Evaluating On-Farm Biodiversity: A Comparison of Assessment Methods

Strategies to stop the loss of biodiversity in agriculture areas will be more successful if farmers have the means to understand changes in biodiversity on their farms and to assess the effectiveness of biodiversity promoting measures. There are several methods to assess on-farm biodiversity but it may be difficult to select the most appropriate method for a farmer’s individual circumstances. This study aims to evaluate the usability and usefulness of four biodiversity assessment methods that are available to farmers in Switzerland. All four methods were applied to five case study farms, which were ranked according to the results. None of the methods were able to provide an exact statement on the current biodiversity status of the farms, but each method could provide an indication, or approximation, of one or more aspects of biodiversity. However, the results also showed that it is possible to generate different statements on the state of biodiversity on the same farms by using different biodiversity assessment methods. All methods showed strengths and weaknesses so, when choosing a method, the purpose of the biodiversity assessment should be kept in the foreground and the limitations of the chosen methods should be considered when interpreting the outcomes

Motivations for Swiss lowland farmers to conserve biodiversity: Can individual beliefs be influenced by on-farm advice?

Project: Scoring for biodiversity (2009-2016

Repräsentative SMART-Nachhaltigkeitsbewertung der Bio Suisse-Betriebe. Kurzbericht 2018

Die Knospe gilt als Garant für eine nachhaltige Landwirtschaft. Doch wie nachhaltig wirtschaften die Knospe-Höfe tatsächlich,was läuft gut, wo gibt es Verbesserungspotential? Diesen Fragen gingen das FiBL und die SFS im Auftrag von Bio Suisse auf den Grund. Zum Einsatz kam dabei SMART (Sustainability Monitoring and Assessment RouTine), ein Instrument, welches das FiBL zur ganzheitlichen Nachhaltigkeitsanalyse und Bewertung von landwirtschaftlichen Betrieben und Lebensmittelunternehmen entwickelt hat. Die Bewertung beruht auf einer Betriebsbesichtigung und einem etwa zwei- bis dreistündigen Interview mit den Betriebsleitern zu verschiedenen für die Landwirtschaft relevanten Themenbereichen. Innerhalb von drei Jahren wurden so 185 Höfe auf ihre Nachhaltigkeit hin untersucht. Die Stichprobe wurde so gewählt, dass alle Betriebstypen und Landwirtschaftszonen abgebildet wurden. Zu den Projektzielen gehörten: - Repräsentative Bewertung der Nachhaltigkeitsleistungen der Knospe-Betriebe durch eine externe Institution. - Ermöglichung der kontinuierlichen Entwicklung der Betriebe und Sicherstellung der Zukunftsfähigkeit der Bio Suisse Betriebe sowie der Marke Knospe. - Erarbeitung einer glaubwürdigen Informationsbasis zur Kommunikation der Nachhaltigkeit von Knospe-Betrieben. Die Ergebnisse sollen sowohl für die Verbesserung des Beratungs- und Schulungsangebots im Bereich Nachhaltigkeit als auch für die strategische Weiterentwicklung des Verbands genutzt werden

Representative Farm-Based Sustainability Assessment of the Organic Sector in Switzerland Using the SMART-Farm Tool

The agricultural sector faces serious environmental, social and economic challenges. In response, there has been a proliferation of labels and certifications aiming to ensure minimum farm sustainability performance. Organic agriculture (OA) a prominent example, having received substantial research attention relating to agronomic and environmental performance. While international OA movements are evolving to include broader sustainability aspirations, limited research exists on the social and economic performance of OA. To address this, we conducted a representative farm-based assessment of the Swiss organic sector to evaluate its contribution to sustainability across a wide range of themes based on the FAO Sustainability of Agriculture and Food Assessment (SAFA) Guidelines. We assessed 185 farms using the Sustainability Assessment and Monitoring RouTine (SMART) Farm Tool, chosen through stratified random sampling by farm type and agricultural zone. The results indicate that the Swiss organic sector makes a substantially positive contribution to sustainability, with average scores for theme goal achievement of 62% (Good Governance), 77% (Environmental Integrity), 70% (Economic Resilience), and 87% (Social Well-being). A set of 45 influential indicators (28 for plant production/mix farms and 30 for livestock farms) were selected based on the ability to explain variance (using Principal Component Analysis) and importance for goal achievement. The indicator sets explained a large amount of variation (ca. 70% for both farm types) and revealed a snapshot of management topics relevant to sustainability performance across the sector. These covered socio-political engagement, emissions to air and water, biodiversity, animal welfare, profitability, vulnerability, product quality, local economy, capacity building, and workplace risks. The spread of results across the sample, and comparisons to secondary data (literature and official statistics), revealed the importance of both well-studied issues (e.g., wide spread of energy consumption, variable yield levels/stability, local value chain dynamics) and more novel insights (e.g., strong political engagement, variable price premiums, lacking social security of farming families, insecure land tenure). We propose these topics as a basis for deeper analysis, designing improvement measures and conducting comparative research. This would bring much-needed breadth into the typically narrow debate surrounding the relative merits of OA

Das Sommerspezial – Mit kritischem Auge blicken unsere Besucher*innen auf die Landwirtschaft von heute und morgen

Das FiBL hat Ende Juni bei gleich zwei Events seine Türen geöffnet. Am Tag der offenen Tür und am FiBL connect haben sich unsere Besucher*innen fleissig ausgetauscht, informiert und vernetzt. Was hat ihnen besonders gut gefallen? Was sind die Probleme der heutigen Landwirtschaft und wie könne wir sie gemeinsam angehen? In dieser FiBL Focus Sommerspezialfolge geben wir unseren Teilnehmer*innen das Wort

The challenges of including impacts on biodiversity in agricultural life cycle assessments

Agriculture is considered to be one of the main drivers for worldwide biodiversity loss but the impacts of agricultural production on biodiversity have not been extensively considered in Life Cycle Assessments (LCAs). Recent realisation that biodiversity impact should be included in comprehensive LCAs has led to attempts to develop and implement methods for biodiversity impact assessment. In this review, twenty-two different biodiversity impact assessment methods have been analysed to identify their strengths and weaknesses in terms of their comprehensiveness in the evaluation of agricultural products. Different criteria, which had to meet the specific requirements of biodiversity research, life cycle assessment methodology, and the evaluation of agricultural products, were selected to investigate the identified methods. Very few of the methods were developed with the specific intention of being used for agricultural LCAs. Furthermore, none of the methods can be applied globally while at the same time being able to differentiate between various agricultural intensities. Global value chains and the increasing awareness of different biodiversity impacts of agricultural production systems demand the development of evaluation methods that are able to overcome these shortcomings. Despite the progress that has already been achieved, there are still unresolved difficulties which need further research and improvement

FiBL Collaboration podcast

FiBL Collaboration podcast, a podcast of the Research Institute of Organic Agriculture FiBL is all about current collaborating research projects by FiBL and national as well as international institutions

Kann Biodiversitätsberatung die Einstellung zur Biodiversität von Schweizer Landwirten und Landwirtinnen beeinflussen?

Den Landwirten und Landwirtinnen kommt eine Schlüsselrolle bei der Er­reichung der schweizerischen Biodiversitätsschutzziele zu. Aber wie können sie motiviert werden, sich mit diesen Zielen zu identifizieren? In einer sozial­ wissenschaftlichen Studie untersuchten das Forschungsinstitut für biologischen Landbau FiBL und die Schweizerische Vogelwarte gemeinsam den Einfluss von gezielter Biodiversitätsberatung auf die Einstallung und Motivationen von Schweizer Landwirt/innen. Die Er­gebnisse liefern wirkungsvolle Ansatz­ punkte für die Überzeugungsarbeit von Biodiversitätsberater/innen

FiBL Focus podcast

FiBL Focus, the podcast of the Research Institute of Organic Agriculture FiBL is all about the latest findings from science and practice in agriculture, animal welfare and environmental protection. Formats: - FiBL Focus Talk: practitioners and FiBL experts discuss current topics relating to agriculture, environmental protection and animal welfare. Duration: 30 to 45 minutes. - FiBL Focus Praxis: Farmers share their problems and their solutions from practice and for practice. Duration: 30 to 45 minutes. - FiBL Focus Short: FiBL studies and publications summarized so that they can be understood by non-scientists. Duration: 5 to 15 minutes

Motivations for swiss lowland farmers to conserve biodiversity: Identifying factors to predict proportions of implemented ecological compensation areas

The global loss of biodiversity is one of the major environmental threats of our time (Rockstrom et al., 2009) and agriculture is one of the main drivers of the global biodiversity decline (Benton, 2007; Kleijn et al., 2009; Pereira et al., 2010). Agricultural landscapes were formerly rich in biodiversity, which has been attributed to mosaic style landscapes and low-intensity production systems that provided a wide variety of interlinked habitats (Edwards et al., 1999). Economic pressure has led to declining species richness as agricultural production has become more intensive (Robinson and Sutherland, 2002), with an associated reduction of habitat-providing landscape elements (Billeter et al., 2008). Despite the objective of promoting biodiversity, which has been included in Swiss agricultural policy since 1990, many of the threatened species continue to decline (Lachat et al., 2010).Due to the large proportion of farmed land, the behavior and the decision-making of farmers in respect to conservation and sustainability issues have an extraordinary influence on biodiversity (Lokhorst et al., 2011; Stoeckli et al., 2017). Rands et al. (2010) argue that, if biodiversity decline is to be halted, biodiversity must be viewed as a public good and this view must be integrated into policy. Encouraging farmers to preserve or enhance biodiversity is often achieved through agri environmental schemes that provide financial rewards to enhance biodiversity (Burton and Paragahawewa, 2011). Most agri-environmental schemes are based around principles in which subsidies, or compensation payments, are linked to the farmer's compliance with a set of environmental measures, with subsidies paid in exchange for proof of ecological performance (PEP) (Kleijn and Sutherland, 2003)