Environmental justice analysis to advance rural landscape transformations in the face of climate change

Lead Research Organisation: University of East Anglia
Department Name: International Development

Abstract

Climate change is forcing European countries to implement transformative changes to multiple sectors. Whilst energy and industrial production systems have dominated these agendas, there are also growing calls for transformations in rural areas, including potentially profound repurposing of rural landscapes. Academic research has mainly focused on the biophysical potential for such repurposing, including actions such as afforestation and livestock removal, to mitigate and adapt to climate change. We now need to complement this technical assessment with research into the societal dimensions of rural transformations: to identify potential social inequalities, to understand how we can support ownership and legitimacy of rural transformation agendas and to explore ways of overcoming societal indifference and resistance.
The Just-Scapes project will explore the meaning and practice of "just transformation" in the face of climate change. We define this as wide-scale and deep-rooted social-ecological change that combines environmental goals (including decarbonisation and protection of biodiversity) with social justice goals. Justice goals relate not only to the distribution of the effects of climate change but also to the effects of climate policy responses. This attention to social justice involves challenging inequalities across categories such as race, gender, wealth, belief system and generations, and adhering to the UN's 2030 Agenda to 'leave no one behind'. The idea of 'just transformation' views social justice as a goal in its own right, but also as instrumental to overcoming 'justice barriers' to the visioning and implementation of transformational change. Such barriers are increasingly evident across Europe, with some climate policies viewed as socially regressive, disproportionately impacting on low income and rural households (for example the Gilets Jaunes movement in France).
The Just-Scapes project uses interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary methods, combining novel humanities and social-science approaches and environmental expertise from geography, psychology, political science, futures studies and creative writing. This enables us to a) explore how European rural citizens perceive the justices and injustices arising from potential climate-induced land-use transformations and b) conceptualise and advance justice-oriented transformations to sustainability in practice. Through three case studies, in the Czech Republic, France and the UK, we aim to find out how different stakeholders conceive of climate justice, how these plural conceptions are contested within particular places, what normative concerns act as barriers to shared vision, and what shared norms provide opportunities for collective action. Specifically, we focus on transformations away from deer-dominated moorland landscapes in Scotland, landscapes dominated by fragile commercial conifer monocultures in the Czech Republic and landscapes of grasslands for extensive livestock farming in France. Just-Scapes proposes to empirically investigate the plurality of justice beliefs across these landscapes, to use this knowledge to inform deliberation of shared norms and visions, and to co-produce landscape level manifestos for 'just transformations' towards low carbon, resilient and socially progressive rural landscapes.
The deliberative process will be embedded in transdisciplinary and multi-stakeholder 'Just Transformation Labs' that are linked into 'real' ongoing policy consultations within the landscape and wider regions. Findings from the project will benefit these case study locations but will also provide understanding and methodologies for wider application for proposed rural land-use climate actions. The team will use its links to academic networks and science-policy platforms to also promote scientific and societal impacts at national and international levels.

Publications

10 25 50
 
Title Creative writing workshop texts 
Description The 12 participants in our Scottish creative writing workshop produced texts related to landscape and identity. The texts have been translated into Czech and French and will be published in.a booklet, along with texts written by participants in the Czech and French case studies, as part of the Just Scapes project outputs, 
Type Of Art Creative Writing 
Year Produced 2022 
Impact The texts will be shared among participants across the cases, who have expressed an interest in having a brochure of their texts / seeing the texts from other countries. The brochure will also be used to communicate the Just Scape projects findings locally, and to demonstrate the potential of creative writing as a tool for Environmental Justice research. 
 
Title Demain, la vallee 
Description Film following the co-production of a landscape vision for just transformations in the Arac valley, France 
Type Of Art Film/Video/Animation 
Year Produced 2024 
Impact There have been several showings already 
 
Title Letter to the Land 
Description Trilingual portfolio of creative writing about case landscapes in Scotland, Czech Republic and France 
Type Of Art Creative Writing 
Year Produced 2024 
Impact This is only just released but has gained some initial attention as a new and significant use of creative writing within climate change research 
 
Description 1. Review of rural environmental justice literature with particular focus on Europe. Review led by David Brown, UK PDRA. Findings are framing the first academic paper from the project, currently being finalised for submission.

2. Semi-structured interviews in each of the three case study sites. Main findings - mapping of main justice issues among local communities in relation to actions to respond to climate change and biodiversity loss. This data is being combined with literature review findings for the first project paper. This work package was led by Cecile Barnaud, with all country teams contributing to interviews and data analysis.

3. Collaboration with Edinburgh University (Janet Fisher lead, with Adrian Martin and David Brown) undertaking Q method survey in Scotland case study location. Main finding: three distinct stakeholder groups and discourses.

4. Creative writing workshop held in each of the three country case study locations. Texts have been collated and translated, and are currently being formatted for dissemination. Analysis of texts is currently being planned for the next few months. Work Package led by Jean McNeil, with national facilitators employed in Czech Republic and France, with support from national teams.

5. Transformation labs workshops - first round completed in all three countries employing forms of participatory systems mapping to providing analysis of the main problems faced in the case locations and the underlying causes of these. Second round, focusing on future vision and developing pathways towards this., is currently underway. This second round will also produce draft 'manifestos' that will be developed/ finalised through further consultations. Work package led by Zuzana Harmackova with all country teams developing workshop methods and facilitating workshops.

6. Survey. This aspect has been delayed for scientific reasons, ensuring that the survey instrument is robust. It has now been through pilot testing and revision, the survey has been conducted in the Czech Republic and contracts with third-party survey contractors are being negotiated in France and the UK. The methodology is being submitted to a journal, preparing the pathway to publication. Work Package led by Jan Urban, with support from all country teams.

7. Policy analysis. This is an additional work package that has been led by Brendan Coolsaet, in response to an emerging need of the project to understand better the connections between our local field findings and national policymaking. Mathilde Gingembre (Lille PDRA) has been employed to develop this work and has undertaken a policy mapping exercise which is now being followed up with high level interviews. Interviews began in Scotland on November 14th 2022. These are aimed to help us understand the policy process but also to identify routes into engaging with policymakers.
Exploitation Route We anticipate the findings from Just Scapes being useful in both academic and non-academic contexts (for the latter, so potential impacts detailed in the 'Narrative Impact' question). Within academia, we believe that our findings can contribute to conceptualisations of 'rural environmental justice' in general, and environmental justice issues in Europe. Our initial survey data also suggests interesting outcomes relating to justice beliefs that should be applicable beyond the scope of the Just Scapes project. We also believe that the use of creative writing within this research context is fairly unusual, and could offer a potential methodological contribution to future interdisciplinary landscape and environmental justice-focussed research.
Sectors Agriculture

Food and Drink

Government

Democracy and Justice

 
Description Local: In all cases, we have begun very important conversations across multiple stakeholders and these have been distilled into manifestos in the coming months. These are effectively tools for engagement - within the landscape and beyond the landscape, ensuring that co-produced project findings gain traction with project and policy debates. We have seen some initial signs of uptake in the Czech Republic where some of our preliminary findings were used by one of the mayors in the decision-making process over land leases and complex land consolidation in favour of small farmers (previously, it was large players who were in favour). National/regional: In each country we are starting to target particular policy networks for making an impact, linked to the ongoing policy work package. For example in Scotland we are targeting: the Scottish Government Biodiversity Programme Advisory Board; the national 'Finding the Common Ground on Sustainable Upland Deer Management' process; Scottish Land Commission working groups; and other nascent forums on natural capital and community interests. During 2023 Adrian Martin was interviewed by the UK parliamentary briefing on just transition, bringing findings from the Scottish case into focus. In the Czech Republic we have contracted a think tank specialising in disseminating scientific knowledge in products aimed at policymakers, with targets including the design of farm subsidies. We also work closely with our Czech NGO project partners Nadace Partnerství to reach the highest governmental level at the Czech Ministry of Agriculture to present our findings to the national level policymakers.In France, we are targeting climate policy relating to upland farming. We are planning on organizing meetings to communicate the results of this research project in different regional instances : for example, the conseil départemental (regional council), the chambre d'agriculture (chambre of agriculture), the Fédération pastorale. Global: We've drawn on our links to existing science-policy platforms and initiatives. E.g. the Values Assessment of the Intergovernmental Panel on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) (Harmackova and Martin) has placed ideas of 'just transformations' centre stage. Harmackova is now starting work on the IPBES Nexus Assessment so there is further opportunity to feed in findings. Other potential routes to global impact include an approach by Conservation International to develop a curriculum on environmental justice for global conservation funders. The focus on funders increasingly looks crucial as the amount of funding for restoration activities escalates in Europe. Adrian Martin was commissioned by Conservation International during 2023 to undertake work for the Climate and Land Use Alliance of funding bodies, developing our findings on just landscape restoration to develop a training curriculum on 'Landing Justice'. This is now completed and follow-on work is being planned.
First Year Of Impact 2023
Sector Agriculture, Food and Drink,Environment
Impact Types Societal

Policy & public services

 
Description Landing Justice
Amount $40,000 (USD)
Organisation Conservation International 
Sector Charity/Non Profit
Country United States
Start 03/2023 
End 12/2023
 
Description NAVIGATE: Understanding NAture's multiple Values for InteGrATion into dEcisions
Amount £812,752 (GBP)
Funding ID NE/X002276/1 
Organisation Natural Environment Research Council 
Sector Public
Country United Kingdom
Start 07/2022 
End 08/2025
 
Description Parc naturel Pyrénées Ariégeoises 
Organisation Pyrénées National Park
Country France 
Sector Public 
PI Contribution The INRAE-based case-study team in France are running their fieldwork (workshops, semi-structured interviews, creative writing sessions) in collaboration with the Park, in a region that falls within the Park's remit.
Collaborator Contribution Our partnership with the Parc Naturel Regional Pyrénées Ariegeoises has been key at the initial stages of the project to select a case study, adapt our research questions to local preocupations and debates, and envision our pathways to societal impact.
Impact Engagement activities - transformation labs, creative writing workshops and interviews. Ongoing process of co-designing manifestos with local stakeholders to be used with policymakers at regional and national level.
Start Year 2021
 
Description Trees for Life 
Organisation Trees for Life
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Charity/Non Profit 
PI Contribution Trees for Life is an NGO that has initiated a landscape level rewilding initiative in our case study location in Scotland. We are working with TFL closely as part of a co-production approach
Collaborator Contribution Sharing learning and contacts. helping with organising research activities. Commenting on research questions and methods
Impact none yet
Start Year 2021
 
Description University of Edinburgh 
Organisation University of Edinburgh
Department School of Geosciences Edinburgh
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution Collaboration for data collection in preliminary stages of research
Collaborator Contribution Collaboration for data collection in preliminary stages of research
Impact There is now a PhD student linked to the process for Common Ground on Sustainable Upland Deer Management.
Start Year 2021
 
Description Creative UEA flagship project 
Form Of Engagement Activity Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Policymakers/politicians
Results and Impact Around the same time as our project launch, we became one of ClimateUEA's flagship projects. This gives us access to their several-thousand strong Twitter and newsletter audiences, which are particularly focussed on intersections between academia and policy.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2021,2022,2023
URL https://www.uea.ac.uk/climate/just-scapes
 
Description Creative writing workshop 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Regional
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact We ran a one-day creative writing workshop at a venue in the Scottish Highlands, led by Just-Scapes team member Jean McNeil. The workshop aimed to a) teach some principles of creative/nature writing and b) elicit subjective experiences of landscape, change and justice from the participants through writing. It ran in June 2022, and was attending by 12 local stakeholders from a variety of backgrounds.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
 
Description Deer Management Peace Process 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Regional
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Scottish Environment LINK together with the Association of Deer Management Groups are establishing a process for resolving conflict over deer management in the Highlands, We have been asked to support evaluation of this process, as part of our involvement in the landscape through this project
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
 
Description Just Scapes Twitter account 
Form Of Engagement Activity Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact In April 2021, we launched our Twitter feed (@JustScapes). Our audience is international (particularly strong in the UK, France, Czech Republic and wider Europe), and mainly composed of individual academics; research projects/institutions; and NGOs/civil society organisations working in the areas of Climate/Environmental Justice, with a portion specialising in arts-climate initiatives.

- Our Twitter-active team members also tweet regularly about Just Scapes on their personal twitter accounts - @bcoolsaet, @ZuzanaHar, @sakaitany5, @browndee17, @FlorianeClement, and @jeanmcneilwrite.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2021,2022,2023
URL https://twitter.com/JustScapes
 
Description Just Scapes website 
Form Of Engagement Activity Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact In October 2021 we launched our project website: www.just-scapes.com. The site is intended to showcase not just our research aims and, eventually, our findings, but also to showcase our process - as an interdisciplinary project, part of our contribution lies in the methodology we're testing and thinking about.

In September 2022 we launched the French-language version of the Just Scapes website. We've translated almost all of the English-language content and included additional research findings from the French case study in the Arac valley: https://just-scapes.uea.ac.uk/justice-et-paysages.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2021,2022,2023
URL https://just-scapes.uea.ac.uk/
 
Description Project Change - youth climate justice workshops 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Schools
Results and Impact Coinciding with UNFCCC climate change COP, Project Change organised workshops offered to schools UK-wide exploring particular aspects of climate change. We developing a Climate Justice workshop using preliminary findings from the Scotland case study site
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2021
URL https://projectchange.uea.ac.uk/workshop/justice-and-climate-change
 
Description SustainableCZ blog 
Form Of Engagement Activity Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact Since the start of the project, our Czech team have been blogging about Just Scapes on the SustainableCZ website (sample blog here: https://sustainablecz.org/2021/05/03/launching-the-just-scapes-project/). The posts are available in both Czech and English.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2021,2022,2023
URL https://sustainablecz.org/blog/
 
Description Transformation labs - first round 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Regional
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact Our first T-lab workshops (Transformation Labs) presented our initial interview findings to invited local stakeholders and to elicit their views on main problems/justice issues relating to the local landscape. We ran two workshops in Scotland in May and June 2022, with a total of 20 attendees.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
 
Description Transformations lab - 2nd round 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Regional
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact Our second T-lab workshop was oriented around co-designing pathways for Just Transitions in the local landscape and writing manifestos to be used to communicate with relevant policymakers. The half-day workshop was held in November 2022, and was attended by 9 local stakeholders representing a cross-section of views and occupations.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022