2023-03-01 to 2026-02-28
Approx. 1 mil. EUR
Joan VAN BAAREN
-
ECOBIO, University of Rennes, Rennes, France
-
Earth and Life Institute – Agronomy, Catholic University of Louvain, Louvain, Belgium
-
Association for Innovation and Sustainable Agriculture, Klíčany, Czech Republic
-
Division of Plant Health, Functional Biodiversity Group, Crop Research Institute, Prague, Czech Republic
-
EDYSAN, University of Picardie Jules Verne, Amiens, France
-
Living Lab CLEF, Plélan-Le-Grand, France
-
Department of Animal Ecology and Tropical Biology, Julius Maximilian University of Würzburg, Würzburg, Germany
-
International Crop Production Center, German Agricultural Society e. V., Frankfurt, Germany
Modern or industrialized agriculture in European countries is the driver of simplification of ecological networks, inducing a loss of farmland biodiversity and associated Ecosystem Services, which are defined as the direct and indirect contributions of ecosystems to human well-being impacting on our survival and quality of life. Among multiple ecosystem services, two of the regulating ecosystem services address highly relevant agricultural processes: i) pollination and ii) pest/ weed control. The main causes of this loss of biodiversity, and thus of the ecosystems’ capacity to deliver nature-based services, are linked to intensive agriculture practices such as habitat simplification and use of pesticides. Ecological intensification, i.e., using natural processes to replace anthropogenic inputs such as pesticides and fertilizers has been hailed as a potential solution, yet is often hindered by insufficient acceptance and/or adoption by conventional farmers in Europe. Thus, enhancing awareness of related benefits provided by ecosystem services is a prerequisite for successful biodiversity conservation in the agricultural ecosystems. Using the approach of living labs that promote the involvement of citizens in science, this project strives to collectively develop field-to landscape management, mainly by floral enrichment, and bioindicators about the conservation state of farmland biodiversity.
ConservES aims to (1) evaluate the benefits or re-establishing non-crop linear elements (hedges and floral strips) that provide resources and dispersal corridors to pollinators and natural enemies of pests and weeds, (2) increasing biodiversity in intensive agricultural areas without loss of yield for the farmers and (3) develop living labs in the four countries involved (France, Belgium, Germany and Czech Republic).
ConservES will evaluate the benefits of re-establishing non-crop linear elements (hedges and floral strips) that provide resources and dispersal corridors to pollinators and natural enemies of pests and weeds. To assess biodiversity, we will develop two kinds of multi-taxon-based integrated indicators. Finally, scenarios of adding diversity within, nearby and in the surroundings of the fields in order to optimize diversity in agro-ecosystems at the farm/landscape scales will be co-developed in living labs with farmers to engage them, in protecting biodiversity and ecosystem health. This will ensure an effective ecological network delivering ecosystem services if applied largely after the project. The European climatic scale investigated will help to provide European-wide solutions for adaptation to land-use and climate changes. Indeed, along a climatic gradient, it is expected that the climatic context plays a major role on the potential of ecosystem services in each area. By involving stakeholders in the process of co-developing tailored conservation practices, we will minimise the human-biodiversity conflict that has been largely persisting, and increase the chance of a win-win situation. Indeed, one of the main difficulties in the governance of biodiversity conservation is to go beyond the theoretical dimension of the questions raised.