Rethinking agricultural land with high conservation value

Increasing and more intensive agriculture has led to multiple conflicts with nature conservation. Despite this global trend, around 30 percent of agricultural land in the European Union has a high conservation value as so-called High Nature Value Farmlands (HNV farmlands). In a recent study, a European research team with participation from the Universities of Göttingen and Kassel and the Braunschweig-based Thünen Institute for Biodiversity examined the future of these farmlands. The results have been published in the journal Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment. 

Prof. Dr. Tobias Plieninger, who holds a joint professorship at the Universities of Göttingen and Kassel, worked with colleagues to develop a series of recommendations on how agricultural landscapes with high conservation value can be supported through financial, social, political, technical and product innovations via agricultural policy. First author Angela Lomba of the Research Centre in Biodiversity and Genetic Resources, Portugal, says, "High nature value farmlands represent valuable assets. They enable society to cope with currently existing and future environmental problems. However, a paradigm shift is needed to maintain nature-friendly farms and preserve high conservation value agricultural landscapes for future generations." 

Plieninger explains, "Such a paradigm shift requires a move away from the current low-target agricultural support toward innovative incentive instruments that reward farmers for conserving biodiversity and ecosystem services at the level of entire agricultural landscapes for society. In this way, agricultural support would contribute to strengthening environmental, social and economic sustainability." Dr. Sebastian Klimek of the Thünen Institute for Biodiversity adds, "Integrated approaches are needed at the landscape level, where HNV farmlands are understood as social-ecological systems and specifically conserved."

HNV farmlands are particularly important for conserving biodiversity and ensuring ecosystem services, but they also have high social and cultural value for many people. Since the 1990s, the social importance of HNV farmlands has also been recognized in the EU's rural development policy. Despite their extensive importance, they are very much in decline across the EU. They are threatened by both agricultural intensification and abandonment, leading to erosion of natural and cultural heritage. 

Original publication: Angela Lomba et al. Back to the future: rethinking socioecological systems underlying high nature value farmlands. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment (2019). Doi: https://doi.org/10.1002/fee.2116

Contact:

Prof. Dr. Tobias Plieninger
University of Kassel & Georg-August-University Göttingen
Department of Social-Ecological Interactions in Agricultural Systems

E-mail: plieninger[at]uni-kassel[dot]de
Phone: +49 5542 98-1249