Action needed for the EU Common Agricultural Policy to address sustainability challenges

Abstract Making agriculture sustainable is a global challenge. In the European Union (EU), the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) is failing with respect to biodiversity, climate, soil, land degradation as well as socio-economic challenges. The European Commission's proposal for a CAP post-2020 provides a scope for enhanced sustainability. However, it also allows Member States to choose low-ambition implementation pathways. It therefore remains essential to address citizens' demands for sustainable agriculture and rectify systemic weaknesses in the CAP, using the full breadth of available scientific evidence and knowledge. Concerned about current attempts to dilute the environmental ambition of the future CAP, and the lack of concrete proposals for improving the CAP in the draft of the European Green Deal, we call on the European Parliament, Council and Commission to adopt 10 urgent action points for delivering sustainable food production, biodiversity conservation and climate mitigation. Knowledge is available to help moving towards evidence-based, sustainable European agriculture that can benefit people, nature and their joint futures. The statements made in this article have the broad support of the scientific community, as expressed by above 3,600 signatories to the preprint version of this manuscript. The list can be found here (https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3685632). A free Plain Language Summary can be found within the Supporting Information of this article.Peer reviewe

IPBES Invasive Alien Species Assessment: Chapter 1. Introducing biological invasions and the IPBES thematic assessment of invasive alien species and their control

Chapter 1: Introducing biological invasions and the IPBES thematic assessment of invasive alien species and their control of the Thematic Assessment Report on Invasive Alien Species and their Control of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services

Detecting temporal changes in the extent of High Nature Value farmlands: the case-study of Entre-Douro-e-Minho Region, Portugal

In the European Union, the socio-ecological systems underlying the maintenance of low-intensity farming systems supporting the occurrence of several species and habitats are known as High Nature Value farmlands (HNVf). Detecting trends of change in the extent and location of HNVf is essential to monitor the impact of policies on biodiversity. However, assessing changes in HNVf extent is challenging, due to the lack of tested approaches and lack of data with adequate spatial and temporal resolutions. We address such challenge by evaluating the usefulness of an existing methodological framework to analyse changes in the extent of HNVf in the agrarian region of Entre-Douro-e-Minho, Northwestern Portugal between 1989 and 2009. Changes in the extent of HNVf between 1989 and 2009 were analysed for whole study area, and within and outside areas designated for conservation. Results depicted a trend of decreasing extent of HNVf between 1989 and 2009, irrespective of being inside or outside a nature conservation designation. This provides an early warning that nature conservation designation does not ensure HNVf persistence. We consider that this research represents an advance in the field of HNVf assessment and monitoring. In particular, by providing an approach to analyze the location and changes over time of HNVf types in relation to areas under distinct legal protection (such as the Natura 2000 network), it can help assess the role that such nature conservation designations have in protecting HNVf and indicate where additional agricultural or nature conservation policy and support mechanisms may need to be targeted.</p

Research data management in the field of Ecology: an overview

The diversity of research topics and resulting datasets in the field of Ecology has grown in line with developments in research data management. Based on a meta-analysis performed on 93 scientific references, this paper presents a comprehensive overview of the use of metadata models in the ecology domain through time. Overall, 40 metadata models were found to be either referred or used by the biodiversity community from 1997 to 2018. In the same period, 50 different initiatives in ecology and biodiversity were conceptualized and implemented to promote effective data sharing in the community. A relevant concern that stems from this analysis is the need to establish simple methods to promote data interoperability and reuse, so far limited by the production of metadata according to different standards. With this study, we also highlight challenges and perspectives in research data management in the domain of Ecology towards best practice guidelines

Exploring the spatiotemporal dynamics of habitat suitability to improve conservation management of a vulnerable plant species

Ongoing declines in biodiversity caused by global environmental changes call for adaptive conservation management, including the assessment of habitat suitability spatiotemporal dynamics potentially affecting species persistence. Remote sensing (RS) provides a wide-range of satellite-based environmental variables that can be fed into species distribution models (SDMs) to investigate species-environment relations and forecast responses to change. We address the spatiotemporal dynamics of speciesâ habitat suitability at the landscape level by combining multi-temporal RS data with SDMs for analysing inter-annual habitat suitability dynamics. We implemented this framework with a vulnerable plant species (Veronica micrantha), by combining SDMs with a time-series of RS-based metrics of vegetation functioning related to primary productivity, seasonality, phenology and actual evapotranspiration. Besides RS variables, predictors related to landscape structure, soils and wildfires were ranked and combined through multi-model inference (MMI). To assess recent dynamics, a habitat suitability time-series was generated through model hindcasting. MMI highlighted the strong predictive ability of RS variables related to primary productivity and water availability for explaining the test-species distribution, along with soil, wildfire regime and landscape composition. The habitat suitability time-series revealed the effects of short-term land cover changes and inter-annual variability in climatic conditions. Multi-temporal SDMs further improved predictions, benefiting from RS time-series. Overall, results emphasize the integration of landscape attributes related to function, composition and spatial configuration for improving the explanation of ecological patterns. Moreover, coupling SDMs with RS functional metrics may provide early-warnings of future environmental changes potentially impacting habitat suitability. Applications discussed include the improvement of biodiversity monitoring and conservation strategies.status: publishe

Adapting forest management to climate change in Europe : Linking perceptions to adaptive responses

Climate change will impact forests and may impair their ability to provide essential ecosystem services in the decades to come. Addressing this challenge requires adjustments to forest management strategies as of now, but it is still unclear to what extent this is already in progress. Using data from surveys of 1131 forest owners and managers from seven European countries, we assessed how they perceive their role in adapting forest management to climate change. The surveys focused on foresters' observations of climate change impacts, the degree to which climate change is a part of their operational and strategic management, and their ability to address related risks and opportunities. We found evidence of a strong continent-wide climate change awareness among respondents, with 73% foresters convinced that climate change will impact their forest. However, only about one-third (36%) reported having modified their management practices, though figures vary widely between countries, from 14% in Portugal to 57% in Slovakia. Among the constraints limiting their actions, lack of knowledge and information emerged as a major barrier towards forest adaptation. Differences between countries could be linked to their socio-economic and political contexts. Our results further suggest that severely damaging events, such as windstorms, fires and pest outbreaks, present relevant opportunities to engage people with climate change and encourage action. Further work needs to be done in strengthening the relationship between scientific research and practice, working out context dependent measures to foster adaptation to changing climate and disturbance regimes in forest management

Adapting forest management to climate change in Europe: Linking perceptions to adaptive responses

© 2018 Elsevier B.V. Climate change will impact forests and may impair their ability to provide essential ecosystem services in the decades to come. Addressing this challenge requires adjustments to forest management strategies as of now, but it is still unclear to what extent this is already in progress. Using data from surveys of 1131 forest owners and managers from seven European countries, we assessed how they perceive their role in adapting forest management to climate change. The surveys focused on foresters' observations of climate change impacts, the degree to which climate change is a part of their operational and strategic management, and their ability to address related risks and opportunities. We found evidence of a strong continent-wide climate change awareness among respondents, with 73% foresters convinced that climate change will impact their forest. However, only about one-third (36%) reported having modified their management practices, though figures vary widely between countries, from 14% in Portugal to 57% in Slovakia. Among the constraints limiting their actions, lack of knowledge and information emerged as a major barrier towards forest adaptation. Differences between countries could be linked to their socio-economic and political contexts. Our results further suggest that severely damaging events, such as windstorms, fires and pest outbreaks, present relevant opportunities to engage people with climate change and encourage action. Further work needs to be done in strengthening the relationship between scientific research and practice, working out context dependent measures to foster adaptation to changing climate and disturbance regimes in forest management.status: publishe

Action needed for the EU Common Agricultural Policy to address sustainability challenges

Making agriculture sustainable is a global challenge. In the European Union (EU), the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) is failing with respect to biodiversity, climate, soil, land degradation as well as socio‐economic challenges. The European Commission's proposal for a CAP post‐2020 provides a scope for enhanced sustainability. However, it also allows Member States to choose low‐ambition implementation pathways. It therefore remains essential to address citizens' demands for sustainable agriculture and rectify systemic weaknesses in the CAP, using the full breadth of available scientific evidence and knowledge. Concerned about current attempts to dilute the environmental ambition of the future CAP, and the lack of concrete proposals for improving the CAP in the draft of the European Green Deal, we call on the European Parliament, Council and Commission to adopt 10 urgent action points for delivering sustainable food production, biodiversity conservation and climate mitigation. Knowledge is available to help moving towards evidence‐based, sustainable European agriculture that can benefit people, nature and their joint futures. The statements made in this article have the broad support of the scientific community, as expressed by above 3,600 signatories to the preprint version of this manuscript. The list can be found here (https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3685632). A free Plain Language Summary can be found within the Supporting Information of this article

Cartografia de Sítios da Rede Natura 2000 em Portugal continental

Resumo: No âmbito da Cartografia de Habitats Naturais e Seminaturais e de Flora em 31 Sítios Classificados formou-se uma equipa capaz de responder adequadamente ao caderno de encargos lançado em Concurso Público em julho de 2018. A metodologia definida seguiu diferentes fases de implementação, preparação de campo; trabalho de campo; execução de cartografia e validação da cartografia. Para a cartografia foi efetuada previamente uma exaustiva preparação do trabalho de campo que contemplou o estudo breve da Paisagem do Sítio e a definição de uma amostragem estratificada com base na cartografia do uso do solo, cartografia anterior de habitats e conhecimento de especialista do SIC. Efetuada a preparação do trabalho de campo, procedeu-se ao início da recolha de dados no campo a qual se focou em polígonos de ocorrência provável de habitats e em polígonos com pontos de amostragem (definidos anteriormente na amostragem estratificada), tendo sido preenchidas ficha de amostragem de habitats, com a respetiva recolha de imagens. O trabalho de campo decorreu entre abril de 2019 e novembro de 2020. Posteriormente ao trabalho de campo, a informação obtida foi organizada e tratada com vista à produção de cartografia, a qual foi organizada numa base de dados geográficos (geodatabase) para garantir a qualidade topológica e temática dos resultados. Os diferentes campos da tabela de atributos apresentavam-se com pré-preenchimento de modo a minimizar a produção de erros e a auxiliar o preenchimento dos atributos da cartografia. Apresenta-se uma síntese dos trabalhos realizados e da informação obtida, com especial enfoque nos habitats que desapareceram e nos que foram agora identificados, para alguns dos Sítios. Para habitats previamente selecionados foram avaliados o grau de conservação e as pressões identificadas, bem como efetuada a análise da representatividade de cada um. De modo transversal e ao longo de todo o processo foram executados procedimentos de controle de qualidade