Managing Biodiversity in Agricultural Landscapes

A special issue of Diversity (ISSN 1424-2818).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 April 2015) | Viewed by 14333

Special Issue Editor


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Guest Editor
1. CIRAD, Research Unit Goods and Services of Tropical Forest Ecosystems, Avenue Agropolis, 34398 Montpellier CEDEX 5, France
2. Department of Environmental Systems Science, ETH Zurich, Universitaetstrasse 16, 8092 Zurich, Switzerland
Interests: tropical landscapes; forestry; agroforestry; biodiversity; social and ecological systems; companion modelling; transdisciplinarity; scenarios; participatory action research

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Biodiversity loss is one of the planetary boundaries that system Earth has crossed. Over the last 40 years, there is evidence that vertebrate populations have declined by half. Only in protected areas is the trend showing signs of abating. However, with roughly as much land covered by protected areas (about 12.7% of the earth land mass) as devoted to crop production (about 12%, including arable land plus permanent crops), extending the protected areas network much further appears challenging. If we are to prevent further loss of species and ecosystems, we must thus find ways to maintain and manage biodiversity in agricultural landscapes. This Special Issue of Diversity is devoted to presenting interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary case studies and reports: (i) describing biodiversity patterns in agricultural landscapes in tropical and temperate systems; (ii) understanding trends in biodiversity changes, their drivers and impacts; and (iii) exploring challenges, alternatives and solutions to balance production and conservation. We particularly invite essays that critically reflect upon the link between biodiversity and the well-being of people, the role of markets, the potential of agroforestry and the practicality of sustainable intensification scenarios.

Dr. Claude A. Garcia
Guest Editor

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Keywords

  • biodiversity conservation
  • landscape approaches
  • agricultural production
  • rural livelihoods
  • trade-offs
  • agroforestry
  • sustainable intensification
  • ecosystem management

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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Article
The Nature of the Nuisance—Damage or Threat—Determines How Perceived Monetary Costs and Cultural Benefits Influence Farmer Tolerance of Wildlife
by Kate Goodale, Glen J. Parsons and Kate Sherren
Diversity 2015, 7(3), 318-341; https://doi.org/10.3390/d7030318 - 25 Aug 2015
Cited by 21 | Viewed by 7920
Abstract
Biodiversity-friendly farming is a growing area of discussion among farmers, as well as in government departments and non-government organizations interested in conservation on private land. Those seeking to encourage biodiversity on farms must understand the production challenges presented by wildlife. Such species destroy [...] Read more.
Biodiversity-friendly farming is a growing area of discussion among farmers, as well as in government departments and non-government organizations interested in conservation on private land. Those seeking to encourage biodiversity on farms must understand the production challenges presented by wildlife. Such species destroy agricultural commodities or present threats to family, pets, or infrastructure. A survey of farmers in the Canadian Maritime provinces sought to understand the drivers of tolerance. Our results demonstrated that estimated monetary losses from a species were largely unrelated to the perceived acceptability of those losses. Rather, the type of nuisance—damage to crops/property or threat to the safety of people, pets, or livestock—determined whether a loss would be perceived as acceptable and if that acceptability would influence tolerance. For damaging species, the perception of cultural benefits seemed able to convert high estimated economic losses to acceptable ones, for overall tolerance. For threatening species, however, minor perceived financial losses seemed augmented by low perceived benefits and made unacceptable, leading to intolerance. Female, older, and part-time farmers were most likely to identify threatening species as a nuisance. The use of an elicitation-based survey design provided novel insight as a result of the lack of prompts, but also presented analytical challenges that weakened predictive power. Recommendations are given for further research and management. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Managing Biodiversity in Agricultural Landscapes)
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Review
Opportunities within the Revised EU Common Agricultural Policy to Address the Decline of Farmland Birds: An Irish Perspective
by Daire Ó hUallacháin, Alex S. Copland, Kieran Buckley and Barry J. McMahon
Diversity 2015, 7(3), 307-317; https://doi.org/10.3390/d7030307 - 20 Aug 2015
Cited by 6 | Viewed by 5708
Abstract
The loss of global biological diversity continues despite on-going conservation efforts. Agriculture is the major terrestrial land use in Europe and any conservation efforts to protect biological diversity must address sustainable use of these food production systems. Using Ireland, within the European Union [...] Read more.
The loss of global biological diversity continues despite on-going conservation efforts. Agriculture is the major terrestrial land use in Europe and any conservation efforts to protect biological diversity must address sustainable use of these food production systems. Using Ireland, within the European Union policy framework, as an example, the declines in farmland birds are discussed. The opportunities afforded to farmland bird conservation as a result of the recent reform to the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) are outlined. The potential for revised and refined CAP, specifically agri-environment schemes, to deliver benefits for biodiversity and for farmland bird species within Irish agricultural ecosystems is explored. Despite all the efforts to date and the significant resources invested in implementing agri-environment measures and schemes, few attempts have been made to collect monitoring and surveillance data with which to quantitatively assess the effectiveness of schemes, and measures that are designed to assist in the recovery of farmland biodiversity, including bird species, in Ireland. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Managing Biodiversity in Agricultural Landscapes)
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