Bonn, 20 November 2018: Intensive agriculture is one of the main causes of the loss of insects and leaves little room for biodiversity. However, a study published in August by the Julius Maximilian University of Würzburg (JMU) shows that bees can live on agricultural land. The prerequisite is that insects have access to habitat islands with high plant diversity. The question is: How do agricultural practices influence biodiversity and what measures are available to protect and promote biodiversity on fields, meadows and pastures? The answers can be found in the now published Biodiversity Fact Sheets of the EU project
LIFE Food & Biodiversity. The Global Nature Fund (GNF) together with European partners has published brochures on eight farming and production systems: wheat, sugar beet, vegetables, pome fruit, wine and olives, cocoa, livestock and dairy. The Biodiversity Fact Sheets are aimed at product, supply chain and sustainability managers of food processing companies and retailers and their suppliers as well as food industry associations.
"Agricultural practices have a wide variety of impacts on biodiversity. Ploughing and fertilizing affect living organisms in the soil, pesticides affect insects and surrounding plants. Each crop brings its own challenges," says Tobias Ludes, project manager at GNF. On the one hand, the brochures provide information about the effects of crop cultivation on biodiversity. On the other hand, they show how animal and plant diversity can be strengthened with very good agricultural practice and a good biodiversity management.
"Biodiversity-friendly agriculture is based on two pillars: reducing the negative impact of arable farming practices and protecting and creating new ecological structures in the landscape," Ludes says. For example, negative impacts of plant protection products on biodiversity can be reduced if the application of insecticides is reduced through conscientious pest monitoring. This also helps to reduce farmers' operating costs. Farmers can also create flower strips that create additional habitats free of fertilizers and pesticides.
The brochures can be downloaded free of charge in all five project languages (German, English, French, Spanish, Portuguese):
www.business-biodiversity.eu/en/biodiversity-fact-sheets Background The Europe-wide project "Biodiversity in standards and labels for the food industry" (LIFE Food & Biodiversity) is coordinated by the Global Nature Fund, the Lake Constance Foundation, the Agentur AUF! (Germany), the Fundación Global Nature (Spain), Solagro and agoodforgood (France) and the Instituto Superior Técnico (Portugal). The project is funded by the EU LIFE Programme and is recognised as a core initiative of the UN Sustainable Food Systems Programme.
The project is aimed at standard organisations and companies with their own requirements for producers and suppliers. The aim is to improve the protection of biodiversity in the food industry. The standards UTZ, Fairtrade Deutschland, UEBT and Gesicherte Qualität Baden-Württemberg as well as the companies Nestlé and Kaufland are among the partner organisations that support the project in terms of content and funding.
Further information:
www.food-biodiversity.eu