Reconciling nature conservation and traditional farming practices: a spatially explicit framework to assess the extent of High Nature Value farmlands in the European countryside
Agriculture constitutes a dominant land cover worldwide, and rural landscapesunder extensive farming practices acknowledged due to high biodiversitylevels. The High Nature Value farmland (HNVf) concept has beenhighlighted in the EU environmental and rural policies due to their inherentpotential to help characterize and direct financial support to European landscapeswhere high nature and/or conservation value is dependent on thecontinuation of specific low-intensity farming systems. 2 Assessing the extent of HNV farmland by necessity relies on the availability of both ecological and farming systems’ data, and difficulties associated with making such assessments have been widely described across Europe. A spatially explicit framework of data collection, building out from local administrative units, has recently been suggested as a means of addressing such difficulties. 3 This manuscript tests the relevance of the proposed approach, describes the spatially explicit framework in a case study area in northern Portugal, and discusses the potential of the approach to help better inform the implementation of conservation and rural development policies. 4 Synthesis and applications: The potential of a novel approach (combining land use/cover, farming and environmental data) to provide more accurate and efficient mapping and monitoring of HNV farmlands is tested at the local level in northern Portugal. The approach is considered to constitute a step forward toward a more precise targeting of landscapes for agri-environment schemes, as it allowed a more accurate discrimination of areas within the case study landscape that have a higher value for nature conservation.
| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | Article/Letter to editor biblioteca |
| Language: | English |
| Subjects: | Agri-environment schemes, agro-biodiversity, conservation and monitoring programs, indicators, |
| Online Access: | https://research.wur.nl/en/publications/reconciling-nature-conservation-and-traditional-farming-practices |
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| Summary: | Agriculture constitutes a dominant land cover worldwide, and rural landscapesunder extensive farming practices acknowledged due to high biodiversitylevels. The High Nature Value farmland (HNVf) concept has beenhighlighted in the EU environmental and rural policies due to their inherentpotential to help characterize and direct financial support to European landscapeswhere high nature and/or conservation value is dependent on thecontinuation of specific low-intensity farming systems. 2 Assessing the extent of HNV farmland by necessity relies on the availability of both ecological and farming systems’ data, and difficulties associated with making such assessments have been widely described across Europe. A spatially explicit framework of data collection, building out from local administrative units, has recently been suggested as a means of addressing such difficulties. 3 This manuscript tests the relevance of the proposed approach, describes the spatially explicit framework in a case study area in northern Portugal, and discusses the potential of the approach to help better inform the implementation of conservation and rural development policies. 4 Synthesis and applications: The potential of a novel approach (combining land use/cover, farming and environmental data) to provide more accurate and efficient mapping and monitoring of HNV farmlands is tested at the local level in northern Portugal. The approach is considered to constitute a step forward toward a more precise targeting of landscapes for agri-environment schemes, as it allowed a more accurate discrimination of areas within the case study landscape that have a higher value for nature conservation. |
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