Description:
Olive farming has experienced a vast intensification process across the Mediterranean basin in the last decades. This ongoing process has detrimental social and environmental outcomes, but it also represents a unique opportunity to study the impacts of intensification and identify solutions for sustainable management of this iconic and culturally important crop. The aim of this interdisciplinary study is thus to jointly explore the ecological, social, and economic consequences of olive farming intensification, so as to identify solutions for sustainable agriculture. During 2017-2019 we conducted ecological, social and economic surveys in 50 plots covering a gradient of intensification (i.e., super-intensive, intensive, organic, extensive, and traditional olive groves) and semi-natural habitats as ecological reference sites. Birds and plants were sampled to assess biodiversity under each intensity level. Landscape preference was assessed using an online survey (n=299), in which we presented representative images for the different intensity levels. Data on yield, revenue, profit, and costs in the olive groves was collected from farmers for two seasons (n=44). Our results demonstrated a trade-off between economic and socio-ecological benefits. Intensive and super-intensive groves maximize the economic values at the expense of the socio-ecological values, whereas the opposite is true for traditional groves. However, within this gradient we found few opportunities that can help promote sustainable olive farming. Organic groves demonstrated an optimal solution, with economic value similar to intensive plots, rich biodiversity and high appreciation by people. On the other hand, extensive olive farming represented a non-sustainable situation, in which socio-ecological values were similar or lower than organic groves, while yield and profit were the lowest found in this study. Traditional groves were the most appreciated landscape, and they also hosted bird and plant communities that were similar to nearby semi-natural habitats. Building on these results we highlight a few policy directions that can help reconcile olive production, biodiversity conservation and social values to sustainability conserve this important cultural landscape