Assessing the environmental sustainability of Portuguese agriculture

IF 4.7 2区环境科学与生态学 Q2 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES

Environmental Development Pub Date : 2025-03-28 DOI:10.1016/j.envdev.2025.101209

Elisa Biagetti , Miguel Viegas , Angelo Martella , Silvio Franco , Sara Moreno Pires

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Agricultural activity is simultaneously a supplier and consumer of biocapacity. In this sense, the methodology based on the Ecological Footprint and biocapacity is particularly useful for evaluating the environmental sustainability of agricultural practices.

This article aims to assess the environmental sustainability of Portuguese national and municipal agriculture systems (cropland and livestock) by a synthetic indicator (Ecological Balance) applied to the 278 municipalities of mainland Portugal, based on the Ecological Footprint approach. After identifying regional clusters through a spatial data analysis, the article uses a spatial econometrics model to evaluate the relationship between the environmental sustainability of agricultural practices and the distribution of the European Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) support in Portugal.

The Ecological Balance of Portuguese agriculture is globally negative. However, it is based on great regional heterogeneity. Profitability negatively affects the environmental performance of agriculture. As a worrying element, the results point to a negative relationship between the support of the CAP and the agricultural Ecological Balance of each municipality. Results support the need for recalibration of CAP financing mechanisms, with greater emphasis on ecological performance and sustainability.

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来源期刊

Environmental Development Social Sciences-Geography, Planning and Development

CiteScore

8.40

自引率

1.90%

发文量

审稿时长

74 days

期刊介绍： Environmental Development provides a future oriented, pro-active, authoritative source of information and learning for researchers, postgraduate students, policymakers, and managers, and bridges the gap between fundamental research and the application in management and policy practices. It stimulates the exchange and coupling of traditional scientific knowledge on the environment, with the experiential knowledge among decision makers and other stakeholders and also connects natural sciences and social and behavioral sciences. Environmental Development includes and promotes scientific work from the non-western world, and also strengthens the collaboration between the developed and developing world. Further it links environmental research to broader issues of economic and social-cultural developments, and is intended to shorten the delays between research and publication, while ensuring thorough peer review. Environmental Development also creates a forum for transnational communication, discussion and global action. Environmental Development is open to a broad range of disciplines and authors. The journal welcomes, in particular, contributions from a younger generation of researchers, and papers expanding the frontiers of environmental sciences, pointing at new directions and innovative answers. All submissions to Environmental Development are reviewed using the general criteria of quality, originality, precision, importance of topic and insights, clarity of exposition, which are in keeping with the journal''s aims and scope.