Agri-environment schemes do not effectively protect biodiversity in Dutch agricultural landscapes
- PMID: 11607029
- DOI: 10.1038/35099540
Agri-environment schemes do not effectively protect biodiversity in Dutch agricultural landscapes
Abstract
Roughly 20% of the European Union's farmland is under some form of agri-environment scheme to counteract the negative impacts of modern agriculture on the environment. The associated costs represent about 4% (1.7 billion euros) of the European Union's total expenditure on the Common Agricultural Policy and are expected to rise to 10% in the near future. Although agri-environment schemes have been implemented in various countries for well over a decade, to date no reliable, sufficiently replicated studies have been performed to test whether such measures have the presumed positive effects on biodiversity. Here we present the results of a study evaluating the contribution of agri-environment schemes to the protection of biodiversity in intensively used Dutch agricultural landscapes. We surveyed plants, birds, hover flies and bees on 78 paired fields that either had agri-environment schemes in the form of management agreements or were managed conventionally. Management agreements were not effective in protecting the species richness of the investigated species groups: no positive effects on plant and bird species diversity were found. The four most common wader species were observed even less frequently on fields with management agreements. By contrast, hover flies and bees showed modest increases in species richness on fields with management agreements. Our results indicate that there is a pressing need for a scientifically sound evaluation of agri-environment schemes.
Comment in
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Birds fly in the face of 'green' farming incentive scheme.Nature. 2001 Oct 18;413(6857):659. doi: 10.1038/35099698. Nature. 2001. PMID: 11606983 No abstract available.
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Schemes are monitored and effective in the UK.Nature. 2001 Dec 13;414(6865):687. doi: 10.1038/414687b. Nature. 2001. PMID: 11742363 No abstract available.
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Crops grown on set-aside land bring wild birds back to the fields.Nature. 2001 Dec 13;414(6865):687. doi: 10.1038/414687a. Nature. 2001. PMID: 11742366 No abstract available.
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