Is the ‘Protected Designation of Origin’ an indicator for sustainable landscape management? Insights from pasture-based animal husbandry in five EU countries

Figures & data

Figure 1. Map of Europe highlighting the locations of the six case study regions.

Map of Europe highlighting the locations of the six case study regions in Alentejo (Portugal), Extremadura (Spain), Lüneburg/Diepholz (Northern Germany), Allgaeu region (Southern Germany), Elassona (Greece mainland), Lemnos (Greek Island).

Figure 2. Typical views on extensively managed landscapes from our six case study regions. a) cattle in Ribatejo region, Portugal (photo by Conceição Caldeira); b) terraced fields mixed with oak trees in Extremadura, Spain; c) sheep in the heath meadows around Lüneburg, Germany (photo by Willow on Wikimedia Commons [CC-BY 2.5]); d) semi-mountainous pastures in the Lemnos region close to Mt. Olympus National Park, Greece (photo by Vasileios Deligiannis); e) nutrient-poor grasslands with goats on Lemnos island, Greece (photo by Danae Sfakianou); f) cattle in touristically used alpine pastures in the Allgäu region, Germany (photo by Marlene Haiberger on unsplash).

Table 1. Study regions, their geography, and the included PDO products in these regions.

Country & region		Geography and landscape characteristics	Product names	Product type
GER	Allgäu region (including counties from Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg)	– pre-alpine pastures in Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg – temperate conditions with high summer precipitation – pastures used for grazing/meadows for feed production – maintenance of open meadows through milk production	Allgäuer Emmentaler/ Allgäuer Bergkäse	cow cheese (hard)
	Lüneburg and Diepholz (each a regional county)	– flat heath and peatland pastures under Atlantic climate – shrub vegetation on partly drained peatlands – level of vegetation maintained by grazing sheep – little economic income from meat products	Lüneburger Heidschnucke	sheep meat
			Diepholzer Moorschnucke	sheep meat
GR	Elassona (municipality)	– mountainous plains in hot conditions – close to Olympus national parc – sheep and goats grazing mountainous shrubs – altitudes from 250–2,500 m.a.s.l.	Arnaki Elassonas	sheep meat
			Katsikaki Elassonas	goat meat
	Lemnos island (regional county)	– small island in the north of the Aegean Sea (Greece) – rocky and hilly shrublands in hot-dry conditions – sheep and goats utilizing herbs otherwise considered useless shrubs	Kalathaki Limnou	sheep cheese (soft)
			Melihloro Limnou	goat cheese (semi-hard)
PT	Alentejo region (incl. five intermunicipal communities)	– hilly cork oak woodlands in central Portugal – climatic region of Mediterranean-Atlantic influence with extremely hot and dry summers – iconic cork oak forests mixed with shrub vegetation – most remote and least inhabited region of Portugal	Carne Alentejana	beef
			Presunto do Alentejo	ham
			Queijo de Évora	sheep cheese (hard)
ES	Extremadura (autonomous community including Badajoz and Cáceres provinces)	– hilly to semi-mountainous area in western Spain – partly arid conditions under Mediterranean climate – iconic cork oak forest mixed with shrub vegetation – bird protection areas	Torta del Casar	sheep cheese (soft)
			Queso Ibores	goat cheese (hard)
			Dehesa de Extremadura	ham

Table 2. Codes used for structuring the interview material with a detailed description of each code.

Code	Code description
Social-ecological aspects
1) Animal welfare	Remarks on animal welfare practices related to traditional methods and consumer demands
2) Culture	Local identity, traditions, and regionality regarding production, diets, customs, etc.
3) Diversification	Economic diversification on farm level and regional level, including tourism and gastronomic tourism
4) Environment	Environmental issues, ecological sustainability, biodiversity, climate change aspects, and resourcefulness.
5) Governance	Policies related to labeling or agriculture in general, incl. subsidies/incentives, and administration of label
6) Income	Individual and regional income; economic viability of the business models, including remarks on value chains
7) Landscape	Landscape maintenance and practices that link animals with the landscape and its aesthetics
8) Legacy	Generational renewal and quality of rural life connected to maintaining the legacy of the product
9) Quality	Remarks covering taste, healthiness, nutrients, purity, etc. of the product
Associations	Professional relations and personal associations with products, regarding the social-ecological context
PDO-plus	Sentiment towards theoretical PDO+ label, combining regionality and sustainability through specific criteria

Table 3. Result from the ‘code-relations-browser’ from MAXQDA showing the number of overlapping and nearby coded text segments among the nine codes used for the PTA. All codes that have equal to or more than half of the maximum overlaps (38) are emphasized by bold-italic numbers. In the lower half, the six identified phenomena are listed with the number of overlaps given in brackets.

	1)	2)	3)	4)	5)	6)	7)	8)	9)
1) Animal welfare		3	1	6	1	5	3	0	5
2) Culture			10	16	12	20	18	8	17
3) Diversification				18	7	14	23	4	5
4) Environment					19	16	38	26	10
5) Governance						28	15	23	12
6) Income	maximum overlaps = 38						19	18	11
7) Landscape	relevant overlaps ≥ 38/2 ≥ 19							18	14
8) Legacy									5
9) Quality
	Phenomenon 1 – Landscape-Environment (38)
	Phenomenon 2 – Landscape-Income (19)
	Phenomenon 3 – Landscape-Diversification (23)
	Phenomenon 4 – Environment-Governance-Legacy (26; 23; 19)
	Phenomenon 5 – Income-Governance (28)
	Phenomenon 6 – Income-Culture (20)

Data availability statement

The interview guideline is available as supplementary material (Annex 1). The original interview responses cannot be made public due to privacy reasons. Instead, summarized interview results, aggregated for each study region, are presented in Annex 2. The coding frequencies needed for the phenomenon-centered text analysis – distinguished by stakeholder types and regions – can be found in Annex 3. Interview responses that illustrate the topic are collected in an anonymous format in Annex 4, also containing the quotes displayed under results.