A method to appraise multiple agro-environmental functions in farming regions
Résumé
In the latest decades there has been a growing interest by local managers in implementing and monitoring agro-environmental policies on their farming areas. This generates a need to develop approaches on landscape agricultural functions taking into account, at broader level then the farm, the effects of agricultural practices on the environment. In this context, we propose a method for appraising the spatial variability of the potential fulfilment of a combination of agro-environmental functions (hereafter EAF) in farming regions. Our results show the interests of a spatial analysis to compare regional and local farming contributions to agro-environmental functions. For agronomical research, it is helpful to point out comparable and relevant indicators of agro-environmental functions fulfilment; for local managers, it opens possibility to compare farming regions and areas in terms of their potential contribution to these functions.