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A modelling and participatory approach for enhancing learning about adaptation of grassland-based livestock systems to climate change

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Abstract

To anticipate local livestock systems’ adaptation to climate change, we created a modelling and participatory approach that relies on the development and use of agro-meteorological and agronomic supports that are based on climate- and plant-model outputs and shaped by a conceptual model of a livestock system. The objective of this paper was to examine the extent to which the approach, in particular the use of the supports in workshops with farmers and advisors, helped to stimulate learning about adaptation options of livestock systems to climate change and the way in which workshop discussions can improve researchers’ conceptual models of livestock systems. We show that the use of supports can generate incremental adaptation options (interpreted as single-loop learning) and sometimes more radical ideas for change (interpreted as double-loop learning). Subsequent analysis of workshops provides new insights into livestock systems (e.g. considerations used by farmers for key decisions). We demonstrate that this modelling and participatory approach avoids the trade-off often found between the credibility of livestock-system adaptations to climate change and their relevance in practice.

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Acknowledgments

This study was partly funded by the French ANR VMC programme as part of the VALIDATE project (Vulnerability Assessment of LIvestock and grasslanDs to climAte change and exTreme Events, ANR-07-VULN-011) and of the PSDR project Climfourel INRA-Midi-Pyrenees region. Guillaume Martin thanks the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation for giving him the opportunity to finish this work. The authors are grateful to the farmers and farm advisors involved in the study for their fruitful collaboration and their time and to other researchers who have collaborated in this research (Marie Angelina Magne and Vincent Thénard). We also thank the three anonymous reviewers for their very valuable comments and insights.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. UMR 1248 AGIR, INRA, 31326, Castanet Tolosan, France

    Michel Duru, Benoît Felten, Jean Pierre Theau & Guillaume Martin

  2. Crop Science Research Group, Institute of Crop Science and Resource Conservation, University of Bonn, Bonn, Germany

    Guillaume Martin

Authors
  1. Michel Duru
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  2. Benoît Felten
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  3. Jean Pierre Theau
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  4. Guillaume Martin
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Correspondence to Michel Duru.

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Duru, M., Felten, B., Theau, J.P. et al. A modelling and participatory approach for enhancing learning about adaptation of grassland-based livestock systems to climate change. Reg Environ Change 12, 739–750 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10113-012-0288-3

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