Perennial wildflower strips have been introduced as agri-environmental measure to help reverse widespread pollinator loss. However, incentives are largely based on the size of wildflower strips, missing critical aspects to optimise their effectiveness to promote pollinators and their service to increase yields. Our aim was to evaluate how landscape context, the presence of pollination- dependent crops, and farmers’ support and reservations can be integrated into decision-making to optimise the placement of perennial wildflower strips in agricultural landscapes. We took the example of the federal state Saxony-Anhalt, Germany, and analysed potential wild bee habitats in agricultural landscapes based on species-specific requirements and a map of biotope types. Moreover, we developed a classification to determine the extent to which cultivated crops depend on insect pollination and applied it to arable lands using IACS data. Finally, we used interviews with farmers to explore their motivations and experiences in managing perennial wildflower strips. First results show that large parts of the agricultural landscape would be suitable for wildflower strips to provide resources for wild bees. The potential for wildflower strips to locally support crop pollination appears less, due to the overall small area of pollination-dependent crops. Motivations of farmers to establish wildflower strips and promote biodiversity are generally high, especially on areas difficult to manage or to fulfil legal obligations. We demonstrate two applications of our analyses: (i) to assess the suitability of the locations of already established wildflower strips and (ii) to detect potentially suitable locations before wildflower strips are implemented. Thus, our study provides a starting point beyond individual farmer decisions to promote perennial wildflower strips at the landscape scale for the biodiversity and functionality of agricultural landscapes, without neglecting practical requirements.
