Declining traditional orchards and landscape quality – Policy options to balance economic logic with societal benefits

In the late 19th Century, the upswing of fruit production in Haspengouw, a region in the South-East of Flanders, sculpted a unique cultural landscape dominated by traditional extensive high-stem orchards. Since the 1950’s, agricultural intensification led to a conversion to more productive low-stem orchards. The rapid decline of the area of traditional orchards had a severe impact on landscape quality and brought the high-stem orchards under the public attention. Over time, the perception of high-stem orchards shifted from pure production benefits towards a multifunctional landscape element that supplies a broad range of landscape services. While these orchards are now at the intersection of several policies, there is a lack of specific measures addressing their preservation. Also, the benefits and burdens of their preservation are unevenly distributed and they remain under pressure due to urbanization and agricultural intensification. The tension between economic devaluation and societal appreciation of high-stem orchards as well as the multiple interests of different stakeholders calls for an integrated approach, adapted to the specific regional singularity and needs of these landscape elements. In response to such challenges, a new instrument for heritage policy, the Heritage Master Plan, was created in 2013. This instrument, implements the principles of landscape democracy as conceived in the European Landscape Convention, by focusing on the collaborative design of an integrated landscape vision. This vision balances and prioritizes the competing demands and expectations towards landscapes and seeks for cross-sectoral, region-specific solutions and innovative rezoning. Implementation is assured by an Action Program, an agreement between all partners that matches different sectoral and local policies and management instruments to guarantee a sustainable landscape future and general landscape care. In June 2017 different sectors of the Flemish government, regional organizations and 14 local councils agreed upon testing this instrument for the high-stem orchards in Haspengouw. The aim for this project is to create a tailored policy framework and societal encapsulation for the region-specific preservation and management of traditional orchards in the contemporary landscape. So far, two thesis researches are conducted. One thesis focuses on the local perception of the landscape and orchards in one community, the other one tries to get an insight in the most appreciated aspects of orchards by the use of choice experiments. Both thesises gave input for characterizing the landscape services that orchards provide to society. Also all existing policy instruments of different sectors and governmental levels that could impact the landscape in general and the orchards in particular were listed. These two lists form the basis for participatory research and collaboration on a larger scale that will be started at the end of September.