land Use 4 June 2009

• To present key challenges, • To explore cross-cutting concepts • To give hands-on demonstrations of cutting-edge methodologies • To provide a forum for discussion and debate • To feed key findings and issues for government into policymaking