“Listen to us”: small-scale farmers’ understandings of social-ecological changes and their drivers in Important Agricultural Heritage Systems

Current social-ecological changes affect territories and people’s livelihoods worldwide. Many of these changes have detrimental effects on small-scale agricultural systems, with concomitant negative consequences on global and local food security and sovereignty. The objectives of this study were to explore (i) local knowledge on social-ecological changes and (ii) the perceived drivers of those changes occurring in a mountainscape and an islandscape in two Important Agricultural Heritage Systems of southern South America, both located within a Global Biodiversity Hotspot. This was done by conducting in-depth semi-structured interviews with local campesinos, whose livelihoods are based on the use and management of agrosilvopastoral systems. We found that local communities experience a wide range of globally and locally induced social-ecological changes acting in their territories. Campesinos mentioned 79 different observations of social-ecological changes and identified drivers for 77% of them. Changes in the atmospheric system, specifically regarding changes in precipitation, drought, and temperatures, were commonly observed by campesinos in both sites. Participants also observed complex interrelations between these changes and the drivers influencing them, climatic drivers being the most important. Even though general changes in climatic patterns were identified as drivers of changes by campesinos, other situated changes derived from the site’s biophysical, social, and economic conditions were also important. Our results highlight the importance of considering local knowledge to understand social-ecological changes and to support the development and implementation of public policies that promote contextualized adaptation measures to global changes that affect local livelihoods.