Agri-environment schemes and biodiversity conservation: Limits and perspectives

Abstract

Concepción, E.D., Díaz, M. (2013). Agri-environment schemes and biodiversity conservation: Limits and perspectives. Ecosistemas22(1):44-49. Doi.: 10.7818/ECOS.2013.22-1.08

Agri-environment schemes (AES) are considered the main available tool to counteract the loss of biodiversity linked to agricultural intensification. However, it is still debated whether or not they constitute a suitable tool to accomplish this objective. Evaluations so far developed have produced mixed results. In general, AES have resulted effective for the conservation of concrete species in delimited regions. Nevertheless, AES with wider objectives, such as the conservation of biodiversity in a whole country or region, have lower effectiveness. Several reasons have been proposed to explain these limitations in order to improve AES effectiveness. First, the design of measures able to benefit species with different or even contrasted requirements is difficult. Another limitation of AES is their application at local scale (agricultural fields), which reduce their ability to compensate the effects of agricultural intensification and other land-use changes at landscape or regional scales. Lastly, non-linear relationships between agricultural intensification and diversity at various spatial scales and their interactive effects imply that AES effectiveness may vary depending on the degree of extensification of the measures and the system where they are applied. Agri-environmental programmes should adopt a multi-scale approach which combines the extensification of agricultural practices with the conservation of agricultural landscapes. Most suitable conservation measures will depend on the landscape context and the intensification level of the agricultural system where they are being applied. In intensive agricultural systems, with intermediate levels of landscape complexity, general measures based on the reduction of the intensity of agricultural activities should be applied. These measures would be directed to the maintenance of the ecosystem services that biodiversity provides. Complex agricultural systems require the maintenance of traditional, extensive land-uses that guarantee the conservation of complex landscapes with high biodiversity levels, in combination with specific measures for endangered species that these systems harbour. To this end tools already included within the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), such as cross-compliance or programmes for high nature value areas, as well as specific land-planning measures aimed at promoting landscape heterogeneity and connectivity could be used.