Exploring public preferences for traditional farming landscapes: Fid-Bau Portal

Exploring public preferences for traditional farming landscapes

Howley, Peter / Donoghue, Cathal O. / Hynes, Stephen

Highlights ► This paper examined visual preferences towards farming landscapes. ► Individuals rated agricultural landscapes in terms of beauty quite highly. ► Given a choice individuals prefer traditional over more intensive farming landscapes. ► Age, gender and place of residence significantly affect visual preferences. ► Environmental values were found to have a significant effect on visual preferences.

Abstract Given that an increasing share of budgetary resources are now being spent on measures aimed at protecting the visual quality of agricultural landscapes it will be important to better understand individuals’ landscape preferences and the factors that influence those preferences. Within this context, using a nationally representive survey of Irish residents, the central aim of this study was to gain more insight into people's preferences regarding traditional farming landscapes. Individuals rated agricultural landscapes in terms of beauty quite highly but given a choice prefer traditional more extensive farming landscapes over more modern intensive farming landscapes. Moreover, the results suggest that there are systematic differences in preferences for traditional farm landscapes between different demographic groupings and also depending on individuals’ environmental value orientations. Accordingly, in studying preferences for agricultural landscapes in particular areas it will be necessary to consider the social and demographic characteristics of the population as well as the physical aspects of the landscape.