Analysing the impact of climate and social changes on small farms in the Italian Alps: The importance of the local scale

Abstract

Abstract This article discusses how climate changes are intersecting with other environmental and social pressures to affect farmers in the Lombardy region of the central Italian Alps. Alpine areas are particularly susceptible to climate change. Natural sciences studies have documented widespread changes to weather, landscapes, and ecosystems in the Alps caused by climate and social changes, yet studies of the impact of the changes on Alpine farmers and farming practices are limited. Through semi‐structured interviews and participant observation with 40 farmers, the study demonstrates that farmers have noticed changes to the weather, ecosystems, and landscapes caused by climate and social changes. The changes are both directly affecting farming practices and intersecting with other pressures facing mountain farmers. The impact of climate change on Alpine farms varies—across even short distances—depending on the microenvironment and microclimate of the farm, the farm's degree of market integration, the personal characteristics of individual farmers, the type of agricultural activities practised, and the unique social history of the valleys under study. The article provides a window into small‐scale farming in the Alps today. As farmers respond to climate changes, they do so in a context where they are also facing myriad other challenges, some more pressing than climate change. Climate policies and programs should recognise these simultaneous challenges and be flexible to local differences in the impact of and farmer responses to change.