Mark Brady
Policy officer
Exploring synergies – management of multifunctional agricultural landscapes
Author
Summary, in English
Abstract
Human ingenuity and activities have resulted in erosion of ecosystems and their capacity to support the sustainable production of goods and functions that we depend on. Biodiversity i.e. the diversity within and between species and of ecosystems, underpins many of the ecosystem functions critical for human well-being and resilience, and is declining faster than at any time in human history. Thus, the ongoing loss of biodiversity and its associated ecosystem functions is one of the most critical challenges we face today. The intensification of agriculture during the last century, including both in-field intensification and loss and fragmentation of habitats, has played a major role in the degradation of biodiversity and ecosystem services world-wide. The intensification of agriculture has resulted in increased production of private goods such as crops but at the expense of public goods like for example regulation of water and climate. In addition, the intensification of agriculture also erodes regulating ecosystem services such as pollination, which ultimately threatens the provision of sustainable crop production. In this thesis I have investigated how to integrate management of ecosystem services in arable farming, to promote multifunctional landscapes that are able to support sustainably both private and public goods. In a conceptual study, framing the thesis, I suggest that the whole ‘ecosystem service cascade’ needs to be taken into consideration when formulating agri-environmental policies and that by exploiting synergies between private and public goods, it is possible to let public goods hitchhike on private goods. I have investigated the possibilities of and constraints on integrating ecosystem services under current EU agri-environmental policies, how these policies affect farmer behaviour and the consequences of alternative policy formulations for ecosystem services such as pollination and natural pest control. I contribute to the currently weak evidence base on the ecological effect of agri-environmental measures, using the CAP ecological focus areas as a case study. Annual ecological focus areas sown with flower strips had weak effects on natural enemies but positively affected bumblebees up to several 100 m from the strips. Together the two studies showed the potential for networks of annual flower strips to provide complementary resources in intensively managed agricultural landscapes, where late-season resources are often scarce. By investigating the role of farmer attitudes and farm characteristics for decisions to take up a voluntary agri-environmental measure, we showed that uptake of buffer strips is connected to both attitudes and farm size. The results highlight the importance of ensuring positive attitudes among farmers as well as the need to facilitate environmentally friendly management. Using ecological-economic modelling we demonstrated that by restricting ecological focus areas to such with a high quality with optimal placement, they could have positive effects on functional biodiversity. The same study also showed how the current incentives made the ecological focus areas end up in landscapes were their benefits were lowest, and the structural changes that may occur as an effect of agri-environmental policies, for example when higher management costs caused more farms to close down, resulting in the average farm size increasing. The farmers participating in the workshop in this study, perceived the CAP ‘greening measures’ as complicated and without any environmental benefits. Through the studies in the thesis, I have shown the importance of combining experimental demonstrations of effects of measures across scales, with investigations on what affects the uptake of measures, and combining ecological and economic aspects to use analyses of policy-scenario to account for the complex consequences of policies.
Human ingenuity and activities have resulted in erosion of ecosystems and their capacity to support the sustainable production of goods and functions that we depend on. Biodiversity i.e. the diversity within and between species and of ecosystems, underpins many of the ecosystem functions critical for human well-being and resilience, and is declining faster than at any time in human history. Thus, the ongoing loss of biodiversity and its associated ecosystem functions is one of the most critical challenges we face today. The intensification of agriculture during the last century, including both in-field intensification and loss and fragmentation of habitats, has played a major role in the degradation of biodiversity and ecosystem services world-wide. The intensification of agriculture has resulted in increased production of private goods such as crops but at the expense of public goods like for example regulation of water and climate. In addition, the intensification of agriculture also erodes regulating ecosystem services such as pollination, which ultimately threatens the provision of sustainable crop production. In this thesis I have investigated how to integrate management of ecosystem services in arable farming, to promote multifunctional landscapes that are able to support sustainably both private and public goods. In a conceptual study, framing the thesis, I suggest that the whole ‘ecosystem service cascade’ needs to be taken into consideration when formulating agri-environmental policies and that by exploiting synergies between private and public goods, it is possible to let public goods hitchhike on private goods. I have investigated the possibilities of and constraints on integrating ecosystem services under current EU agri-environmental policies, how these policies affect farmer behaviour and the consequences of alternative policy formulations for ecosystem services such as pollination and natural pest control. I contribute to the currently weak evidence base on the ecological effect of agri-environmental measures, using the CAP ecological focus areas as a case study. Annual ecological focus areas sown with flower strips had weak effects on natural enemies but positively affected bumblebees up to several 100 m from the strips. Together the two studies showed the potential for networks of annual flower strips to provide complementary resources in intensively managed agricultural landscapes, where late-season resources are often scarce. By investigating the role of farmer attitudes and farm characteristics for decisions to take up a voluntary agri-environmental measure, we showed that uptake of buffer strips is connected to both attitudes and farm size. The results highlight the importance of ensuring positive attitudes among farmers as well as the need to facilitate environmentally friendly management. Using ecological-economic modelling we demonstrated that by restricting ecological focus areas to such with a high quality with optimal placement, they could have positive effects on functional biodiversity. The same study also showed how the current incentives made the ecological focus areas end up in landscapes were their benefits were lowest, and the structural changes that may occur as an effect of agri-environmental policies, for example when higher management costs caused more farms to close down, resulting in the average farm size increasing. The farmers participating in the workshop in this study, perceived the CAP ‘greening measures’ as complicated and without any environmental benefits. Through the studies in the thesis, I have shown the importance of combining experimental demonstrations of effects of measures across scales, with investigations on what affects the uptake of measures, and combining ecological and economic aspects to use analyses of policy-scenario to account for the complex consequences of policies.
Department/s
- Centre for Environmental and Climate Science (CEC)
- BECC: Biodiversity and Ecosystem services in a Changing Climate
Publishing year
2019-10-07
Language
English
Full text
Document type
Dissertation
Publisher
Centrum för miljö- och klimatforskning, Lunds universitet
Topic
- Environmental Sciences
Keywords
- multifunctionality
- ecosystem services
- functional biodiversity
- agri-environmental policy
- CAP
- agri-environmental measures
Status
Published
Supervisor
- Henrik G. Smith
- Katarina Hedlund
- Mark V. Brady
ISBN/ISSN/Other
- ISBN: 978-91-7895-309-7
- ISBN: 978-91-7895-308-0
Defence date
15 November 2019
Defence time
10:00
Defence place
The Blue Hall, Ecology building, Sölvegatan 37, Lund
Opponent
- Iryna Herzon (Dr.)