Los entes gestores de los espacios públicos como actores en la formación

The principles of organic farming encourage a diverse crop choice and the development of eco-friendly farming methods. There is, however, very little knowledge about how organic farming affects the surrounding nature in other ways. This project has sought to identify the factors that promote biodiversity in a high-yielding organic cropping system, taking into account the aesthetic and recreational aspects as well. The project has developed new methods of evaluating landscape content, which has iden- tified large differences between organic farms. There is, however, a general tendency towards a larger diversity of plant and insect species in hedgerows and field margins only few years after conversion to organic management. The biodiversity in soil depends on soil type, soil management and manure applications. Other impacting factors are early crops and grazing history. A clover catch crop will lead to a larger content of fauna in the soil, irrespective of soil type.

Organic farming is an alternative to the intensification and specialisation that has taken place in farming in recent years. This project presents the actual status and the future prospects for the promotion of biodiversity in high-yielding organic farming systems. As the farmer and the public have different ambitions and perceptions of the quality of nature, the biological, production and aesthetic aspects are also included.

The project has developed methods of characterising the substance of nature and discusses opportunities and areas of transferring this knowledge between different stakeholders. This work includes analyses of the farmer’s motivation for converting to organic farming, the geographical distribution of farms and farm characteristics.

A number of models and principles for the preservation of biodiversity on uncultivated organic farmland have also been developed. The prerequisites for a positive relationship between a high production level and a diverse and varied eco- system have also been investigated. We have finally analysed the farmer’s perception of landscape values, and how this is reflected in the practices on the farm.

III.5 Na tur e Quality in Or ganic Farming

Farm distribution and management practices On the basis of a comprehensive questionnaire, 10% of all organic farmers were interviewed in 001 on their degree of specialisation, on their farm management and nature protec- tion practices and about farm finances. The distribution of organic farms in Denmark appears to show a certain regional concentration with relatively large areas completely without organic farms. Thus, more than a third of all the parishes in Denmark are completely without organic farms. Historical analyses show that the distribution pattern from 1994 to 1997 is repeated in the 001 pattern, so the concentration that took place earlier appears to continue. The degree of specialisation apparently follows the usual pattern with a higher concentration of livestock farms in Jutland and a higher concentration of arable farms on the islands. Continuity and the absence of fertilizer are some of the main prerequisites for a high biodiversity on permanent grasslands. Preliminary analyses of organic farms show that most of the permanent grasslands are very old with a history of more than 40 years of grazing. Only a few per cent of the permanent grasslands receive fertilizer applications and they are mainly those that have more recently been put down to permanent grassland.

Belowground biodiversity

The content of organic matter and diversity of soil-living animals in arable soil improves the natural fertility and structural properties of the soil. The different animal groups, including springtails and soil mites show the link between soil type, soil management intensity and fertilizer applica- tion, and the cropping and grazing history. The 430 analysed samples also showed a larger abundance of soil biota under a clover catch crop, irrespective of soil type. Not surprisingly, crop type and grazing intensity were also strongly dependent on soil type. An indicator system for the initial evaluation of soil biodiversity on the background of soil type, crop choice and different treatments will be developed. This will contribute to the setup of a parameter to better describe the biodiversity of soil biota at farm level.

In the crop rotation experiment at Foulum and Flakkebjerg research stations, the air-borne and soil-living arthropods were collected in winter wheat, including insects and spiders. The soil fauna was analysed and the experiments showed surprisingly few effects of fertilizer application.

A 10x10 km area northeast of Herning has been digitalised with a view to using it for scenario analyses. The scenarios are meant to assess the impact of different forms of organic farming on parts or all of the landscape. The effect will be determined by the abundance of ground beetles, spiders and skylarks that are thought to be vulnerable to the changes investigated.

Aboveground biodiversity

The botanical biodiversity of 4 widely differing organic farms were investigated. In 885 randomly distributed sample areas, there were 561 different plant species. The majority of the areas were dominated by the species most commonly occurring on nutrient-rich and disturbed arable land. Only a smaller number represented protected areas such as those in the EU habitat classification.

The investigations show that the diversity of different mosses increased with the extent of the area covered by moss, and that grazing/cutting regimes promote moss growth while fertilization impedes it. Ticks, leafhoppers, spiders and vegetation samples have been collected from 100 ungrazed, well-lit areas in meadows, fens, bogs, set-aside land, commons and wasteland. They represent different degrees of botanical nature quality. Three new Danish species of leafhopper and one of spider were, for example, discovered in these samples. A preliminary analysis suggests that good botanical quality also gives a good quality habitat for arthropods.

Studies on the conversion of a number of livestock farms to organic farms have shown, rather surprisingly, that there are considerably more species of plants and flies in hedgerows and field margins on organic farms already 3-4 years after conversion. The differences become even more noticeable after seven years. The most common plant species tend to dominate, but there also appears to be room for the somewhat hardier species on organic farms.

Project leader

Jesper Fredshavn,

National Environmental Research Institute, DK-8410 Rønde

E-mail [email protected]

Project participants

Pia Frederiksen, Rasmus Ejrnæs, Jørgen A. Axelsen, Pernille Kaltoft, Gregor Levin, Marianne Bruus Pedersen, Thomas Larsen, Chris Topping, Peter Odderskær, Knud Tybirk and Erik Aude, National Environmental Research Institute, Katrine Højring and Vibeke Langer, The Royal Veterinary and Agricultural University, Gabor Lövei and Egon Noe, Danish Institute of Agricultural Sciences, Thomas Secher Jensen and Peter Gjelstrup, Natural History Museum Aarhus and Søren Toft, University of Aarhus

Publications and further information

See the project website:

www.darcof.dk/research/darcofii/iii5.html and the internet-archive: www.orgprints.org

III.5 Na tur e Quality in Or ganic Farming

The farmer as a landscape manager

The farmer is the primary decision-maker on agricultural issues. It is therefore his understanding and prioritising of environmental matters that determines the management of nature quality on individual farms. The project shows that the organic farmer’s view on nature and appreciation of what is valuable in nature differs considerably from the views on which scientific investigations on nature quality are based. For the interviewed farmers it is much more the environmental aspects than landscape aspects that are seen as organic farming’s positive contribution to social develop- ment.

With knowledge of the importance of the emotional and aesthetic commitment to the environment, the potentials of using aesthetic observations of the environment to form a communication bridge between farmers and experts have been tested. Preliminary results suggest that it is possible to develop bio-indicators of nature quality that can be used by organic farmers to monitor the development in nature quality on the farm.

Future supply and marketing