Project description
Restoring biodiversity in EU farmland
Intensive farming in the EU has caused a serious decline in landscape features (LF), which are vital for supporting biodiversity and providing ecosystem services. These features, such as hedgerows and ponds, help maintain healthy ecosystems but are disappearing from agricultural lands. The EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030 aims to restore LF to cover 10 % of agricultural areas. However, various challenges, including technical and economic barriers, make this goal difficult to achieve. In this context, the EU-funded LAFERIA project is designed to tackle these issues. It will identify the key factors that can help reintroduce LF in intensive farming areas and develop strategies and business models to overcome barriers to their reintroduction.
Objective
Agricultural intensification in EU farmland led to the loss of landscape features (LF) which provide ecosystem services (ES) and support for biodiversity. To tackle this, the EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030 aims to increase the prevalence of LF to 10% of the agricultural area, but there are several technical, administrative, economic and social barriers to achieve this. The overall goal of LAFERIA is to identify the key factors that can promote the reintroduction of LF in intensive agricultural areas, and develop strategies to overcome key barriers to achieving the EU objective. Specific objectives include: (i) Quantify LF coverage and connectivity across different agricultural systems; (ii) Establish a comprehensive picture of the benefits and costs of LF for biodiversity, ES, climate change adaptation, yields, incomes, and society at large; (iii) Explore the drivers and challenges for the reintroduction of LF; (iv) Develop strategies and business models to reintroduce LF. The research plan is organised around three major thematic blocks: A first block focuses on environmental sciences, and addresses the current prevalence of LF across distinct agricultural systems in the EU, their importance for ecological connectivity, and their potential for biodiversity and ecosystem benefits. A second block builds on social sciences, and focuses on the key factors which may lead to the reintroduction of LF in areas of intensive agriculture, through a co-learning process with stakeholders, analysing factors of success and failure in existing initiatives, complemented with detailed research at regional (case study) level. In a final block we will translate the results into the design and development of strategies, encompassing the identification of priority regions and agricultural systems to reintroduce LF, the maximisation of the biodiversity and ES potential from LF, and the development of policy tools, business models and market-based solutions taking advantage of LF.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques.
- social sciencessociology
- natural sciencesbiological sciencesbiodiversity conservation
- agricultural sciencesagriculture, forestry, and fisheriesagriculture
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Programme(s)
Topic(s)
Funding Scheme
HORIZON-RIA - HORIZON Research and Innovation ActionsCoordinator
4485-661 Crasto
Portugal