نبذة مختصرة : International audience ; Agricultural abandonment followed by vegetation succession is a major land-use and land-cover (LULC) change in Europe. Such dynamic has critical consequences on biodiversity and ecosystem services (ES) and disservices (EDS). Understanding the perceptions of succession and its effects by local stakeholders is crucial for sound landscape planning. This study addressed these issues, focusing on a territory in the Massif Central region of France where multiple LULC changes have occurred in the last decades, including abandonment. We aim at identifying stakeholders’ perceptions and their drivers regarding old fields as well as the subsequent post-cultural vegetation stages from partial open shrublands to forests. We conducted 29 semi-structured interviews centered on LULC changes with three groups of stakeholders: local decision-makers, land managers, farmers. The terminology used to refer to old fields and the ES and EDS associated with them were recorded along with a thematic analysis. Results revealed the wide range of words and expressions used to refer to old fields, together with inconsistencies between terminology and vegetation stages. ES and EDS associated to old fields varied between stakeholder groups, but were essentially regulating and cultural services. The thematic analysis demonstrated that old fields are considered as a degradation compared to traditional agriculture and a loss of human control on vegetation. Old fields are also perceived as natural ecosystems which persist in front of other LULC changes like artificialization and land use intensification. Those findings show that abandonment should be considered in relation to other LULC changes for land planning decisions? and to the plurality of perceptions of old fields.
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