Description

In the early 2000s, the scientific department of the National Park of the Pyrenees initiated with an INRA research group and the agricultural and rural development agencies of a Pyrenean district (Département des Hautes Pyrénées) a research into the processes and consequences of spontaneous reforestation of valleys in its area. In relation with agricultural decline, ash ( Fraxinus excelsior) , a species attached to traditional agropastoral systems, is been colonising agricultural land since several decades. The aim is to assess the processes of reforestation and their consequences for rural development, and to provide methods for controlling its impacts on biodiversity and landscape amenities and designing development options for agricultural and forestry activities. Ash colonisation processes and their consequences on biodiversity were investigated between 2003 and 2005; spatio-temporal changes in agricultural land use and management strategies at the farm and landscape levels were studied concomitantly.

To assist local landscape stakeholders and rural development policy decision-makers in their search for sustainable development pathways, a companion modelling approach was started in July 2006 for developing an integrated simulation tool of the relationships between ecological and social systems. The participatory building of a multi-agent system simulation model is based on further elaboration of the common knowledge gained priorily.It currently includes:

1.  the co-construction of the conceptual model of the main stakeholders, resources, dynamics and interactions involved in land management and landscape reforestation (ARDI method);
2.  an investigation of the functions and representations of traditional barns far the from villages; change in their use (from agriculture to second home) having appeared during the co-construction process as a major source of change in agricultural land-use practice;
3.  a progressive development of the simulation tool, in a process where design and implementation periods amongst researchers alternate with periods of communication with their for assessing and further building progress in the construction the conceptual model.