Does conservation on farmland contribute to halting the biodiversity decline?

Abstract

Biodiversity continues to decline, despite the implementation of international conservation conventions and measures. To counteract biodiversity loss, it is pivotal to know how conservation actions affect biodiversity trends. Focussing on European farmland species, we review what is known about the impact of conservation initiatives on biodiversity. We argue that the effects of conservation are a function of conservation-induced ecological contrast, agricultural land-use intensity and landscape context. We find that, to date, only a few studies have linked local conservation effects to national biodiversity trends. It is therefore unknown how the extensive European agri-environmental budget for conservation on farmland contributes to the policy objectives to halt biodiversity decline. Based on this review, we identify new research directions addressing this important knowledge gap.

Published in

Trends in ecology & evolution
2011, volume: 26, number: 9, pages: 474-481
Publisher: ELSEVIER SCIENCE LONDON

SLU Authors

• Rundlöf, Maj

  • Department of Ecology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    
  • Lund University

Global goals (SDG)

SDG15 Life on land

UKÄ Subject classification

Landscape Architecture
Environmental Sciences and Nature Conservation
Agricultural Science

Publication identifier

• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tree.2011.05.009

Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/57108