Managing Agricultural Landscapes for Environmental Quality: Achieving Effective Conservation
April 2010
Draft Program
Day 1
8:15 a.m.
Keynote Address
Managing Agricultural Landscapes for Environmental Quality: The Challenges Ahead
• What explains our inability to bring about significant environmental improvements and increase the production of ecological services on agricultural land?
• Why focus thinking about conservation on a landscape scale?
• Why does the landscape concept entail more than a simple aggregation of fields or farms up to a larger geographical scale (i.e., emergence or the whole being greater than the sum of the parts)?
• What global processes (e.g., climate change, demographics, bioenergy production) require conservation professionals to give more attention to the landscape scale?
• What are the major challenges confronting conservationists who are asked to work on a landscape scale?
9:00 a.m.
Plenary Session
Theme 1 Keynote Paper: Identifying Landscape Vulnerabilities and Managing Environmental Risks
• What is the meaning of “vulnerability” and “risk” in exploring agricultural and environmental interactions?
• What scales are most appropriate for different regions or agroecological systems when pursuing landscape analysis?
• What is the history of identifying “vulnerability” on agricultural landscapes?
• What tools, models, or other techniques have been used to identify various forms of vulnerability at different scales, spatial and temporal?
• What are the strengths and weaknesses of these tools, models, or other techniques when working on a landscape scale?
• What critical scientific, policy, and programmatic gaps exist that, if filled, would allow us to better manage risk on the most vulnerable landscapes?
Perspective 1: Identifying Landscape Vulnerabilities and Managing Environmental Risks at Landscape Scales: An Ecological Perspective (This would be a good place for a perspective paper on climate change and vulnerabilities from CC. dj & ms)
Perspective 2: Identifying Landscape Vulnerabilities and Managing Environmental Risks at Landscape Scales: A Socioeconomic Perspective
10:30 a.m.
Break/Poster Papers on Theme 1
11:00 a.m.
Concurrent Sessions on Theme 1
12:15 p.m.
Lunch
1:15 p.m.
Plenary Session
Theme 2 Keynote Paper: Targeting Risky Behaviors in Vulnerable Landscapes
• What are risky behaviors in vulnerable landscapes?
• What tools and techniques exist for determining what risky behaviors exist across an agricultural landscape and how those risky behaviors are distributed?
• How should risky behaviors be targeted in agricultural landscapes?
• To what extent do current policies and programs target “worst-first” risky behaviors?
• Do current tools and models adequately identify what constitutes risky behavior under different types of vulnerabilities across landscapes?
• When working at the landscape scale, what role, if any, do group concepts, such as conservation ethics or deviance from the norm, come into play when designing remedial efforts? In other words, is the individual always the appropriate target for policy intervention, or should we be exploring policy appropriate for groups?
• What might be considered appropriate spatial and temporal scales when targeting risky behaviors in vulnerable landscapes?
Perspective 1: What Constitutes “Effectiveness” and “Efficiency” When Working at Landscape Scales?
Perspective 2: New Tools for Targeting Risky Behaviors on Vulnerable Agricultural Landscapes
2:45 p.m.
Break/Poster Papers on Theme 2
3:15 p.m.
Concurrent Sessions on Theme 2
4:30 p.m.
Adjourn
5:00 p.m.
Reception/Poster Papers
6:00 p.m.
Dinner on your own
8:00 p.m.
Roundtable Discussions on Themes 1 and 2
Day 2
9:00 a.m.
Plenary Session
Theme 3 Keynote Paper: Designing Institutions for Landscape Conservation
• Given that property, legal, or political boundaries rarely coincide with those reflecting the generation of ecological goods and services within a landscape, what institutional arrangements are available to help in managing landscapes, what arrangements exist that hinder this outcome, and what new arrangements are needed to create sustainable landscapes?
• What is the role of nongovernmental organizations in identifying vulnerabilities and managing risk in agricultural landscapes?
• What positive examples of coordination and collaboration exist that might help those who want to work at the landscape scale?
• To what extent do provisions in existing federal farm bill laws encourage or discourage conservation work at the landscape scale?
• Which levels and forms of government have access to the ecological, hydrologic, economic, social, and political information needed to promote sustainable landscapes?
• Working at the landscape scale may imply working across political and jurisdictional boundaries. What examples or models exist for how accountability and/or responsibility is managed under these circumstances?
Perspective 1: Success Stories in Landscape Conservation: A Synthesis
Perspective 2: Top-Down and Bottom-Up Strategies for Landscape Conservation.
10:30 a.m.
Break/Poster Papers on Theme 3
11:00 a.m.
Concurrent Session on Theme 3
12:15 p.m.
Lunch
1:15 p.m.
Plenary Session
Theme 4 Keynote Paper: Measuring Conservation Effectiveness Across Landscapes
• What are some of the methodological and data challenges associated with accounting for environmental improvements at the landscape scale?
• How does one measure or account for changes in production of ecological goods and services within an agricultural landscape?
• What is the role, if any, for the National Resources Inventory and Resources Conservation Act to account for conservation effectiveness within agricultural landscapes?
• Would designing and implementing conservation programs at the landscape scale help or hinder the measurement of actual changes in soil and water resource, as opposed to such indicators as program participation?
• What are the implications of working at landscape scales for various conservation institutions, for example, national policy and the organization of federal, state, and local governmental agencies, along with their respective responsibilities.
• What does working at landscape scales mean in terms of training conservation professionals?
• How does one assess the performance of conservation professionals working at landscape scales?
Perspective 1: New Techniques for Evaluating Conservation Success Across Landscape Scales
Perspective 2: Measuring Agricultural Sustainability
2:45 p.m.
Break/Poster Papers on Theme 4
3:15 p.m.
Concurrent Session on Theme 4
4:30 p.m.
Adjourn
5:00 p.m.
Reception/Poster Papers
6:00 p.m.
Dinner on Your Own
8:00 p.m.
Roundtable Discussions on Themes 3 and 4
Day 3
8:30 a.m.
Concurrent Sessions on Themes 1, 2, 3, and 4
9:45 a.m.
Break
10:15 a.m.
Plenary Session
Reports of Roundtable Discussions
Keynote Address
Executing Effective Landscape Conservation: A Vision for the Future
11:45 a.m. Adjourn
