in research.
The final chapter of the book focuses on the importance of agroforestry systems in supporting biodiversity conservation and agricultural production from a European perspective. Chapter 8 begins by reviewing the contribution of agroforestry to global biodiversity goals. It then discusses agroforestry and the protection of species and habitats, followed by a discussion of agroforestry and the maintenance and restoration of ecosystems. The chapter also analyses the importance of achieving sustainable agriculture and forestry practices as well as preserving global biodiversity.
Methods to study biodiversity in agroecosystems
The challenge of monitoring biodiversity in agricultural landscapes at the EU level
M. L. Paracchini, European Commission, Joint Research Centre (JRC), Italy; S. Condé, European Topic Centre on Biological Diversity – Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle, France; R. D’Andrimont, European Commission, Joint Research Centre (JRC), Italy; B. Eiselt, European Commission, Eurostat, Luxembourg; O. Fernandez Ugalde, E. Gervasini and A. Jones, European Commission, Joint Research Centre (JRC), Italy; V. Kovacevic, European Commission, DG Environment, Belgium; R. Oppermann, Institut für Agrarökologie und Biodiversität (IFAB), Germany; A. Orgiazzi, M. Van der Velde, C. Polce and C. Rega, European Commission, Joint Research Centre (JRC), Italy; C. Van Swaay, De Vlinderstichting, The Netherlands; and P. Voříšek, Czech Society for Ornithology, Czech Republic
2Farmland birds and butterflies
6Monitoring under the Habitats Directive 92/43/EEC
7European Monitoring of Biodiversity in Agricultural Landscapes (EMBAL)
10New approaches and technologies
12Where to look for further information
Following the acknowledgement that biodiversity in agricultural lands globally and in the European Union (EU) has been strongly impacted by the intensification of agricultural practices (Dudley and Alexander, 2017; IPBES, 2019), many efforts have been carried out to revert the trend, starting with agri-environmental schemes becoming compulsory for EU Member States in 1992 (EU Regulation 2078/92) (Batary et al., 2015) aimed at reducing pressures from agriculture in order to meet environmental objectives such as the protection or enhancement of biodiversity, the improvement of soil, water, landscape and air quality, climate change mitigation and adaptation.
Through the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) cycles that followed, the concern for biodiversity has been embedded into the legislation as a target in general (e.g. protection and enhancement of biodiversity in axis 2 of rural development policy) and in specific terms (e.g. high nature value farming and forestry) (2006/144/EC). Persisting concerns about the fate of biodiversity, which emerged most evidently in the public consultation on modernizing and simplifying the common agricultural policy launched by the European Commission (EC) in 20171, have been embedded in the legislative proposal for the CAP post-2020 (COM (2018) 392 final), which identifies as one of its nine priorities to ‘contribute to the protection of biodiversity, enhance ecosystem services and preserve habitats and landscapes’.
In parallel, environmental legislation through the decades has targeted rare and threatened species, and rare natural habitats (EEC, 1979; EEC, 1992; European Parliament and the Council of the European Union, 2009): as a result, the European Union currently hosts the largest coordinated network of protected areas in the world, the Natura 2000 Network2. By adding the concept of restoration to the protection concept, the legislation of the past two decades has widened the scope, addressing all habitats and not only those more endangered and ecologically valuable. This started with the Commission’s proposal to the Gothenburg European Council (EC, 2001), which calls for protecting and restoring habitats and natural systems and halting the loss of biodiversity by 2010, a concept which was reinforced in the EU Biodiversity Strategy to 2020 (EC, 2011). The latter, introducing the concept of ecosystem services, makes all habitats possible targets for restoration. In particular, target 3, which relates to agriculture specifically, defines the goal of maximizing 'areas under agriculture across grasslands, arable land and permanent crops that are covered by biodiversity-related measures under the CAP so as to ensure the conservation of biodiversity and to bring about a measurable improvement in the conservation status of species and habitats that depend on or are affected by agriculture and in the provision of ecosystem services as compared to the EU2010 Baseline, thus contributing to enhance sustainable management'. The EU Biodiversity Strategy to 2030 reinforces this line of action by dedicating a whole section to bringing nature back to agricultural land (EC, 2020 – Section 2.2.2)3.
Lastly, legislative requirements that contribute to biodiversity preservation also include the so-called 'environmental safeguards' directives, requiring formal environmental assessments to be carried out for projects (under Directive 85/337/EEC4 and following amendments), and plans/programs (under Directive 2001/42/EC5) with potential detrimental effects, including on biodiversity and habitats.
To assess the effectiveness of such efforts different techniques are applied, spanning from the analysis of case study areas (Kettunen
