In multifunctional landscapes, expanding economic activities jeopardise the integrity of biodiverse ecosystems, generating conservation-development trade-offs that require multi-stakeholder dialogue and tools to negotiate conflicting objectives. Despite the rich literature on participatory mapping and other tools to reveal different stakeholder perspectives, there is limited evidence on the application of such tools in landscape-scale negotiations.

Changes in land use that are taking place in many parts of the world are having varying effects, depending on the case, on food security in diverse environments. This article analyzes how these changes manifest themselves in the De La Vega territory, an agrarian shire located in the center of the southern Spanish province of Granada. Over recent decades, this shire has been confronted with deep socioeconomic, demographic, and urban transformations that have led and are leading to significant changes in the role of agriculture, land use, and the position of farmers.

In this paper, we explore the complex entanglements between ongoing land conflicts and climate shocks, and their implications for risk governance paths and evolution. We focus on ways in which concepts of shock and conflict can be incorporated into social–ecological systems thinking and applied to risk governance practice in a southern cities context.