Environmental economic modeling of biodiversity and agriculture
Informations
- Funding country
Netherlands- Acronym
- -
- URL
- -
- Start date
- 11/1/2000
- End date
- 10/27/2003
- Budget
- -
Fundings
| Name | Role | Start | End | Amount |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Other funding | Grant | 11/1/2000 | 10/27/2003 | - |
Abstract
In recent decades biodiversity in agricultural areas has been declining dramatically due to the rapid increase in intensity of the agricultural production process. Because of the large area that is occupied by agricultural fields (ca. 60% of the total area of The Netherlands is used for agricultural production) halting or reversing this decline would contribute significant I y to the conservation of biodiversity in The Netherlands. Biodiversity in agricultural landscapes is concentrated in field boundaries. Therefore the most important factors controlling biodiversity in agricultural areas are: (1) The land-use intensity of the area since this determines the disturbance rate due to agricultural activities. (2) The spatial structure of the area since this determines the total area of natural habitat and the average distance an organism has to disperse to colonize a new habitat patch. The aim of this sub-project is to determine what relationship exists between biodiversity and (1} the land-use intensity and (2} the spatial structure of agricultural landscapes. Biodiversity will be estimated by surveying the diversity of four different functional and taxonomic groups (vascular plants, breeding birds, pollinating insects and predatory insects) The effect of land-use intensity will be estimated by a paired analysis of the biodiversity on 45 farm- pairs, each pair consisting of a conventional and a low intensity farm (e.g. biological farm, farm with management agreements). The effect of spatial structure will be estimated by a paired analyses of the biodiversity in area-pairs, each pair consisting of a re-allotted are and the neighboring original landscape. Besides analyzing them independently, these data will be one of two data-sets used to construct and calibrate a model that will be used to develop new land-use scenarios that combine high biodiversity and economic sustainability. Both the direct and indirect results of this study may be used to aid farmers to conserve and restore biodiversity at the farm level and will enhance insight of policy makers in the interactions between agriculture and biodiversity.