A pilot study of methodology for the development of farmland habitat reports for sustainability assessments

peer reviewedThe inclusion of farm maps of habitat features is becoming an urgent requirement for assessments of farm-scale sustainability and for compliance or benchmarking with national and international sustainability certification and accreditation schemes. Traditional methods of habitat assessment rely strongly on field-based surveys, which are logistically demanding and relatively costly. We describe and investigate a process that relies on information technology to develop a scalable method that can be applied across multiple farms to reduce the significant logistical challenges and financial costs of traditional habitat surveys. A key impediment to the routine development of farm habitat maps is the lack of information on the type of habitats that occur on a land parcel. Within a pilot project comprising 187 farms, we developed and implemented a process for creating farm habitat reports and investigate the accuracy of visual interpretation of satellite imagery by an ecologist aiming to identify habitat types. We generated customised farm reports that included a colour-coded farm habitat map and habitat information (type, area, relative wildlife importance). Visual assessment of satellite imagery achieved an overall accuracy of 96% in its ability to discriminate between land parcels with habitats categorised by this study as being of either high or low nature conservation value. Assessment of satellite imagery achieved an overall accuracy of 90% in its ability to discriminate among Fossitt level II habitat classes, and an overall accuracy of 81% when using individual habitat classes (Fossitt level III). There was, however, considerable variation in the accuracy associated with individual habitat classes. We conclude that this methodology based on satellite imagery is sufficiently accurate to be used for the incorporation of farmland habitats into farm-scale sustainability assurance, but should, at most, use Fossitt level II habitat classes. We discuss future challenges and opportunities for the development of farm habitat maps and plans for their use in sustainability certification schemes

The land sparing strategy for land use allocation in farmlands influences the relationship between biodiversity and agricultural intensity

absen

Multicriteria performance and sustainability in livestock farming systems: Functional diversity matters

Agricultural intensification drastically reduces diversity at different scales of livestock farming systems (LFS). This homogenization process leads to environmental degradation and ignores the fact that multiple performance criterions often come in conflict. Taking advantage of diversity at different scales of LFS is a new challenge to improve sustainability. The diversity is considered here on a functional viewpoint, i.e. a variety of functions played by individual production entities involved in overall performance. The objective of this study was to examine how the diversity of individual production entities shapes the relationship between different performance criterions at the upper scale. We used two types of dynamic models representing contrasting LFS: extensive grassland suckling farms and intensive dairy herds. Both models include a certain level of functional diversity with production entities corresponding to different types of management practices (grassland farm model) or different types of females (herd model). With the grassland farm model, we studied how the biodiversity/production relationship was influenced by the functional diversity of management practices. With the herd model, we explored how production/efficiency relationship was influenced by the functional diversity of females. At the farm scale, we showed that interactions between the diverse management practices shaped the relationship between ecological and productive performance from a convex to a concave trade-off. Complementary effects resulting from the diversity of management practices thus improved the trade-off. Trade-off shape also depended on the level of farm intensity and it was less costly for the extensive farms to achieve viable levels of ecological performance. Increasing the complementary effect through increased diversity in management practices is likely to improve the conciliation between productive and ecological performance. At the herd scale, we observed a win–win situation between production and efficiency. However, at the highest levels of production, there was a production/efficiency trade-off; increases in either production or efficiency corresponded to distinct functional groups of females. Managing the functional groups of females with targeted practices is likely to improve the production/efficiency trade-off. We concluded from both case studies that functional diversity plays a key role in the relationship between multiple performance criterions. The next steps on the research agenda include exploring new spatial and temporal scales and accounting for environmental variability. A better understanding of the role of functional diversity can benefit from multi-criterions and multi-scale modelling approaches

Ecological intensification of livestock farming systems : landscape heterogeneity matters

International audienc

Trade-offs between pasture production and farmland bird conservation: exploration of options using a dynamic farm model

In European grassland landscapes, grazing and mowing play a key role for the maintenance of high-quality habitats that host important bird populations. As grasslands are also key resources for cattle feeding, there is a need to develop management strategies that achieve the double objective of production and biodiversity conservation. The objective of this study was to use a modelling approach to generate recognisable patterns of bird dynamics in farms composed of different land use proportions, and to compare their production and ecological dimensions. We developed a dynamic model, which linked grassland management to bird population dynamics at the field and farm levels. The model was parameterised for two types of suckling farms corresponding to contrasting levels of grassland intensification and for two bird species of high conservation value. A viability algorithm was used to define and assess viable management strategies for production and ecological performance so as to draw the shape of the relationship between both types of performances for the two types of farms. Our results indicated that, at the farm level, there was a farming system effect with a negative and non-linear relationship linking performance. Improving bird population maintenance was less costly in extensive farms compared with intensive farms. At the field level, the model predicted the timing and intensity of land use, maximising either production or ecological performance. The results suggested that multi-objective grassland management would benefit from public policies that consider levels of organisation higher than the field level, such as the farm or the landscape