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Representatives of LIFE-AGREMSO3IL project have attended the workshop Save Our Soils

Representatives of LIFE-AGREMSO3IL project have attended the workshop Save Our Soils – Decision supporting tools towards SDG’s policy implementation

The event was held in University of Napoli Federico II during April 27-28. It was organized by the LANDSUPPORT Project, funded under the call H2020-RUR-2017-2 “Rural Renaissance- Fostering Innovation and Business Opportunities, under Grant Agreement 774234

LANDSUPPORT is developing an innovative DSS platform to support farmers’ associations, spatial planners, environmental agencies and policy makers in their work.

Representatives of LIFE-AGREMSO3IL project have attended the workshop Save Our Soils

Representatives of LIFE-AGREMSO3IL project have attended the workshop Save Our Soils

The workshop was an opportunity to share experiences and discuss results towards a very ambitious goal: Development of decision support tools for key agriculture and environmental policies implementation including SDGs, CAP, New Green Deal, as well as other insights and initiatives within the projects.

Representatives of LIFE-AGREMSO3IL project have attended the workshop Save Our Soils

Representatives of LIFE-AGREMSO3IL project have attended the workshop Save Our Soils

Butterfly numbers down by two thirds, German scientists find high-intensity agriculture reduces number of butterfly species in adjacent areas

Meadows adjacent to high-intensity agricultural areas are home to less than half the number of butterfly species than areas in nature preserves. The number of individuals is even down to one-third of that number. These are results of a research team led by Jan Christian Habel at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) and Thomas Schmitt at the Senckenberg Nature Research Society.

Germany is home to roughly 33,500 species of insects — but their numbers are decreasing dramatically. Of the 189 species of butterflies currently known from Germany, 99 species are on the Red List, 5 have already become extinct, and 12 additional species are threatened with extinction.

Now a team led by Prof. Jan-Christian Habel of the Department of Terrestrial Ecology of the Technical University of Munich and Prof. Thomas Schmitt, Director of the Senckenberg German Entomological Institute in Muencheberg in Brandenburg, has examined the specific effects of the intensity of agricultural use on the butterfly fauna.

Reduced biodiversity also on areas around intensively cultivated fields

The research team recorded the occurrence of butterfly species in 21 meadow sites east of Munich. Of these study sites, 17 are surrounded by agriculturally used areas, and four are in nature preserves with near-natural cultivation.

They recorded a total of 24 butterfly species and 864 individuals in all study sites. Specialists among the butterflies were particularly dependent on near-natural habitats, while the more adaptable “generalists” were also found in other grassland sites.

“In the meadows that are surrounded by agriculturally used areas we encountered an average of 2.7 butterfly species per visit; in the four study sites within the protected areas ‘Dietersheimer Brenne’ and ‘Garchinger Heide’ near Munich we found an average of 6.6 species,” adds Prof. Werner Ulrich of the Copernicus University in Thorn, Poland.

Negative impact of the industrialized agriculture demands rethinking

“Our results show an obvious trend: in the vicinity of intensively cultivated fields that are regularly sprayed with pesticides, the diversity and numbers of butterflies are significantly lower than in meadows near less used or unused areas,” explains the study’s lead author, Prof. Jan Christian Habel.

“Our study emphasizes the negative impact of the conventional, industrialized agriculture on the butterfly diversity and shows the urgent need for ecologically sustainable cultivation methods. Additional field studies may aid in identifying individual factors responsible for the insect die-back and in implementing appropriate countermeasures,” adds Schmitt in closing.

 

Journal Reference:

  1. Jan Christian Habel, Werner Ulrich, Nina Biburger, Sebastian Seibold, Thomas Schmitt. Agricultural intensification drives butterfly declineInsect Conservation and Diversity, 2019; DOI: 10.1111/icad.12343

 

 

 

Source: Materials provided by Technical University of Munich (TUM).

No water, no agriculture

The state of Europe’s water ecosystems puts a big question mark over the future availability of freshwater, for people and for all manner of industry, not least for food production and agriculture, writes Jabier Ruiz.

Jabier Ruiz is senior policy officer, agriculture and food, at the WWF’s European Policy Office.

Water is one of nature’s most valuable resources, and the role it plays in our daily lives and economies cannot be overstated. But it is under threat.

As we beckoned in 2019, water was sky-high on the agenda – the World Economic Forum kicked off the year with its Global Risks Report and, unsurprisingly, water was listed amongst the top five crises for businesses. For the ninth year in a row.

In Europe, the sources of our freshwater are in a dire state. 60% of our rivers, lakes, wetlands, streams, coastal and transitional waters are not healthy today and fail to meet the water quality and quantity standards that the EU’s landmark water legislation, the Water Framework Directive, establishes that must be reached by all Member States by 2027.

The state of our water ecosystems puts a big question mark over the future availability of freshwater in Europe, for people and for all manner of industry, not least for food production and agriculture. Without water, there is simply no agriculture – approximately 70% of the freshwater used worldwide is currently pumped into irrigation alone.

Given water’s colossal importance to the sector, you would think that the protection and sustainable management of our waters would be at the very heart of EU farming and the policy that underpins it.

Spoiler alert: It isn’t.

Many sectors exert huge pressures on water ecosystems, but agriculture has a lot to answer for. According to the European Environmental Agency’s 2018 report on the state of European waters, agricultural production is the major source of diffuse pollution (mostly as a result of nutrient runoff, as well as chemicals like pesticides), which affects 38% of EU surface waters (such as rivers, lakes, wetlands and streams). Agriculture is also the main reason that EU groundwater is still failing to achieve good chemical and quantitative status, with over abstraction (pumping out too much water) for irrigation also being a huge concern, especially in southern European countries.

To add insult to injury, instead of supporting the protection and sustainable management of water, the EU Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) undermines it. With its unfair subsidies, the CAP favours intensive farming practices rather than sustainability. It reinforces, rather than dissuades, practices which deplete our planet’s natural resources, including freshwater.

Although it is clear from the EU’s own environmental legislation and monitoring that our waters cannot stand being so stretched and polluted by the farming sector a second longer, EU institutions are reluctant to push for all-round CAP reform. On paper, draft CAP regulations mention water and other environmental challenges prominently, but ultimately fail to set up a strong EU framework which would obligate Member States to fully integrate sustainable water management in their CAP strategic plans. This is especially critical because poor application of the farming policy can completely undermine the full and effective implementation of environmental legislation.

Could co-legislators make the CAP proposal any better for water? At the time of writing there is some hope, as the only formal opinion to date from a key decision maker is that of the European Parliament’s Committee on Environment, Public Health and Food Safety.  For the first time, this committee has shared competence over the CAP reform, and they have asked for stronger objectives and a higher baseline on water use and agrochemicals, as well as a significant budget for environmental measures in the CAP.

But, as expected, ongoing negotiations in the European Parliament’s Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development and in the Agriculture Council of the EU are less promising, and in some cases truly disheartening. Indeed, provisions that could lead to diminishing pressures on water (such as safeguards on irrigation investments or incentives to reduce the use of agrochemicals) could be already weakened at EU level, thereby allowing Member States to design their CAP strategic plans whilst remaining completely oblivious as to what the common EU interest is.

The  EU and its Member States need to wake up to  reality and respond boldly to the water challenge, putting forward a coherent farming policy that can both drive EU farming practices towards sustainability and ensure that there is enough good quality water in the future for people, nature and economies.

Source: https://www.euractiv.com/section/agriculture-food/opinion/no-water-no-agriculture/