Exploring the social coherence of rural landscapes featuring agroforestry intercropping systems using locals’ visual assessments and perceptions

Abstract

Agroforestry intercropping systems (AIS), in which crops grow between widely spaced tree rows, can address several land-use challenges in regions of agricultural intensification and decline. Since their contribution to landscape sustainability depends on their coherence with the sociocultural dimension of landscapes, understanding the potential impacts of AIS on rural residents becomes necessary to inform planning processes and optimize their designs. We scrutinized the appreciation of landscapes featuring AIS for rural residents of two contrasted agricultural regions of Quebec (Canada), evaluated the influence of some individual characteristics and AIS design features on these appreciations, and elicited the reasons justifying landscape appreciations. Data was collected using an online questionnaire. We compared landscape scenarios featuring AIS designs to landscapes featuring common land-uses using a 10-point Likert scale. Open-ended questions elicited the reasons underlying respondents’ landscape appreciation and closed questions captured their sociodemographic profile and their attitude toward the environment. A total of 161 rural residents filled the questionnaire. The multivariate analysis showed no significant effect of any of the sociodemographic characteristics tested. The statistical analyses revealed that AIS are similarly appreciated to rural landscapes featuring forests, fallows, or cultivated fields. AIS appreciation varied with diversity and row spacing, but in intertwined, regionally contrasted ways. The qualitative analyses showed that the linear arrangement of trees, associated with artificiality, was unappreciated by respondents. Our results highlight that AIS may be socially coherent in diversified rural landscapes. Design recommendations should maximize diversity while attenuating the row effect.