Harnessing the benefits of ecosystem services for effective ecological intensification in agriculture
The next few decades will witness a rapidly increasing demand for agricultural products. This growing demand needs to be met largely through intensification (produce more from the same land surface) because there is little scope for an increase in agricultural area. Ecological intensification - the optimization of all provisioning, regulating and supporting ecosystem services[1] in the agricultural production process - has been proposed as a promising solution.[2]
In many parts of Europe, agricultural productivity is amongst the highest in the world but depends on unsustainable high levels of external inputs. The challenge for ecological intensification is to reduce reliance on external inputs while maintaining high productivity levels by reestablishing below and above ground ecosystem services. In other parts of Europe, where productivity is less high, the challenge will be to enhance productivity by optimizing ecosystem services rather than by increasing agricultural inputs.
Project LIBERATION aims to provide the evidence base for ecological intensification and demonstrate the concept in representative agricultural landscape types (managed extensively vs. intensively; with different levels of semi-natural habitats) in seven countries across Europe [3]. Using existing datasets from past and on-going European-scale studies we will first identify general relationships between the configuration of semi-natural habitats, on-farm management and biodiversity in a range of European landscapes and farming systems. Using a modelling approach, the aim of research carried out under LIBERATION is to determine relationships between biodiversity, the delivery of multiple ecosystem services and crop yield.
The main goal of the discussion is to disseminate results and foster discussion on emerging knowledge from research on ecological intensification. Comments will be included in a final report summary that will be shared with project partners – 10 research institutions[4] across Europe – and included in the final project reporting to the European Union in 2017. The expected impact is to inform the general public and impact relevant policy processes at various levels. The main focus will be the EU level, considering the aims and geographic scope of the project; however, the objective to mainstream measures to upscale ecological intensification across different farming landscapes will likely be relevant to actors within and beyond the EU.
Based on your views and experience, we would like you to engage interested actors around all or any of the three questions below:
- In your experience, how can the efficiency and cost-effectiveness of field and landscape interventions be maximized?
- How can policy measures – at all levels - be designed in order to capture links between field and landscape management and the promotion of ecosystem services? Based on your experience, do you have any example of such policies?
- From your knowledge and experience, how aware are European farmers of the relevance of ecosystem services for agricultural production? Do you have any examples of and/or suggestions for best practices for outreach activities to raise awareness on ecosystem services and ecological intensification?
We would like to thank you in advance for your participation and contributions to this discussion. Your contributions will be of great help for our team at FAO and for the research institutions involved in project LIBERATION, to further strengthen and disseminate evidence supporting the message that ecosystem services are key in the future of sustainable agriculture.
Danielle Nierenberg (Food Tank – The Food Think Tank)
Artur Getz Escudero (Cardiff University/FAO)
[1] Ecosystem services are “the benefits people obtain from ecosystems” and include “provisioning services such as food, water, timber, and fibre; regulating services that affect climate, floods, disease, wastes, and water quality; cultural services that provide recreational, aesthetic, and spiritual benefits; and supporting services such as soil formation, photosynthesis, and nutrient cycling.”
(Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, 2005. Ecosystems and Human Well-being: Synthesis. Island Press, Washington, DC. Available at: http://www.millenniumassessment.org/documents/document.356.aspx.pdf )
[2] Bommarco, R., Kleijn, D., Potts, S.G. 2012. Ecological intensification: harnessing ecosystem services for food security. Trends in Ecology and Evolution. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tree.2012.10.012
[3] Italy, Hungary, Sweden, Poland, Germany, Netherlands, UK
[4] Wageningen UR, NIOO-KNAW, University of Reading, Lund University, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, University of Wuerzburg, University of Bayreuth, Centre for Ecological Research – Hungarian Academy of Sciences, University of Padua, Poznan University of Life Sciences
- Прочитано 37 комментарии
Hi!
Agricultural diversification can help. We have developed models where incorporation of aromatic crops can help land scapes, provide agricultural intensification and ecological services.
As how soil functions with aromatic crops could be improved to provide livelihood support and enhance ecological services formed a part of my presentation in the Dresden Nexus Conference ( March, 2015) organized by United Nations University, Dresden, Germany. The presentation is attached for the benefit of those who wish to know this concept.
best regards,
E.V.S.Prakasa Rao,
Ph.D, FNAAS, FISA, FISS
To be honest, I get very confused by the terminology. "Climate Smart", "Ecological", "Sustainable" can all be "Intensified" - but the general issue is the same. Do we need to intensify and if so how?
So an answer to question one for me would be to focus on the key issues of national land management - soil quality improvement, how much forest cover, how much space for biodiversity and agri-food policy (how much food/nutrition production do we actually want).
Specific questions of what trees, biodiversity or food stuffs to produce and how come later and must be done on an individual farm basis. E.g. a farm may choose to raise yields and income with extra fertilizer or take extra income from eco-services.
Good data from farms about these factors (so we can aggregate data to the national level) plus high quality individual farm outreach are fundamental to translate national land policy into action in ways that suit local conditions and farmer goals. A two-way conversation.
See www.siplatform.org.uk for current work in the UK on this concept.
Hi, everyone:
Welcome to the disccussion on Harnessing the Benefits of Ecosystem Services for Effective Ecological Intensification! Thank you for the comments so far--please keep them coming!
I wanted to share with you some links to Food Tank's Harvesting the Research series. Food Tank is partnering with the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization to highlight original scientific research about Project LIBERATION. The LIBERATION project aims to provide the evidence-base for the potential of ecological intensification to sustainably enhance food security with minimal negative impacts on the environment.
Regarding the policies needed for farmers to adopt ecological intensification, we interviewed Dr. Brian Petersen http://foodtank.com/news/2015/08/harvesting-the-research-ecological-int… he discusses how the shift to ecological intensification would require political and economic support. According to Petersen "It would have to! In order for this to change, there would need to be a complete paradigm shift in how agriculture is viewed and funded. Many stakeholders would end up losing if there were a shift away from business-as-usual agriculture, which is a major barrier to implementation of ecological intensification. Many of the experts believe that a complete shift in paradigm will require a tremendous amount of public support, not only from the populations of different countries, but also from governments. They believe that subsidies and tax incentives currently benefit wealthy corporations profiting off of sustainable intensification or conventional agriculture. If we don’t shift public support toward more ecological agriculture, it’s going to have catastrophic consequences, in my view and in the view of the scientists we interviewed."
Thanks again for your comments and feedback. We look forward to the discussion!
Dear all,
Thank you for this great discussion forum.
To start with an example for question number 2 “about promotion of ecosystem services and our experiences” I would like to share one example from Germany. In Germany much cropland suffers from water induced erosion. When uncovered parts of farmland is exposed to heavy rainfall or high wind, soil particles can be transported downhill. This results in a loss of fertile soil that is essential for life itself, on the field and also on landscape level. And because farming is becoming ever more intensive and monoculture oriented, serious long term problems can result.
Therefore since a few years the German Ministry started to make farmers aware of how to avoid soil erosion and developed an optional payment for those farmers who adapt certain criteria’s in their soil management.
This instrument mainly promotes precautionary measures and its requirements constitute minimum standard of soil management including farming related measures. It might include extensive crop rotation or catch-cropping (ensuring continuous ground covering) or under sowing for crops such as corn and sugar beets) and ways to avoid linear water runoff and inflow (install barriers, i.e. small terraces and field strips or sustained greening of depressions and channels…).
I would be interested if any one of you have other examples of other EU countries on how ecosystem services are ensured on the ground and if you have examples for linkages between field and landscape?
Further reading:
https://www.umweltbundesamt.de/en/topics/soil-agriculture/land-a-precious-resource/erosion
https://www.umweltbundesamt.de/en/publikationen/legal-instruments-to-implement-the-objective-land
Dear participants,
A warm welcome to all of you to this FSN e-discussion! Over the next three weeks, we will have a chance to discuss ecological intensification, a topic that is very much at the forefront of current debates in sustainable agriculture, as it represents an alternative to unsustainable approaches to agricultural production, and that may help facing the challenges of climate change, increasing population and pressure on natural resources – while at the same time preserving ecosystems and natural resources.
Over the next three weeks, the discussion will be facilitated by two moderators, Danielle Nierenberg (Food Tank, The Food Think Tank) and Arthur Getz Escudero (Cardiff University/FAO) and will involve a number of LIBERATION researchers from partners institutions across seven EU countries. We encourage researchers from within and outside LIBERATION to cite their research and use this forum as a platform to share findings and results.
The discussion will revolve around three broad questions, that try to cover the many aspects of ecological intensification. We will be looking specifically at the efficiency and cost-effectiveness of field and landscape interventions that target the maximization of ecosystem services, at policy measures that can facilitate such interventions, and at awareness of such practices from the point of view of European farmers. We encourage you to address all these questions, but also to share thoughts and experiences on other key aspects relevant within the debate on ecological intensification.
Once again, thank you for joining this e-discussion and we look forward to a fruitful debate over the next weeks!
Best,
David
Dear colleagues,
I just wanted to flag out that several of the case studies we released last week should be relevant to the call for contributions you sent on Harnessing the benefits of ecosystem services for effective ecological intensification in agriculture
All 33 case studies shed light on the tremendous success of agro ecological agriculture across the African continent in the face of climate change, hunger, and poverty and are available at http://www.oaklandinstitute.org/agroecology-case-studies
Best regards
Frédéric Mousseau
Policy Director
The Oakland Institute
Estimado señores,
Reciban un cordial saludo.
Muchas gracias por la información muy importante.
Saludos a todo el equipo.
В настоящее время это мероприятие закрыто. Пожалуйста, свяжитесь с [email protected] для получения любой дополнительной информации.