From Action Research to Action Learning – Ecosystem services assessment as a learning platform for students, local land users and researchers

The Spring School in Landscape and Territory Agronomy has been organized by an international team of teachers since 2007. The target of landscape agronomy is to address the spatially explicit interactions between farming practices and natural resources at territorial level. It requires an action research approach that we have conducted on different topics all applied to the same region in Pisa (Italy).The case-study based Spring School is a good platform for action learning. So far, we focused on environmental and water management (2007, 2009), peri-urban agriculture (2013) and the ecosystem services provided by agricultural and semi-natural habitat management (2015). These case studies enabled to elicit the relationship between stakes that are often treated separately. The course was designed for PhD students of various disciplinary backgrounds but all interested in action research related to agricultural land management. In this learning platform, local stakeholders are involved through round table discussions, interviews and the territory game, a participatory territorial foresight. Students can experience the effectiveness of action research by interacting with local stakeholders and they become aware of the complexity of information gathering and analysis in a real situation. Through the interactions with the students, local stakeholders have the opportunity to widen their view on stakes they are concerned with in their every-day life. Compared to pure action research, our learning platform creates a collaborative environment facilitating interactions between stakeholders and therefore it creates a learning device for them as well. In this specific case, the action research methods proposed to the students and used in their interactions with the stakeholders allowed the group to prepare spatially explicit maps indicating where various ecosystem services are produced and where their benefits are delivered according to the stakeholders. These maps were eyeopeners for the stakeholders but also for the researchers involved, because it allowed them to bridge the gap towards transdisciplinary approaches to address land management in an agricultural context. Moreover, it highlighted that the main challenge regards land use management and its coordination at territorial level, regardless of the specific ecosystem services stakeholders expect to receive or think they deliver through their activities. In particular, the participatory territorial foresight resulted in innovative land management proposals capable to overcome more traditional and sectorial perspectives.