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The Future of Mountain Agriculture pp 105–126Cite as

Future of Mountain Agriculture in the Alps

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Abstract

In the European Alps, a total of roughly 18 % of the area is farmland and a further 18 % is covered by natural and semi-natural grassland). In total, about 31.4 % of the Alps, with a surface area of 190,600 km2, are still used for agricultural purposes. Therefore, agriculture has a great responsibility for these areas and, by cultivating arable land, fields and pastures, makes an important contribution to the maintenance of a diversified cultural landscape in the Alps.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    To a certain extent, the reduction of the idea of multifunctionality to land-use aspects leads to an incomplete view of the complexity of the actual concept. A comprehensive examination of multifunctionality in mountain agriculture would demand due consideration of a "territorial view" (Cairol et al. 2009), sustainability aspects (Renting et al. 2009) and the dynamic, temporal transition perspective (Wilson 2007). However, this would exceed the scope and objective of this Article.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Agroscope Reckenholz-Tänikon Research Station, CH-8356, Ettenhausen, Switzerland

    Christian Flury

  2. Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research WSL, CH-8903, Birmensdorf, Switzerland

    Robert Huber

  3. EURAC Research, I-39100 , Bozen, Italy

    Erich Tasser

Authors
  1. Christian Flury
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  2. Robert Huber
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  3. Erich Tasser
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Correspondence to Christian Flury .

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  1. , Socioeconomics, Agroscope, Tänikon 1, Ettenhausen, 8356, Switzerland

    Stefan Mann

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Flury, C., Huber, R., Tasser, E. (2013). Future of Mountain Agriculture in the Alps. In: Mann, S. (eds) The Future of Mountain Agriculture. Springer Geography. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-33584-6_8

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