In the Alps, summer farms are temporary units, where cattle are moved during summer to graze on Alpine pastures, which provide multiple ecosystem services (ESs), many of which do not have a market value. This study aimed at understanding and comparing the perceptions of summer farms and of the associated ESs by local stakeholders and tourists in a study area of the province of Trento in the eastern Italian Alps. Thirty-five online questionnaires and two focus groups were realized with local stakeholders involved in the dairy value-chain. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 405 tourists in two representative summer farms. The perceptions of summer farms differed between local stakeholders, who mainly focused on provisioning ESs, and tourists, who mainly focused on cultural and regulating ESs. Both categories of actors rated positively eight different ESs associated with summer farms, but demonstrated a lack of knowledge of specific regulating ESs. This study showed that discussion among the different actors is required to increase mutual knowledge and to grasp the diversity of links between summer farms and ESs, in order to support public policies and private initiatives for promoting summer farm products and the sustainable development of mountain regions.

The study is aimed at linking social representations of identity and feeling of belonging to territory of farmers, to their degree of involvement in collective action within localized agrifood systems (LAS). The study was conducted with producers’ families producing Serrano cheese, in the mountains of the Campos de Cima da Serra, in southern Brazil. Collective action for the valorization of the Serrano cheese relied on the producers’ associations, which are the only form of collective organization. Fifty-four families were selected according to their level of involvement in collective action. First, we used a quantitative approach called the free word association, analyzed by Factorial Correspondence Analysis. Second, we asked closed questions to the producers to assess their feeling of belonging. We showed that the content of the social representation reflected the participation of producers in collective action. Producers who put forward the typicality of the cheese, the territory and their identity, were the most engaged in the associations. On the other hand, producers not involved in associations put forward the difficulties of their activity. In this sense, it appears valuable to encourage discussion between the different producers according to their level of involvement to build common representations that favor collective action for the defense and valorization of the Serrano cheese. Nonetheless, most producers tended to show a high feeling of belonging which could form the basis for discussion. However, collective action in the LAS follows a top-down model led by extension services, in which the producers need to be integrated in a more participatory governance to lead more efficient projects.

Territorialization aims at improving the effectiveness of public action by adapting to local contexts and including a wide diversity of actors. In the 2000s, the French local authorities, with the support of the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD), launched more transversal and bottom-up policies on the development of mountain pastoral territories in order to counter national and European sectoral and top-down policies. This article focuses on the Territorial Pastoral Plans (TPPs), a policy of the Rhône-Alpes region, which funds projects defined collaboratively between multiple actors in pastoral territories. The objective is to shed the light on the implementation modalities of the TPPs, and to understand the strengths and weaknesses of this policy in terms of governance to respond to the sustainability challenges of the Rhône-Alpine pastoral territories. A document analysis was achieved and interviews were conducted with nine key actors from four pastoral territories. Results showed that awareness-raising and mediation projects are becoming increasingly important because of the growing conflicts linked to the multi-purpose use of these lands and to wolf predation. Moreover, the integration of environmental actors allows better consideration of ecology in projects. However, the current budgetary restrictions limit their capacity of action within the policy.