Read more on my Swedish web site.

Read more on my Swedish web site.

A selection from Stockholm University publication database

• Motivation and perception of farmers on the benefits and challenges of agroforestry in Sweden (Northern Europe)

  2024. Christina Schaffer, Marine Elbakidze, Johanna Björklund. Agroforestry Systems 98 (4), 939-958

  Article

  Agroforestry systems provide multiple benefits for human wellbeing and biodiversity; however, their diversity and spatial distribution has sharply declined across Europe. This study focuses on agroforestry farms in Sweden. The aim of the study was to explore farmers' motivations to start agroforestry, what benefits farmers attributed to their agroforestry farms and perceived challenges to practising agroforestry in Sweden. In total, 13 farms that practise various agroforestry forms were selected as case studies. A focus group, semi-structured interviews and field observations were used for data collection. We identified four types of agroforestry systems such as silvopasture, silvoarable, forest farming and forest gardens established on different land such as forested or agricultural land. All studied agroforestry farms were small but had complex spatial and temporal arrangements of crops, trees and animals, which were crucial to generating multiple benefits. Our results show that the multifunctionality of agroforestry systems resulted from farmers' desire to design such systems. Farmers' intentions to get foods and materials from their farms were always intentionally unified with multiple ecosystem services. We argue that agroforestry farmers are designers of multifunctional landscapes, as they deliberately organised their farming activities to get a bundle of ecosystem services belonging to all four categories-provisioning, regulating, supporting and cultural. However, the complexity of agroforestry management, lack of technologies suitable for small-scale agroforestry farms, limited plant materials (including seedlings) and limited knowledge about how to do agroforestry challenged the scaling up of agroforestry practices.

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• Urban greenspace for social integration: Which types of greenspace do new-Swedes prefer and why?

  2024. Lucas Dawson (et al.). Urban Forestry & Urban Greening 95

  Article

  Urban greenspace (UGS) is a key public resource offering a broad range of nature-based solutions and is increasingly looked to as a potential arena to promote social integration in Europe’s increasingly multicultural urban and peri-urban areas. However, relatively little research has explored the preferences and perceptions of immigrants in relation to UGS, especially in European contexts. Without such knowledge, planners risk entrenching planning structures that inadvertently result in segregation and environmental injustice. Using survey and participatory mapping methods with 261 immigrants in eight sampled settlements across Sweden, this study explores which types of UGS foreign-born immigrants in Sweden (i.e., new-Swedes) prefer and why. We found that new-Swedes are frequent users of a wide spectrum of UGS types, with the most preferred types including forests, large parks and lakes. The majority of respondents were satisfied with the quality (73%), availability (68%) and accessibility (76%) of UGS in their hometowns. Our regression analysis identified 51 key factors that had a meaningful effect on preferences for different types of UGS. Key factors were distributed relatively evenly across blocks of predictor variables concerning characteristics of UGS, socio-demographic factors, activity preferences, and perceptions. Our results indicate that new-Swedes’ UGS preferences are broadly comparable with those of the general population in Sweden. We found little evidence to suggest that ethnocultural factors played a major role in the preferences of our respondents. Furthermore, our results suggest that nature-connectedness might be an important determinant of new-Swedes’ UGS preferences. Based on these findings, we highlight several opportunities to further develop UGS strategies to support different dimensions of social integration, e.g., using popular UGS as interactive spaces for cultural learning, as a platform for intercultural contacts and for maintaining cultural traditions, and to contribute towards a greater sense of social membership in their new country. A crucial implication of our study is that the use of UGS to support social integration may further contribute to the increasing complexity of the UGS planning and management challenge. This implies the need for a systems perspective in UGS research, policy-making, planning and management to consider UGS as part of an integrated urban social-ecological system and to coordinate measures across sectors.

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• Why don't we go outside? - Perceived constraints for users of urban greenspace in Sweden

  2023. Lucas Dawson (et al.). Urban Forestry & Urban Greening 82

  Article

  Urban greenspace (UGS) is important for human wellbeing, particularly physical and mental health, and is claimed to support social cohesion. However, the expansion and densification of urban centres in recent decades has occurred largely at the expense of UGS. This risks its attractiveness for users. Although recent research has identified various factors that influence the use of UGS in different contexts, few studies have taken an explicit, bottom-up approach to understand which factors constrain willingness to use it. This study analyses responses from an online survey in Sweden (N = 2806) to identify the main constraints to UGS usage, and for whom these are constraints. Respondents could select from 22 different types of constraints – relating to incivilities, management, accessibility and availability, safety, and personal issues. Respondents could also provide comments to identify additional constraints. Incivilities were the most perceived problem. For example, litter was selected by 53% of respondents, while vandalism was selected by 24%. At the same time, many respondents perceived few or no constraints – 59% stated that nothing prevented them from using UGS, while 35% stated that they saw no problems. Safety-related and accessibility/availability constraints were not strongly identified although many respondents commented that UGS in Sweden is inadequate given the large number of users, and that the UGS that people want to use the most is often inaccessible without a car. Multiple binary logistic regression was used to investigate relationships between perceptions of constraints and fourteen predictor variables. Odds ratios were used to determine whether significant (p < 0.05) relationships were meaningful. Our findings show that different groups have starkly divergent perceptions of constraints relating to UGS. Several key factors – including age, self-reported nature-connectedness, distance to UGS, and frequency of use – were associated with a heightened likelihood of perceiving different groups of constraints. However, relationships between constraints and factors relating to environmental justice were not straightforward. These findings indicate the complexity of UGS planning challenges relating to densification, the New Urban Agenda and promotion of societal benefits, and a need to further integrate multiple user perspectives, especially of younger adults and infrequent users.

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• Multiple factors shape the interaction of people with urban greenspace: Sweden as a case study

  2022. Marine Elbakidze (et al.). Urban Forestry & Urban Greening 74

  Article

  This study identifies and analyses multiple factors that impact people's interactions with urban greenspace in Sweden. An unrestricted, self-selected online survey was used to collect the data. The survey questions were related to individual characteristics of respondents, including socio-demographic characteristics, self-reported nature connectedness, and self-reported constraints to greenspace usage; perceived characteristics of urban greenspace, including its availability, quality, and accessibility, and benefits and problems; and preferences of respondents regarding types of urban greenspace and activities. Additionally, several spatially explicit variables were included in the analysis. A total of 2806 respondents from 208 (of 290) municipalities completed the survey. Our findings indicate that greenspace users are highly heterogeneous and utilise diverse green spaces along the urban-peri-urban gradient for various benefits. The statistical analyses identified 61 explanatory variables that affect the frequency of interactions with urban greenspace. In addition, we identify key factors that shape critical differences between frequent and infrequent urban users, such as nature connectedness, perceptions of urban greenspace functions, and their perceived accessibility. Our results highlight the complex challenge facing urban planners and managers of green spaces, who have to consider and integrate a vast array of factors influencing the willingness of increasingly diverse urban populations to interact with greenspace.

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• The Hogdalen urban farm: a real case assessment of sustainability attributes

  2020. Rebecka Milestad, Annika Carlsson-Kanyama, Christina Schaffer. Food Security 12, 1461-1475

  Article

  While urban indoor farming is a fairly new phenomenon, there is a growing interest from producers, authorities and consumers alike. However, many assumptions are made, and expectations held, about urban indoor farming from a sustainability, food production and food provisioning point of view. These assumptions and expectations need to be tested and assessed. This study assessed greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and a number of social aspects of a newly established indoor urban farm in Stockholm. The farm was the result of a project created by commercial, civil society and municipal actors with the aim to make use of unused urban space, create jobs and produce food. While lettuce grown on the indoor farm emitted more GHG than lettuce cultivated outdoors in Sweden, it was more climate friendly than imported lettuce in our comparison. Furthermore, the indoor farm created value for the actors involved and for the city district, albeit on a small scale. Many of the positive environmental and social features owed to the small scale of the indoor farm and the context in which it developed. Thus, when evaluating production systems like this one, we need to be cautious and refrain from extrapolating the results.

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• Can Agroforestry Grow beyond Its Niche and Contribute to a Transition towards Sustainable Agriculture in Sweden?

  2019. Christina Schaffer, Karin Eksvärd, Johanna Björklund. Sustainability 11 (13)

  Article

  Agroforestry is thought to be an approach that could support agriculture in the transition from a system with sustainability problems to one containing regenerative activities contributing to viable ecosystems and, therefore, sustainability solutions. A transdisciplinary and participatory action research (PAR) group that included farmers approached the development of temperate agroforestry systems in the modern agricultural setting of Sweden through practical experience on 12 farms for collective analysis. The objective was to research potential systems such as edible forest gardens, silvopasture and silvoarable systems to discuss their use and effects as well as scaling possibilities. Knowledge and experiences of challenges and solutions related to the development of agroforestry were identified at both niche and regime levels.

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• Exploring the potential of edible forest gardens: experiences from a participatory action research project in Sweden

  2019. Johanna Björklund, Karin Eksvärd, Christina Schaffer. Agroforestry Systems 93 (3), 1107-1118

  Article

  To meet the environmental challenges that are presently confronting society, the narrow focus on agricultural production needs to be altered to one that places equal value on the generation of crucial ecosystem services. Current research shows that perennial intercropping systems such as agroforestry may be a feasible alternative. Based on studies during the establishment of edible forest gardens in 12 participating farms in Sweden, this paper explores the potential of utilizing multi-strata designs for food production in temperate, high-income countries. Design and species composition of such gardens, types of food they provide, and how they would best fit into the present landscape are discussed. Factors for success and major problems related to the establishment are shared. Potential benefits were found to be closely related to a thorough analysis of the social and ecological contexts before establishment. Characteristics of the site and goals of the garden need to guide species and design choices. If forest garden approaches to food production should contribute to more than local self-sufficiency, the gardens need to increase in scale. Marginal lands and transitions areas between different land uses may be appropriate. Large knowledge gaps concerning potential production, social and economic benefits, and agronomic issues were identified.

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• Salutogenic Affordances and Sustainability: Multiple Benefits With Edible Forest Gardens in Urban Green Spaces

  2018. Jonathan Stoltz, Christina Schaffer. Frontiers in Psychology 9

  Article

  With increased urbanization, ecological challenges such as climate change and loss of biodiversity, and stress-related disorders globally posing a major threat to public health and wellbeing, the development of efficient multiple-use strategies for urban green spaces and infrastructures is of great importance. In addition to benefits such as climate and water regulation, food production, and biodiversity conservation, green spaces and features have been associated with various health and wellbeing outcomes from a psychological perspective. Research suggests links between exposure to green environmental qualities and restoration from psycho-physiological stress and attention fatigue, promotion of physical activity, increased neighborhood satisfaction and even reduced mortality. Especially strong associations have been observed in urban and socio-economically challenged areas. Usually such salutogenic, i.e., health-promoting, effects are explained through theories related to the notion of biophilia, i.e., the idea that humans share innate tendencies to attend to natural environments and features that have been beneficial during evolution. This paper assumes an ecological approach to perception and behavior to be fruitful in order to analyze the salutogenic potential of environments such as urban green spaces and to step beyond the green vs. gray dichotomy that has been prevalent through much of the research on health-promoting environments. Through an analysis of environmental affordances for certain perceived qualities such an approach is explored through a proposed concept for urban green space use and management, the edible forest garden. Such gardens, based on agroecological principles, have emerged as one of the most promising models regarding ecologically sustainable food production. In addition to potential contributions of importance for urban sustainability and biodiversity, we argue that the inclusion of edible forest gardens in urban green spaces - today globally dominated by lawns - also potentially could reinforce several affordances of salutogenic importance, both in terms of, e.g., social cohesion but also in regard to restoration from psycho-physiological stress and attention fatigue. Increased opportunities for contact with nature and processes of food production may also reinforce pro-environmental behaviors in the population and thus also affect long-term sustainability.

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• Assessing ecosystem services in perennial intercropping systems – participatory action research in Swedish modern agroforestry

  2014. Johanna Björklund, Karin Eksvärd, Christina Schaffer. Farming systems facing global challenges: Capacities and strategies, 1950-1959

  Conference

  The focus of this paper is on how to assess ecosystem services in complex agroforestry systems using a case of edible forest gardens. Benefits of doing these assessments in a participatory learning and action research (PLAR) context are elaborated, as well as difficulties and questions that this has raised. The PLAR group comprised farmers on 13 smallholdings, researchers and a facilitator, which through collaboration and participatory methods have developed a general design of a forest garden, 60 m2 in size and established it on all 13 participating farms. Important values of the work are that ecosystem services are related to specific local contexts and that methodology for multi-criteria assessments of the generation of ecosystem services on a farm scale are being developed. Farmers engaged in formulating research questions, development of field trial designs, sampling and analysis of results improves the relevance and quality of the research as well as advance the adoption of new knowledge.

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Show all publications by Christina Schaffer at Stockholm University